Bjørn Magnus Jacobsen Ihler (born June 30, 1991) is a Norwegian peace activist and public speaker who chairs of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism's Independent Advisory Committee. He is a co-founder of the Khalifa Ihler Institute and was a founding member of the project ''Extremely together'' project through the
Kofi Annan Foundation.
In July 2011 Ihler survived the
Utøya mass shooting.
Ihler has written editorials for ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'', ''
Huffington Post
''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers ...
'', and other publications on the topic of terrorism,
and has participated in the
Oslo Freedom Forum
Oslo Freedom Forum (OFF) is a series of global conferences run by the New York–based non-profit Human Rights Foundation under the slogan "Challenging Power". OFF was founded in 2009 as a one-time event and has taken place annually ever since. ...
, where he spoke in 2016 about his experience of terrorism and his work to counter
violent extremism
Violent extremism is a form of extremism that condones and enacts violence with Ideology, ideological or deliberate intent, such as Religious violence, religious or political violence. Violent extremist views often conflate with Religious violen ...
.
Ihler is a part of the 2022
Obama Foundation
The Barack Obama Foundation is a Chicago-based nonprofit organization founded in 2014. It oversees the creation of the Barack Obama Presidential Center, runs the My Brother's Keeper Alliance (a program Barack Obama began while he was president) ...
Leaders Europe programme.
His work in countering violent extremism has led him to talk to many former members of extremist and radical groups. A BBC profile of his work has noted that "He claims the unusual and unenviable record of meeting more reformed extremists than anyone else."
Ihler has said that he believes
Anders Behring Breivik
Anders Behring Breivik (; born 13 February 1979), officially named Fjotolf Hansen from 2017 to 2025, and Far Skaldigrimmr Rauskjoldr av Northriki since March 2025, is a Norwegian neo-Nazi terrorist and mass murderer. He carried out the 2011 No ...
should be treated humanely by the Norwegian prison system. He told BBC Radio 4 that "Breivik denied us all humanity and all human rights. But that does not ever make it right for us to deny him the same thing. If we do that, we follow the same logic as him I think.”
References
External links
*
Norwegian activists
Living people
Norwegian human rights activists
1991 births
Survivors of the 2011 Norway attacks
{{Norway-activist-stub