WASHINGTON -- The monster who slaughtered at least 76 innocent victims in Norway was animated by the same blend of paranoia, xenophobia and alienation that fuels anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States. Yes, it could happen here.

One could argue that it already did, in Oklahoma City. The difference is that Timothy McVeigh's apocalyptic anger was diffuse and non-specific. Anders Behring Breivik -- who has acknowledged detonating a powerful fertilizer bomb in central Oslo and then killing scores of teenagers and young adults on a nearby resort island -- was focused like a laser beam on what he saw as the "threat" posed by Islam.

The judge who presided over Breivik's arraignment Monday said the accused mass murderer "believes that he needed to carry out these acts to save Norway (from) cultural Marxism and Muslim domination."

In a 1,500-page screed setting out his philosophy, Breivik referred favorably to the work of several well-known anti-Muslim polemicists in the United States -- zealots who usually boast of their influence but now, for some reason, seek to deny it.

Breivik quoted Robert Spencer, a writer who runs a website called Jihad Watch, more than 60 times. Spencer is the author of such books as "Stealth Jihad: How Radical Islam Is Subverting America without Guns or Bombs," "Religion of Peace?: Why Christianity Is and Islam Isn't," and "The Truth about Muhammad: Founder of the World's Most Intolerant Religion."

On his website, Spencer responded Monday that "the Breivik murders are being used to discredit all resistance to the global jihad and Islamic supremacism." He sought to draw a parallel: "Charles Manson thought he heard instructions to kill in the Beatles song ‘Helter Skelter' and committed mass murder. There were no instructions to kill in the song."

The comparison is absurd, of course. There's nothing in "Helter Skelter" about Sharon Tate or any of Manson's other victims; the angriest line is "You may be a lover but you ain't no dancer." Spencer's oeuvre, by contrast, is all about how Muslims supposedly threaten all who love peace and freedom.

In his manifesto, Breivik also cites the Atlas Shrugs blog run by Pamela Geller, who was one of the most vitriolic opponents of the proposed Islamic center and mosque in Lower Manhattan. On Sunday, Geller wrote that the "Islamic/leftist machine" is trying to blame the massacre on "those of us who are working diligently to educate the people."

Who, then, was responsible for Breivik's rage? "Anders Behring Breivik is responsible for his actions," Geller wrote. "If anyone incited him to violence, it was Islamic supremacists."