The Dutch media is focusing on an angle that the alleged killer in the Rotterdam Erasmus University massacre harbored far-right ideology and was a “neo-Nazi,” but at the same time, the media has been distinctly silent about the man’s immigration background.
Given the suspect’s name, Fouad, which means “heart” in Arabic, there is strong reason to believe he either comes from a Middle Eastern country or has a Middle Eastern background, which given anger over mass immigration to the Netherlands, would be information pertinent to this ongoing public debate.
Remix News previously reported on the details of the case, with Fouad L. accused of killing a 39-year-old mother and her 14-year-old daughter in their home, before setting it on fire along with his own apartment shortly thereafter. There are news reports that the mother may have reported Fouad L. to the police when she observed him torturing his pet rabbit, which may have served as a motive for the double killing. After he murdered the two women, Fouad L. traveled to the Erasmus medical university in Rotterdam, where he was once a student before being permanently suspended, and shot a 43-year-old professor dead. He also hurled Molotov cocktails inside the building and set fires in multiple locations.
So far, the Dutch media, as well as the police, have not released anything about the man’s migration history, including whether he is a foreigner or a Dutch citizen. In fact, many Dutch media outlets, such as Het Parool, refuse to report the man’s name, instead referring to his initials as F.L. There also has been no photo released of the shooting suspect, although this is customary in the Dutch justice system, where photos of suspects are often never released. However, even during his arrest by police, a video shows the man was blindfolded. It is unclear whether that is common police practice for an arrest involving a violent suspect, but it only adds to the mystery about the suspect’s identity and appearance.
Nevertheless, plenty of details have emerged about the killer, including the suspect’s online history. International media outlets have reported that he was a “neo-Nazi” and a “raging alcoholic.” In a post to 4chan, which Fouad L. allegedly made, he admits to torturing his pet rabbit while intoxicated.
“(I was) tortured by my unjust suspension, and I acted it out on the rabbit in a Freudian drunk [sic] stupor,” he wrote. He also apparently used anti-Semitic slurs and racist terms for Black people while posting on 4chan.
It is unclear how his posts were obtained, but far-right material was allegedly found on his phone — a fact Dutch and English media are focusing on. It is unclear what this far-right material is though, and whether this justifies the label that the suspect was a “neo-Nazi.”
Furthermore, there is a long history of those from Islamic countries harboring anti-Semitic beliefs and even racist beliefs toward Sub-Saharan Africans, a population that has been routinely enslaved by Arabs for hundreds of years.
Even if it is proven that the man harbored “far-right” beliefs, whatever those may be, the overrepresentation of foreigners in violent crime statistics across Europe has been well documented, including data from Denmark which shows the astounding overrepresentation in violent crime statistics of the children of immigrants who hold Danish citizenship. In Denmark, the data shows that integration actually falls over time within these groups and that they are actually responsible for higher levels of crime despite being born in the liberal Western country.
In fact, as the Remix News video short above shows, the Dutch government collapsed earlier this year over the issue of immigration, with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte resigning.
Given the growing opposition to mass immigration in the Netherlands, the media and the political class may have a strong motive to hide details about the man’s foreign background while conflating Fouad L. with right-wing movements.