Reported hate speech from football profile – NRK Troms and Finnmark

– I went home, thought about what happened and started to cry. Why he wants to kill me? He doesn’t know me, and I don’t know him.

It says a 19-year-old who lives in Tromsø. NRK has chosen to anonymize him. In this case we call him “Zaid”.

Last summer set Zaid and a friend on a bench in the center of Tromsø.

Zaid does not remember what they talked about. But he remembers that they chatted in Arabic, which is his mother tongue.

– If we only speak Norwegian, we can forget Arabic words. I don’t want to lose my language.

Then a man approaches the two. Zaid says he has never met this man before.

The man, who is a football player, is said to have asked them to speak Norwegian. Then came the football profile with several hateful statements and death threats.

– I was upset and wanted to cry. But at the same time I didn’t want to cry, there were too many people there.

When the football profile went away, Zaid sat on Snapchat. He filmed parts of the incident. NRK has seen the videos.

The football profile is now being prosecuted for hate speech.

NRK has been in contact with the man who has been charged. He does not wish to comment on the matter. The man defending also does not want to comment on the case.

The case goes to Nord-Troms and Senja district court this week.

“Don’t sit on a bench in Norway”

Zaid told the defendant to “shut up” and leave the scene. Several of those who witnessed the incident are said to have come over and asked the defendant to leave.

Some of them are also said to have given Zaid the name of the defendant.

– I google his name and see that he has played football. Then I think: Which footballer is it that makes a fuss with young people?

According to the indictment, the former football profile is said to have said: “I am the one who will kill you.”

The defendant is also said to have said, among other things: “Please don’t sit on a bench in Norway” and “I’m going to make a fuss now with the immigrants like docks”, according to the indictment.

More reviews in 2023

On Tuesday, the annual report on hate crime from the national competence center for hate crime was presented.

Last year, there were 1,090 reports that dealt with hate crime. That was an increase of 18 percent, compared to 2022.

In 2022, 923 reports dealing with hate crime were registered. There was also an increase, of 13 per cent, compared to the year before there again.

If one compared 2022 with the period 2017-2021, the increase was 32 per cent.

– We must respect each other

Zaid works in Tromsø, and last year’s incident happened after he had finished work.

– I get scared when I have to get a job with people I don’t know. Maybe they should be like him.

– Not that I think everyone is like him, but I’m still afraid of it.

This was the first time he had experienced such an incident.

He has not told his loved ones about what he experienced, for fear that they will be afraid to experience it themselves or afraid on behalf of others.

– We must respect each other. We must like each other. Vyou are people and we must love each other no matter where we are from. We are human beings, says the young man in Tromsø.