｢普通のノルウェー人」だった少年

ノルウェーのテロ事件の話題で、容疑者の生い立ちについての記事が興味深かった。Norway massacre: the real Anders Behring Breivik - Telegraph

In his manifesto, Breivik says several of his friends were Muslims, including a boy called Faizal Rafique, and that he had spent his time with a gang of Pakistani boys, whom he later accused of robbing and intimidating white children.

Tracked down by The Sunday Telegraph, Mohammad Rafique, Faizal’s father, who still lives on the estate, paints a different picture. His son was younger than Breivik and barely knew him. “He has tried to turn opinion against Muslims by killing his own [Norwegian] kids,” says Mr Rafique, recipient of a medal from the Norwegian royal family for service to the car industry. “Why would he do that to innocent children? There was never any tension here. When he was growing up he had no problems.”

Breivik says his closest friend was a boy called Arsalan, but the pair fell out when they were 16. He accuses Arsalan and other Pakistani youths of being violent and claims to have been beaten up eight times, once suffering a broken nose; it is the moment Breivik claims he railed against multiculturalism. “At the time, I couldn’t understand why he [Arsalan] loathed Norway and my culture so much,” wrote Breivik. “I was completely ignorant at the time and apolitical, but his total lack of respect for my culture… actually sparked my interest and passion for it.”

It is a claim disputed by Arsalan’s family. His father, a wealthy doctor, was too upset to talk last week about the claims. The family are terrified of being dragged into the mire. But a family friend said: “Arsalan hasn’t known him [Breivik] for 25 years. They were only at primary school together. Arsalan can’t be blamed for what Anders Breivik has done. It is ridiculous to blame Arsalan for making him angry about multiculturalism. Arsalan and his family have integrated here.”

ブレイビク容疑者はマニフェストの中で、何人かのムスリムの友人がいたことを記しており、彼らがのちに白人を襲って盗みをしたと書いている。しかし、名指しされた人物の父親は言う。「うちの息子は彼よりも年下で、ほとんど面識がなかった。ここでは何の緊張もなかったし、彼が子供のころに何の問題もなかった」
また、16歳のころ親友だったパキスタン系の少年とはのちに決別し、彼に殴られて鼻を折られたことで多文化主義への反対に転じたと書いている。名指しされた人物の父親は裕福な医師で、一家は記述を迷惑に感じている。「彼はもう25年もブレイビク容疑者にあっていないし、小学校が一緒だっただけだ。多文化主義に反発したのを彼のせいにするのは馬鹿げている。一家はこの国になじんでいる」と一家の知人は言う。

排外主義の主張でときどきみる、｢外国人にひどい目にあわされたのをきっかけに外国人嫌いになった｣てのを例の殺人犯も主張していたという、なんともこころが寒くなる報道ですなあ。しかもそれが妄想だった可能性があるという。マニフェストで名指しされた移民系の人々は、さぞや迷惑をしてることだろう。彼らが本当のワルで、いじめっ子だった可能性がゼロとは言わない。だけど、裕福な住宅地で暮らしていくためには、近隣住民と穏便に過ごすほうが絶対得だったはずなので、殴ったり盗みをしたというのは誇張ではないかと思う。
容疑者の友人の言葉に、なんだかぞっとした。

Peter Svaar, who was friends with the young Breivik, is struggling to come to terms with what has happened.

“What keeps me awake at night is not that he’s a monster,” says Mr Svaar, “it is that he is a regular, Norwegian boy.”

「彼が怪物なんかじゃなかったことで、眠れない思いをしています。彼は普通のノルウェー人なんです｣