Serious (Fascist) Business

“They say that Muslims born in the Netherlands and Belgium are Dutch and Belgians! That’s a bunch of crap! A dog born in a stable is not a horse!”

While events in Boston reheat a media frenzy over global Islamic terrorism, the growing threat of right-wing violence here in the Netherlands remains remarkably unscrutinized.  Witness the Facebook site “Netherlands my Fatherland,” now “liked” by more than 40,000, with its daily barrage of unabashedly racist images and texts, along with calls from posters and commenters for a violent response to vital threats to the Dutch nation.

The above post was “liked” by more than 4,500 and shared nearly 3,000 times in the first two days following its appearance.

Another, shared nearly 8,000 times in 3 days, reads as follows:

“Actually we’re all equal:
Polish take our jobs.
[Dutch-]Antilleans take our women.
Romanians take our cars.
Moroccans take our purses.
Turks take our houses.
Greeks take our money.
And we Dutch…we just take it!”

If you can’t read Dutch, take our word for it: The above texts are relatively civil compared to many of the enthusiastic responses they generated.

Yet a recent reporting of these two specific texts to Facebook as hate speech both yielded the following reply:

“Thanks for your report. We reviewed the photo you reported, but found it doesn’t violate Facebook’s Community Standard on hate speech, which includes posts or photos that attack a person based on their race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or medical condition.”

A recent reporting of the entire page has thus far also yielded no results. Perhaps Facebook’s web managers were fooled by the Netherlands My Fatherland profile, which claims “we cannot allow any calls for violence–of whatever sort”?  Or perhaps they just can’t read Dutch?

It’s understandable that people are concerned about events in Boston.  But perhaps the greater threat, at least here in Europe, is much closer to home:  In the minds, attitudes, texts and images of the followers of the sort of website that responds to the Boston bombings with an image of the bombs exploding and a text that reads, “It isn’t Islamophobia when they really are trying to kill you….ban Islam”.

And not only a web page but an internet provider, and a society, that allows comments like this aimed at those of Moroccan descent to remain uncensored and unedited:

“Let them stew in their own juices. A nauseating, ugly, and useless race. Forced labor and then elimination.”*

This was just one of more than one hundred responses to this single post which called for a violent response against a specific person of Moroccan descent and/or those of Moroccan descent more generally. The post featured a large photograph clearly showing the face of a Dutch resident of Moroccan descent recently arrested for a violent assault in the town of Zoetermeer. Several respondents included the full name of the accused in their posts, facilitating a real potential for vigilante violence. The great majority of these and other comments (which totalled more than 370) included racist remarks. A precise breakdown of the posts calling for violence:

At least 44 separate comments called for the perpetrator and/or those of Moroccan descent in general to be beaten/kicked/shot/dropped/drowned/lynched/flattened and/or hanged to death.

At least 56 additional comments called for the perpetrator and/or those of Moroccan descent in general to be kicked/beaten/whipped/maimed/tortured and/or stoned.

At least 17 additional comments called for the extermination/gassing/burning/electrocution/bombing/mincing/slaughter and/or the waging of war against the perpetrator and/or those of Moroccan descent in general.

And these were the responses to a single post, over a single weekend.

At the time of this posting, all of the above posts and comments–and countless others of the same sort–are still viewable on Facebook.

If they offend and alarm you like they offend and alarm us, please take a moment to let Facebook know. Perhaps if enough people respond they will take this more seriously. Options >> Report >> Hate Speech or Symbol >> Report to Facebook

We also encourage you to report Netherlands my Fatherland to the Dutch Complaint Bureau for Internet Discrimination.

Update May 1st 2013: In the 36 hour period surrounding the crowning of the new Dutch king, Nederland mijn Vaderland received more than 10,000 new “likes.”

*”Gewoon laten verrekken. Misselijk, lelijk en nutteloos volk. Dwangarbeid en daarna liquideren.”