What we know about the attacker in Nice
By Ben Taub , JULY 15, 2016
... Reports describe him as a troubled, unstable man who had recently been fired from his job and was undergoing a second divorce. He had three children; for all he knew, their schoolmates might have been in the crowd. He had a history of domestic abuse, and a criminal record, with charges ranging from vandalism to assault.
... Individuals who knew Bouhlel have told various news outlets that he drank alcohol, smoked weed, ate pork, and rarely—if ever—prayed at a mosque. Bouhlel’s neighbors said that he didn’t fast during the holy month of Ramadan.
... Investigators may yet uncover a link between Bouhlel and isis—a text message to one of the hundreds of French jihadis living in Raqqa, say, or a Facebook post dashed off before that attack claiming allegiance to the the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. But should that happen, Bouhlel’s impiety would only further expose isis as a group that, above all else, aspires to an ideology of indiscriminate murder ...
So far, ISIS has made no formal mention of the attack in Nice, although some of its supporters on social media have rejoiced in France’s suffering. But the group is poised to accept credit for any atrocity, at any opportunity, as it did for the attack by Omar Mateen, in Orlando, after reporters uncovered that Mateen had professed his affiliation during a phone call to the police. Mateen’s claim was largely incoherent—he, too, was a violent, unstable man with little understanding of Islam and a history of domestic abuse. But, because his claim was newsworthy, it was reported, and, because it was reported, his deranged slaughter was afforded undeserved ideological significance ...
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/trying-to-make-sense-of-the-attack-in-nice
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