Thursday rave and rants: #Ep11"Latest updates about Ramy Fahim’s trial plus Jeffery Dahmer wannabe gets 45 years in prison "

This is what I ranted in Arabia about in tonight’s episode of “Thursday Rants and Rave” in Arabic: the latest updates about Ramy Fahim’s trial in the United States, the launch of Fahim foundation and a bunch of Jeffery Dahmer's news including the prison sentencing of his own wannabe. 

Here is the latest update concerning Ramy Fahim's trial as well as the return of his mother former Minister Nabila Makram to the public scene in a big way.

First of all, for newcomers who don’t know who that young man is, Ramy Mounir Fahim was living in Irving, California was charged in April 2022 with special circumstances murder for allegedly stabbing his co-worker Griffin Cuomo “23 years old” and the co-worker’s roommate Jonathan Bahm “23 years old” to death in their apartment in Anaheim.

On 10 February Orange county Court set 2 June 2023 for the upcoming pretrial hearing.

To refresh your memory Ramy Fahim is facing 8 counts related to murder with special circumstances that make him eligible for a death sentence in California.

Fahim has pleaded not guilty. He is still in detention.

Back in Cairo, his mother, the former State Minister of Immigration and Egyptians abroad had a very active three weeks that witnessed her return to public life in a big way since leaving the cabinet in August.

On 27 January, Nabila Makram launched at Al-Masa Hotel in Nasr City her new Fahim Foundation for Mental Health.

Ramy Mounir Fahim and his mother Nabila Makram 

The event was not only attended by Ministers like Minister of Health Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar, but it also witnessed the inking of protocol cooperation between the very newly launched foundation and the National Council For Women.

Fahim Foundation aims to lift the stigma of mental illnesses in Egyptian society by raising awareness through lectures, workshops and media campaigns. Its slogan is “‘understand, listen, and speak”.

It is interesting that the word “Fahim” in Arabic means “Understand” while it can be the surname of her husband and son in English. Her husband’s surname can be written according to its pronunciation in Arabic as “Fahim” or “Faheem” 

Fahim Foundation then signed cooperation protocols with organizations like the Coordination Committee of the Party's Youth Leaders and Politicians (CPYP), the World Youth Forum and a bunch of local NGOs. 

Interestingly, the newly founded organization will even carry one of the initiatives launched by the World Youth Forum “WYF” in its 5th edition in cooperation with the World Health Organization “WHO” in Egypt. The initiative targets mental health and aims to provide psychological support to those in need, especially migrants and refugees who arrive in Egypt from conflict zones.

Many admired Makram for her bravery and how she turned her own tragedy into something useful to serve society in Egypt.

On 28 January, she published her photo hugging her son with those words.

“He and I agreed that we won’t waste the pain of affliction and temptation. In the midst of the fire, we serve and help those who do not have a voice, the ones who go through psychological fatigue or mental illness, and those who are shy to speak. We are thankful for God’s choice and we know that he won’t leave us alone. Our faith in him is not just empty words, this is life and reality that surround us.” She said.

On the same day, she appeared on TV in her lengthy interview with TV host Khairy Ramadan on Al-Qahera Wal Nas where she stated on air that her son was schizophrenic. It was her first lengthy interview ever tackling the crime and her first-ever acknowledgement of her son's mental illness on air. 

Fahim Foundation already posted the interview with English subtitles for those interested to watch.

For those who can’t watch the interview because it is too long, here are the most important parts related to Ramy.

Nabila Makram says she speaks to him on phone every night and that she travels to him every three months. His father is currently with him. She said that he was aware that he was suffering psychologically since the age of ten years but he did not tell her because he felt that she would not understand.

Makram said that was the reason why she launched her foundation under the name “Fahim” or “understand”

She revealed that there are reports that prove her son suffer psychologically and that his dad brought those reports with him to the States. I know that Laila Pence won’t like that.

“Losing a son or daughter is easier than what I am going through now, and the circumstances that my son is going through are very difficult and the suffering now is greater." She said, "actually, I believe her and believe that it is easier to lose your kids than seeing one of them a murderer."

She also said that her son was a criminal but mental health patient and “a fighter for bearing up with mental health disease without telling anyone !!”

I totally understand that he is her son but there are two young men who paid the cost of her son’s decision to bear up a mental health disease without telling anyone. Seriously, that statement was just out of touch.

Nabila Makram said that her son killed those 23-year-old young men in their apartment because “he heard voices ordering him to do so” after stopping to take his medication.

The former Minister also revealed gruesome detail from the murder itself that Ramy was reportedly sitting beside the two bodies of Cuomo and Bahm clueless without any understanding of what he had done according to her.

I do not know but if they know their son suffered from schizophrenia, why did they let him travel in the first place !? He needed care and support. Already I know that the District attorney in the trial would play this card to prove that he was a person who lived abroad for years alone and was capable of making his own decisions like any sane fine person.

Hearing voices ordering to kill is common among schizophrenic murderers and in my mind, the infamous case of David Berkowitz aka Son of Sam despite it is debatable in his case till now.

Now Ramy Fahim can get away from the death penalty if it was proven that he suffered from an extreme case of schizophrenia but in that case, with double murders, he may get a life sentence in a mental institution according to the State’s law.

Already the US Supreme Court said a defendant’s mental illness makes him or her less morally culpable and must be taken into consideration as an important reason to spare his or her life yet it did not exempt them from the death sentence.

Some say that Nabila Makram is doing a PR campaign for her son in Egypt but when you think about it, his fate is not determined back in Cairo but rather by a group of American Jurors who will be chosen with no prior knowledge about Egypt or Makram or Fahim in most cases.

Anyhow, let’s wait till 2 June.

Moving to the second part of the episode I spoke about how the families of infamous Jeffery Dahmer’s victims actually slammed how the Golden Globes awarded the best leading actor in a limited TV series for portraying the infamous American serial killer in the Netflix hit series “Dahmer-Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer story”.

Also, how a Louisiana Criminal court sentenced a young man trying to copycat Dahmer but using Dating apps to 45 years in prison for the attempted murder and kidnapping of a young man in a case full of horror. 

Chase's FB profile with Dahmer
photo !! 

The man already had the story of Dahmer as his Facebook profile picture and I do not understand how people did not see that as a red flag. 

Seriously speaking I began to believe as much as speaking about serial killers in the media educates the public about the dangers in society as much as it gives fuel to a new breed of serial killers as well as serial killers wannabes.

Here is the RSS of the Podcast which I hope you follow if you speak Arabic.

Here is the podcast's URL on Spotify and Apple Podcast. It is also available on Stitcher, Google Podcasts and Anghami. Do not forget to leave good reviews on Apple Podcast if you like it and thanks for your time. 

I want to thank all those amazing listeners who are kind enough to listen to my rants in Arabic and the amazing readers who are kind enough to read those very long posts in English.