Pakistan

Australian Muslim woman battles Twitter 'troll army'

Threats and vile messages have appeared all over the internet targetting Mariam

Web Desk February 28, 2015

PHOTO COURTESY: CNN

Australian lawyer and founder of the Islamophobia Register, Mariam Veiszadeh, has received several death threats for her ongoing campaign to track instances of abuse against Muslims, CNN reported.

Threats and vile messages have appeared all over the internet for Mariam after she posted an image of a T-shirt for sale in Woolworths, one of Australia's largest retailers, which showed the Australian flag with the words "If you don't love it, leave," - terming it 'bigoted'.

PHOTO: TWITTER

"The reality is people don't abuse me just because I'm a woman or because my name is Mariam or because I'm Middle-Eastern. They abuse me because I have a scarf on my head and because I'm a Muslim," Veiszadeh told CNN.

US based website, the Daily Stormer, posted offensive and insulting messages targetting Mariam. "Leave now before we behead your mother and bury you all with pigs..." said one tweet from an account, which has since been suspended. Many of the messages include offensive hashtags as well.

Read: We are terrible at dealing with trolls, admits Twitter CEO

Months after Veiszadeh posted the tweet about the shirt, the Australian Defence League- a right wing group calling for Islam to be banned in Australia- posted her tweet on its Facebook site along with another post saying "Everyone is entitled to dress as they please," with the title "Hypocrisy Much?"

Read: It is not just the West, Islamophobia is on the rise in Pakistan too

The post attracted dozens of offensive comments and abusive tweets while the Daily Stormer implored its "troll army" to attack her.

However, support for Mariam is growing via a Twitter counter-campaign - #IStandWithMariam - and Veiszadah is adament that the intimidation campaign against her will not be successful.

In wake of the campaign, many took to Twitter to support Mariam and stand up against those who have been nasty and offensive.

#IStandWithMariam against racism,
bigotry, discrimination & Islamophobia. So
does Australia. Keep it up@MariamVeiszadeh
— Adv Sohail Khan (@iSohailAKhan) February 28, 2015

https://twitter.com/MrMilitantNegro/status/571526214835281922

https://twitter.com/OhAsKeith/status/571526870686019584

https://twitter.com/DrTattersall/status/571566677462269952

https://twitter.com/Hannah/status/571570858357096448

#IStandWithMariam because not everyone can make islam the victim 3 hours into #sydneysiege then say it had nothing to do with islam.
— Turbulent Eddy (@SirEdwardHunt1) February 28, 2015

Veiszadeh is concentrating on naming the trolls and urged her 15,000 followers to block their accounts. She also tweeted thanking her followers for their support.

Thank you to all those who have sent me lovely messages of support.

You've helped drown out the bigots & empowered me to keep fighting.
— Mariam Veiszadeh (@MariamVeiszadeh) February 26, 2015

COMMENTS (7)

Raj - USA | 9 years ago | Reply @Khurram: @AW: @Ashraf is correct. Taking up issues selectively is counterproductive. On the one hand keeping quiet on other atrocities that are far worse than this provides encouragement to perpetrators of those atrocities, and on the other hand it makes the person taking up his/her preferred cause selectively an insincere bigot whose only intention is promoting hate for others.

Khurram | 9 years ago | Reply @Ashraf: it shows how out of touch with reality you are. perhaps living too long in Pakistan has made you feel that beheading is the only crime . hate crime is a big issue and people like her should be supported against bigots

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raw is war | 9 years ago | Reply A wise man once said- correct yourself before correcting others. Not a single Pakistani lady fighting for Hindu girls who are forcibly converted to Islam and married off against their wishes (1000 per year as per Tribune statistics).... aren't they ashamed of their men? This lady needs to get into her brain - Australians are very peaceful. They don't care as long as Muslims don't bother them. Anyways she must concentrate on changing the mindset of her co-religionists in Australia. Some of them are finding their way to join ISIS. They are more dangerous. In fact Australians are very big enemies of Indians- not due to Hinduism, but due to cricket. Still Indians do well there. So dear lady - do some useful work and stop wasting your time.

AW | 9 years ago | Reply @Ashraf: How are those beheadings this lady's fault? It is the right of an individual to raise his/her voice if they perceive prejudice against them. Prejudice and extremism is wrong no matter who does it.

rashid khan | 9 years ago | Reply Why is the ET so enamored by this issue happening in another part of the globe, where incidentally minority communities, all migrants to the land, are allowed to express their views. The irresponsible comments and remarks by many are integral to the dynamics of these societies and their ethos of freedom of express. ET should be more involved with issues relating to the attitude of the majority Pakistani community towards its minorities, who incidentally are not migrants but have inhabited this land since times that predate the arrival of Islam and the ancestors of the majority communities. The minorities in Pakistan would never survive very long if they to dared calling the majority bigots, which they generally are.

Striver | 9 years ago | Reply @Ashraf: Based on your, what makes you different from those who are beheading people? Their thinks seems to be on similar line than yours. Reality is steeped in experience. Have you experienced hate crime?

Ashraf | 9 years ago | Reply Innocent people are being beheaded every day by the hundreds by the Islamic State terrorists and this lady wants to count how many people said hateful words against Muslims? What an irony !! Just shows how out of touch with reality these people are.

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