Australian Muslim woman battles Twitter 'troll army'

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

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