Column At least 129 people were killed and hundreds more were injured in the terrible terrorist attack in Paris last week. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack–what France has declared “an act of war,” leading to retaliatory action through missile strikes in Syria. As you can imagine, people are freaked the hell out, and rightfully so. Who wouldn’t be terrified after experiencing (or merely watching the news or reading about) the attacks? But as we all know, the first cousin of fear is hate. And since the Paris attacks, a whole lot of hate is bubbling to the surface all over the Internet.
While we’re all used to seeing Donald Trump and our racist uncle Tim hate-tweet on the regular, the Paris attacks have encouraged silent racists to come out of the woodwork. One incident that recently caught our eye (and turned our stomachs) happened in the UK.
According to RT, April Major, the UK beauty salon owner who operates Blinks of Bicester, posted some incredibly hateful stuff on her company’s Facebook page. Major started her gross tirade by announcing that she would no longer take bookings from Muslim customers. After Major made that statement, she, not surprisingly, received a lot of backlash. But Major didn’t back down from her stance – she doubled down. Major continued her Internet assault by saying she’s not racist because: “My Life is with raga and parowire language with Trinidad has been since u was 5 growing up in Deptford.”
Oookay?
Of course, Major’s posts went even further downhill from there. She continued by saying that she can say whatever she wants about her clients because she is a private business. Sure… but then… then Major takes her fight to a whole new level by stating, “I hope your families get blown up by ISIS.”
As you can imagine, the local police department (Thames Valley Police) didn’t take kindly to Major’s post. Soon after making her point, Major was arrested “under section 19 and the Public Order Act, which related to the display or written material, which is threatening, abusive, or insulting with the intention of stirring up racial hatred, and for producing malicious communications,” RT reports.
Sadly, Major’s views are nothing new and people around the world hold similar opinions.
How many reports, stories, and articles have to be released before people start to understand that hate can spring anywhere, not just in the Muslim faith? There are hateful people who call themselves Christians, Jewish, atheist, etc. — no religion or political party owns hate. People, however, do.
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