Wednesday was a quite exciting day on Arab Twitter.
On June 22, the Arabic-language hashtag “We_demand_the_killing_of_atheists” began trending on Twitter, according to Arab journalists, activists and others.
Trending on Arabic #Twitter is this hashtag #نطالب_بقتل_الملحدين which translates to "We demand the killing of the Atheists". scary times.
— Faisal Saeed AlMutar (@faisalalmutar) June 21, 2016
However, tweets by atheists mocking the hashtag soon replaced those calling for death to atheists, and all hell broke loose.
After word spread that the viscous hashtag was trending, loads of Twitter users began criticizing the anti-atheist sentiment in both English and Arabic. Some claimed it was hypocritical to call for death to atheists, while Daesh (ISIS) and other extremists terrorize people around the world.
#نطالب_بقتل_الملحدين
— بيبو (@nonoo6791) June 21, 2016
الملحد خطر على البشرية
لكن الباقين مطبقين الاسلام بحذافيره pic.twitter.com/I2CK09w1UA
Atheists are a danger to humanity but the others follow a strict interpretation of Islam.
Others criticized what they perceived to be as violent trends in Islam.
#نطالب_بقتل_الملحدين نقتل النصارى واليهود والمجوس ونقتل الشيعة ونقتل المثليين والملحدين واللادينيين ليعلموا أن ديننا دين رحمة
— كليوبترا..جل جلالها (@mol7idah) June 21, 2016
We kill Christians, Jews, gays, Shias, athiests and humanist, yet we're a religion of mercy.
Many others criticized Islam in general in a rather inflammatory manner. Things really hit the fan when the no-holds-barred “TitsOutForIslam” began trending.
This hashtag saw Twitter users posting images of women's cleavage as a means of mocking Islam.
While such sentiments target Islam as a whole-not any radical minority-at least some Arabs appreciated the support they received from fellow atheists worldwide after the original hashtag.
Because of the strong backlash, a Twitter search for “we_demand_the_killing_of atheists” mostly yields tweets in opposition to the hashtag at present.
Adam Lucente
