California Assemblywoman and United States Navy Veteran Melissa Melendez (R-Lake Elsinore) faced a backlash this week over a tweet reacting to the death of Kayla Mueller by Islamic State (ISIS) militants.
Some of the responses called out Melendez’s use of the hashtag #standupagainstislam, referred to her as a “bigot”, and had other unsavory words for her. A self-described atheist sent out this one:
@asmMelendez consider suicide you ignorant racist fuck.
— Caucasity Trojan (@thiseth) February 12, 2015
One woman attempted to equate the Republican assemblywoman’s tweet with racial inequity and invoked Melendez’s ethnic background:
According to the Los Angeles Times, Sarah Moussa, chair of the Arab-American Caucus of the California Democratic Party, said Melendez’s comment was “profoundly misguided and deeply offensive to people of Islamic faith”. Moussa reportedly also suggested that Melendez was “painting all members of a single faith with a broad brush.”
In response to all the backlash, Melenedez issued a statement to clarify her tweet:
It was never my intention to offend peaceful Muslims. However, I’ve had enough of Islamic extremists and terrorists who oppress women and burn people alive in the modern world. This isn’t about hashtags, it’s about America standing up with our allies and putting an end to the barbaric behavior we are witnessing around the world.
Follow Adelle Nazarian on Twitter @AdelleNaz