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Twitter has been flooded with a slew of Islamophobic tweets from Rotherham locals drawing comparisons between the Hamas terrorist attacks and the five Pakistani men convicted of the Rotherham child sex scandal.
One tweet read: “We can’t speak up for the raped teenage girls in Rotherham so don’t expect outrage for the beheaded babies in Palestine.”
The current conflict began October 7 after Hamas fighters breached a border security fence killing Israeli civilians and soldiers.
This prompted twitter responses from numerous Rotherham locals, condemning members of Rotherham who were standing in solidarity with Palestine.
Sympathisers were met with racist Twitter responses which insinuated that those standing in solidarity with Palestine were also sympathising with the five Pakistani men who were first convicted of sexual offences against girls aged 12–16 in 2010.
Further videos released by CBS on the 25 of October, depicting the Hamas terror attacks, have prompted further Twitter threads to arise which contained islamophobia.
Another tweet read: “Well reminded of the fact that those who wave the PLO flag are the same ones who kept quite about their children being raped (hashtag)Rotherham.”
Charity organisation Remidi have been supporting those affected by the rise in religious hate crime in the area since the attacks were broadcast.
In South Yorkshire, there were a total of 4,130 recorded hate crimes in the year 2021-22, which is an increase of 22% from the previous year. Since the Hamas Attacks, A Reuters investigation found that Islamophobic hate crimes had increased 140%.
Charity Remidi, Established in 1996, offers victims of crime the opportunity to engage in a restorative intervention with the person responsible.
Nicole Slater, 46, Sheffield, is the manager of the Youth team for Remidi and is working with her team to tackle the rise.
Miss Slater said: “It only takes a google search to see that Rotherham suffers from hate crime
“In Rotherham we have a hate crime practitioner who delivers 1-1’s and group sessions to educate young people and adults on the effects of hate crime in the community.”
Whilst the tweets serve as a reminder that the rates of hate crime remain a real threat to Rotherham’s Muslim Community, which made up just shy of 10% of Yorkshire according to the 2021 census, Miss Slater said that there is hope for things to change.
Miss Slater said: “We have been working with the Rotherham Council for the last four years and our data shows there has been a decrease in reoffending.
“It is important that this intervention is widespread across the country towards young people, adults and the wider community.”
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