Female Muslim journalist’s shock over ‘execution’ tweet

LONDON - A female Muslim journalist in Britain has revealed that she is “incredibly upset” over a Twitter message calling for her to be stoned to death.

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, a newspaper columnist, said she was unaware of the message until a friend contacted her about it.

“Can someone please stone Yasmin Alibhai-Brown to death? I shan’t tell Amnesty if you don’t. It would be a blessing, really,” Sky News quoted Conservative Birmingham City councillor Gareth Compton as having tweeted.

He has been arrested and bailed over the posting on his personal account on the micro-blogging site.

Alibhai-Brown also revealed her daughter, who uses Twitter, had seen the message before she found out.

“Before she went to bed, my teenage daughter was unusually distressed. She said she didn’t want me to be a journalist anymore and was worried that if I went to the door to answer it somebody would shoot me,” she said.

“Later we found out, so initially I was incredibly upset by it. It was a rational discussion I was having on the radio, not at all an angry discussion.

“I straight away decided this was incitement and I would go to the police, but as it happened I didn’t have to as a member of the public had already done that.A politician validates the many people who do threaten columnists like me… what you’re saying is ‘it’s okay to hate so much that you kill a journalist and a writer’,” she added.

A Conservative spokesperson said Compton’s language was “unacceptable”, and he had been suspended from the party indefinitely while an investigation takes place.

Compton has since deleted the original tweet and apologised for the remark, calling it “an ill-conceived attempt at humour”. (ANI)