Rupert Murdoch has enraged many in the world community of Muslims, by stating on Twitter that they should acknowledge a “growing Jihadist cancer” among them. The often-controversial media mogul’s series of tweets were so inflammatory that Murdoch became embroiled in a social media debate of epic proportions, yet he continued to defend his views .
The ill-advised tweets started on Friday, at the height of tensions in Paris after three gunmen murdered 12 Charlie Hebdo journalists. One gunman surrendered relatively early on, while the other two went on take four people hostage at a French supermarket.
Maybe most Moslems peaceful, but until they recognize and destroy their growing jihadist cancer they must be held responsible.
— Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch) January 10, 2015
Murdoch went on to defend his position, despite being attacked for his initial comment.
Big jihadist danger looming everywhere from Philippines to Africa to Europe to US. Political correctness makes for denial and hypocrisy.
— Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch) January 10, 2015
The crisis was over by Saturday, but there is one remaining female suspect at large, who is believed to be hiding in Syria.
The reaction to the Rupert Murdoch tweets were intense and largely in disagreement with his perspective.
@rupertmurdoch Then what are you doing to stop the cancer that is white supremacy terrorism that kills people, too? http://t.co/LeFLv3lb1n
— Lissanna (@restokin) January 10, 2015
@rupertmurdoch Muslims die everyday fighting d cancr of terrorism while cowards like u sit behind a screen n spread hate #love #Peace
— Wasim Talib (@wasimtaib1987) January 10, 2015
@rupertmurdoch Oh, okay, great! Who do we hold responsible for this cancer? pic.twitter.com/tCbjw1rVXk
— Stephanie Parrott (@StephParrott) January 10, 2015
There were a number of supportive comments on his second tweet, though.
@rupertmurdoch @gatewaypundit It makes for a perilous world! America must take the global lead on defeating Islamic jihadists!
— Dolores (@loladeantonia26) January 10, 2015
@rupertmurdoch . Political correctness has hurt America. Liberals use it to appease others. Bad decision!!
— Fred Dugan (@FredDugan) January 10, 2015
The reaction to Murdoch on social media and in traditional media outraged many Muslims, of which there are a more than one billion followers worldwide.
One Twitter user, Erwin Renaldi repsponded, “I’m really sad reading this. Insulting my faith and I have nothing to do with the extremists and I can do nothing.”
Other voices on social media brought up the ethics of the British phone-hacking scandal that Murdoch and his ex-enterprise News of the World newspaper were embroiled in. Murdoch became infamous for heading up an enterprise that hacked the cell phone of a dead school girl, among other serious legal privacy breaches.
Some comments simply used humor to address the controversy.
One Twitter user, Matt Haig, wrote, “Rupert Murdoch wrote a tweet. As someone who uses Twitter I would like to apologise on his behalf.”
[Photo via Wikimedia Commons]