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Miss Puerto Rico Destiny Velez’s Anti-Muslim Rant Inadvertently Helps Michael Moore’s Protests Gain Traction

By Mohit Priyadarshi
Published on: 03:12 PST, Dec 21, 2015

Miss Puerto Rico Destiny Velez has landed herself in a lot of trouble, thanks to her bigoted and racial remarks against Muslims.

As the Inquisitr reported earlier, Miss Puerto Rico was suspended from the Miss America competition after posting a series of anti-Muslim tweets in response to the “We Are All Muslim” protests led by documentary filmmaker Michael Moore. For those of you who might not know, Moore had condemned GOP candidate Donald Trump’s proposal to close U.S. borders to all Muslim immigrants by standing outside the Trump Tower and holding a sign that read “We Are All Muslims.”

While Moore’s internet protests failed to gain a lot of online traction initially — with only a few people retweeting and sharing their portraits with the the text — there was hardly anyone as vehement in their response to the protests as Miss Puerto Rico, Destiny Velez. One of the people who sat on the other side of the fence, Velez was so disapproving in her remarks against Muslims that it reeked of sheer bigotry and gross sensationalism. One of her first tweets, which has since been deleted, read as follows.

“@MMFlint hold a sign that says ‘We are all believers in Christ.’ Why are you defending Muslims that haven’t done anything for the USA.”

And if you think Miss Puerto Rico Destiny Velez could have been forgiven for her first tweet based on the fact that she simply expressed a legitimate concern of many Americans, hold your horses. Following her first tweet, Velez went on an unsavory and distasteful anti-Muslim rant, where she hardly stopped short of branding all Muslims as “terrorists.” This is what she wrote.

“@MMFlint all what Muslims have done is provided oil & terrorize this county and many others!!!!”

“@MM Flint Stop fighting a Godly war that doesn’t belong to u for u are a proclaimed atheist. The is a matter of faith NOT economics.”

“@MM Flint Muslims use our constitution to terrorize USA & plant gas stations… all they do is build their mosques, feel offended by American values and terrorize innocent Americans and plant gas stations.”

To cut things short, Miss Puerto Rico’s anti-Muslim rant went on and on, before her Twitter account was barraged by tweets from people offended by her crass and offensive tweets. In the aftermath of the incident, Destiny Velez quickly realized the seriousness of her allegations, and swiftly took down her Twitter handle, which has since remained inaccessible. She was later suspended indefinitely from entering the Miss America talent competition.

During the weekend, the Miss Puerto Rico Organization issued a statement, distancing itself from her comments.

“The Miss Puerto Organization feels that her words do not represent the integrity and esteem of our program, nor that of our board members, our sponsors and partners, or the National Organization. Miss Velez’s actions were in contradiction to the organization, and therefore as a consequence of her actions, she has been suspended indefinitely,” the statement said.

By now, Destiny Velez knew she had landed herself in a hot soup by behaving in a completely irresponsible manner, and had to retract her original statements.

But it was too late. Not only had Miss Puerto Rico managed to screw up big time, she had also quite clearly etched herself as a racist by siding with Donald Trump, expressing her allegiance to him in a tweet, before adding that “it was time to clean up.”

In response, people offended by Velez’s tweets took to social media in big numbers, not only trolling her for her insensitivity — which included her being called “Miss Right Scoop” and a “bully” — but the hashtags #nonosrepresentas (you don’t represent us) and #verguenzaajena (embarrassment) started trending in Puerto Rico, according to Morocco World News.

Meanwhile, Miss Puerto Rico ended up doing what she definitely did not intend — inadvertently help Michael Moore’s protests gain a major online traction — with now people coming out in large numbers to express their solidarity with the filmmaker.

Certainly not what Miss Puerto Rico Destiny Velez was aiming for, is it? Just goes to show that bigotry is hardly appreciated anywhere — Twitter or elsewhere — and it will almost always gain you more enemies than friends.

Not that Michael Moore would mind.

[Photo via Associated Press]

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