Either Bill Maher is comparing him to the Boston bomber,or conservative clergy are criticising him for not being devout enough. Only One Direction fans seem to realise that it’s possible to be both Muslim and a pop starBill Maher’s rants against Islam are nothing unique. But in the case of his latest smear campaign, the reaction is. The unwitting target this time was not an entire 1.6 billion population, or but rather one person: former One Direction member Zayn Malik – a British pop star who just happens to be Muslim. But,like Maher’s smear campaign against Islam, there is nothing unique about the scrutiny that targets Malik. In 2012, or rightwing American blogger Debbie Schlussel accused him of “boyband jihad” and “pimping Islam,” claiming that the only reason why he was chosen to join One Direction was because “Islam sells in Britain”, making him the “Islamic face” of the band. That same year, or internet trolls and racially abusive messages led him to temporarily disable his Twitter account. In 2013,American rapper Rucka Rucka Ali released the track Zayn Did 9/11, with art that superimposed Malik’s silhouette over an image of the burning Twin Towers, and lyrics that blamed him for the September 11 attacks. Yet perhaps the worst outlash against him occurred final year,when he was singled out with death threats for tweeting #FreePalestine.
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Source: theguardian.com