Legoland Windsor suspends Facebook page after being bombarded with abusive messages
Categories: Latest News
Monday February 17 2014
Local paper, the Windsor Express, reports on the abusive messages received by Legoland after details of a private hire by a Muslim foundation were seized upon by the English Defence League.
The theme park has been hired by the Muslim Research and Development Foundation (MRDF) on March 9th for a fun day out for Muslim families. The local paper reports that Legoland’s Facebook and Twitter accounts were bombarded with abusive messages which have now been passed to the police.
Legoland temporarily suspended its Facebook page after receiving a torrent of abuse.
A spokesperson for Legoland Windsor said: “It is a private hire, it is out of season and it happens to be a Muslim organisation. It could happen to be a business or anything else. Anybody can go, it is not about Muslims.”
“We are so sorry we had to remove our page for a couple of days. The removal of the page was requested by the Thames Valley Police as an investigation is currently underway to identify those responsible for some of our wall posts, private messages, phone calls and emails.
“Anyone posting or thinking of posting offensive and threatening messages on this page or other social media sites should be aware that the Thames Valley Police are monitoring the situation closely and we will not hesitate to take robust and swift action against anyone engaging in this type of activity.”
The Daily Star quotes Taj Hargey of the Muslim Education Centre in Oxford who likens the MRDF to the BNP saying, “I would ask Legoland that if they are happy to let his group hire the park, then would they be happy to let the BNP and other extremist far-right groups hold their family fun day there?
“Both groups spread hatred and intolerance.”
There is, of course, no substantiation of the claim that MRDF spreads ‘hatred and intolerance’. One can’t help but recall the words of former Daily Star reporter, Richard Peppiatt, on the paper’s deliberate provocation of an ‘us’ and ‘them’ narrative with its regular drip feed of anti-Muslim articles:
“Our caustic ‘us and them’ narrative needs nailing home every day or two, and when asked to wield the hammer I was too scared for my career, and my bank account, to refuse.”
“While the Daily Star isn’t the only paper with a case to answer, I reckon it’s certainly the ugliest duckling of an unsightly flock.”