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Aziz Ansari takes Rupert Murdoch to task for his Islamophobic tweet

It was a Twitter takedown of epic proportions.

 

Michelle Jaworski

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Posted on Jan 12, 2015   Updated on May 29, 2021, 7:16 pm CDT

The smackdowns of conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch just keep coming.

First J.K. Rowling eviscerated the News Corp CEO after he blamed “Moslems” for the attacks on the French magazine Charlie HebdoThen actor and comedian Aziz Ansari ripped him a new one during the Golden Globes as he tried to backtrack.

Although he didn’t respond to any of Rowling’s criticism earlier Sunday, Murdoch attempted to change his tune by Sunday afternoon, asking his followers to remember Ahmed Merabet, the Muslim police officer who was gunned down during the attack on Charlie Hebdo. Given Murdoch’s last tweet about Muslims, the request seemed disingenuous to some.

Ansari took note of Murdoch’s shift, reminding his followers what Murdoch had said the day before and calling him out for being a hypocrite.

In Murdoch’s anti-Muslim tweet, he wanted to hold all Muslims responsible for the attacks because of the “growing jihadist cancer.” Ansari, who is not religious, returned the favor, saying he would hold Murdoch responsible for every bad thing Christians had ever done.

Ansari had nothing against Christians or Muslims, he said, only ignorant people like Murdoch. His replies were fittingly merciless.

While the top moments from the Golden Globes quickly took over Twitter‘s trending topics, Ansari’s use of #RupertsFault trended alongside them. People started to blame Murdoch for anything Christians had done to harm others, including numerous high-profile examples of religiously inspired hate.

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Soon enough, people just started to blame and hold him responsible for everything—even things completely unrelated to religious zealotry.

Ansari had the final word, although it’s only a matter of time before something else sends him into a well-deserved Twitter rage.

H/T Jezebel | Photo via David Shankbone/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

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*First Published: Jan 12, 2015, 12:19 pm CST