Story By: Joseph Golder, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
Video Credit: CEN/@miloorrs
This 16-year-old French high school student called Mila has received a torrent of death threats and abuse for criticising Islam – calling it a “sh*t religion” in a series of short Instagram videos.
Reports also surfaced that she required a police escort and cannot set foot in her high school.
Mila is a high school student in the Lyon area in eastern France, reportedly in the Isere department in the Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes region.
On Instagram, Mila, who loves singing and whose profile is adorned with an LGBT flag, was talking with her followers when one of them reportedly began harassing her.
After rebuffing the follower’s advances, he reportedly began insulting her with homophobic attacks and accusations of racism: “dirty French girl” (‘sale francaise’ in French), “dirty whore” (‘sale pute’ in French), “dirty dyke” (‘sale gouine’ in French).
Then the attacks took a religious tone, with netizens reportedly accusing Mila of insulting “our God Allah, the one and only” and hoping that she would “burn in hell.”
Video Credit: CEN/@miloorrs
According to reports, it is then that Mila decided to post footage criticising religion in general and Islam in particular: “I hate religion, […] there is nothing but hate in the Koran, Islam is sh*t, that’s what I think. I am not racist, not at all. You cannot be racist towards a religion. I said what I thought, you will not make me regret it. There are still people who will get excited, I clearly don’t give a damn, I say what I want, what I think. Your religion is sh*t, your God, I put a finger in up his a*shole, thank you, goodbye.”
She continued: “You insult me and you threaten me with death, it is all you are good for, you have no education, you are crap, you are useless.”
French media point out that under French law, Mila has done nothing illegal, there being no restrictions on ‘blasphemy’ in France.
Mila would indeed also reportedly later tell the identitarian feminist site Bellica’s boss Solveig Mineo: “I have not insulted anyone, nor threatened anyone, nor called for violence against anyone. What I did was blasphemy, general criticism of religions, and nothing else.”
But her Instagram story post – story posts disappear after 24 hours – that was originally posted on 19th January, was recorded and reposted on various social media platforms, including Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat.
The content was posted on various platforms where many of the posts were liked, reshared, retweeted and viewed thousands and tens of thousands of times.
The video was posted on the Twitter account of ‘malak_288_’, for example, who captioned it with: “I don’t think she realises what she is saying and how big this can get.”
That post, one of the milder ones, had nearly 1 million views, 7,500 retweets, and 19,700 likes, at the time of writing.
Netizens appear to be clearly split between those who have slammed Mila, with some even issuing death threats, and those who support her, notably those who defend her right to free speech.
Some of the threats she has received include one from ‘yz-213’, who said: “Fat lesbian, who do you think you are, you are so dead, you will be found with your throat slit, you dog […]”
And ‘sujiiiz’ said: “Listen well to me you fat whore, if I see you in the street I’m going to make you swallow your own organs after having taken them out through your a*sehole OK?”
At the time of writing, the hashtag #miloorrs is trending, with numerous memes appearing and netizens taking sides.
Solveig Mineo from Bellica has since created a support group on Facebook called “Je suis Mila” (‘I am Mila’), with the hashtag #JeSuisMila.
Her critics have also got their own hashtag: “JesuispasMila” (‘I am not Mila’).
According to local media, a student from the same high school wrote on Snapchat: “There are cops at the high school (…) Everyone wants her dead, we even talked about it in class because she is going to get herself killed.”
Mila told Bellica: “I can no longer set foot in my high school, and I can’t even change my high school because it’s the whole of France that wants me dead”. She believes that her “biggest dream” of becoming a singer has been “shattered. I will have a label stuck on my forehead forever. This is what makes me suffer the most.”
French newspaper Marianne said: “Observers will have noted that while the harassment of Mila has now bee ongoing for several days, there is a deafening silence of left-wing figures, feminist organisations and LGBT rights associations. An unfathomable cowardice which probably allowed an identitarian site like Bellica to obtain exclusively the testimony of this young homosexual girl threatened with death for having criticised the Islamic religion.”
According to French newspaper Liberation, the head of Mila’s high school has flagged the incident to the prosecutor’s office. Local media report that the local education authority has said that “the young girl is in security”, and that she has been provided with “physical and psychological support.”
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