The landlord of an Ipswich pub under fire for “racist” comments published on its Facebook page following the Manchester bombing has said the post was a “mistake” but he refuses to apologise for it, despite uproar from the public.
A message issued from the account of The Railway pub in Foxhall Road called for everyone with the name ‘Salmam’ (sic) to be deported with “immediate effect”, anticipating that ‘most will pull the human rights card’.
Former customer and Ipswich resident Sarah Williams, 28, has announced a boycott of the pub.
She said: “Everyone was in support of the victims of the Manchester attack but the fact that whoever posted this message wanted to kick people out of the country based on their surname is incredible, I can’t believe it. It’s incredibly bigoted and racist and they need to apologise.
“It was one person who did this attack, not the entire community.”
The comment was later deleted from the pub’s page after internet-users expressed their disapproval and a retraction was put in its place, claiming “action” had been taken against the person responsible. The new post has attracted more than 80 responses.
Steve Preston, license owner of the Railway, said social media was an “absolute nightmare”.
He added: “The post that went on was not worded very well and at the time emotions were running high and we know that wasn’t appropriate so we removed it.
“We said that anyone with the same morals as the bomber shouldn’t be in this country. We didn’t use the word Muslim, we are not racist, but social media and the trolls decided to spread it around and now we are the most hated people in the world.
“It should have gone on a personal Facebook page but unfortunately we don’t totally understand Facebook, we are old school people.
“People are calling out and saying we want an apology, but apologise for what? Apologise to who?
“Unfortunately a mistake was made, a remark has gone on and we realise it was not suitable so we removed it but someone screenshot it and it’s gone out.
“No one gives you a chance on social media. They judge, jury, hang you. When it runs its time we have no intention of using social media in the future.”
On Monday night, 22 people, including children, were killed when suicide bomber Salman Abedi detonated an explosive device during an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester Arena.
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