A PROMINENT YES campaigner in the recent marriage referendum has had his and his family’s cars covered in acid.
Riyadh Khalaf, a DJ with Spin 103.8 FM, was one of the most prominent Irish voices on the Yes side over the course of the campaign.
He woke up yesterday morning to find that his family’s cars had been covered in a corrosive substance believed to be acid.
“It was a malicious act on my family alone. The only reason for this can be down to our recent work for equality and how public it was,” he said in a post on his Facebook page.
My car was given to me by my grandmother after she passed away so it hurts to see the damage, but at the end of the day folks.. We won, we have equality and Ireland is a more loving and inclusive place.
Riyadh added that he plans to install security cameras on the property “today.. just in case”.
“The only obvious culprit would be someone who was anti our campaign,” he told TheJournal.ie.
Someone who didn’t like how public me and my family were about how we felt.
All I can say is, if it is someone who was anti the Yes campaign, well then what a waste of your time because we’ve won. If you were going to do something like this you should have done it before.
Who knows, maybe it took them this long to find out where we are.
Bray gardaí have been consulting neighbours with cctv security around their properties to see if any traces of the culprits can be found. They have also utilised a forensics expert who made a detailed examination of the scene.
“They aren’t ruling anyone in or out at the moment, but they think it’s probably a result of how prominent we all were during the campaign,” says Riyadh.
I’m more hurt that someone came onto our property to be honest. It makes me feel like our home has been invaded.
I’m just a guy who had an opinion, of course I was going to speak up.
Khalaf was to the forefront of much of what the Yes campaign did in recent months, particularly internationally where he made appearances on the BBC, CNN, NBC, and in the Guardian.
He also directed a self-made viral video at the ultra-conservative Westboro Baptist Church in the US.
I’m still happy I did everything I did. If anything this will bring us closer as a family, because everything we did we did for a reason.
I don’t mind someone disagreeing with me, but when it leaves online hatred and hits your front door, well than that’s just barbaric and makes me feel very uncomfortable.
Originally published by Ciannan Brennan on TheJournal.ie
