A Muslim woman is awesomely getting the last laugh by turning the consistent vitriol she receives from Twitter trolls into the exact opposite of that: charity. Dr. Susan Carland, a well-known Australian academic, has decided to donate $1 to UNICEF for each "hate-filled tweet" she receives from trolls:
"I regularly get tweets and Facebook messages from the brave freedom-fighters behind determinedly anonymous accounts telling me that, as a Muslim woman, I love oppression, murder, war, and sexism," Carland said in a Sydney Morning Herald op-ed. "Their online abuse ranges from requests to leave Australia, hope for my death, insults about my appearance (with a special focus on my hijab), accusations that I am a stealth jihadist, and that I am planning to take over the nation, one halal meat pie at a time."
Though Carland admits that she originally tried various other methods of dealing with these incessant trolls, including blocking them, she ultimately decided she should instead be "actively generating good" for every message of hate she receives.
In 2009, the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center named Dr. Susan Carland one of the 500 most influential Muslims in the world. According to the Huffington Post, she currently teaches at Melbourne’s Monash University and is married to talk-show host Waleed Aly.
