Boston – Grammy award-winning band of Tuareg musicians from the Sahara Desert are receiving racist threats in anticipation for their US tour starting in September.
As reported by NPR, the attacks started when ‘The Ramkat’, a club in Winston Salem in North Carolina, –that booked a show with Tinariwen for Sept. 17, –put up an ad on Facebook for the show, featuring the band in their usual Amazigh dress of robes and turbans, and in response, they started getting a number of racist, vitriolic comments and violent threats against Tinariwen.
Local racists threatened to bring assault rifles and bomb violence to the concert venue, called members of the band “ISIS,” and said the band members” look like terrorists.”
Despite all the xenophobic attacks, the show will go on —although the city authorities plans to add an extra security measures, both inside and outside the venue for the Sept. 17 show to keep people safe.
On the other hand, thousands of supportive comments were made by fans, well known singer as well as Anti-Racism Activists on the net to support the band, among the comments there was one that said “Tinariwen’s members have faced much more serious threats than Facebook comments, they fought Islamic extremists in their home country of Mali, and been victims of all types of marginalization for decades.”
The venue also tweeted, “We know that the hateful comments made on our Facebook ad are not representative of the greater Winston-Salem and the Piedmont Triad communities, and we look forward to showing Tinariwen all the love when this incredible band walks on our stage on September 17.”
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