A Facebook post shared on Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller’s official Facebook page was removed Monday soon after the image featuring the detonation of an atomic bomb and a message suggesting “the Muslim world” should face the same fate went viral on social media.
“Japan has been at peace with the U.S. since August 9, 1945. It’s time we made peace with the Muslim world,” stated the original post, which features the hashtags #noislamknowpeace and #COMETAKE and what appears to be a photograph of the 1957 nuclear bomb tests in Nevada.
The photograph and message originally were posted on a Facebook page called “The Patriot’s IV Drip 2.” The page’s one line description says, “We do not agree with Obama and his political views. We ban trolls.” The page has posted memes including one of a baby with a raised fist proclaiming, “Hang in there whitey!” and another of women garbed in burkas swimming at the beach that says, “Please don’t throw trash into our oceans.”
The post was shared on Miller’s page around 5 p.m. on Sunday, but was removed about 11:15 a.m. Monday.
Reached for comment mid-Monday, Miller’s special assistant, Luke Bullock, said the post was made without the commissioner’s knowledge by a staffer in his campaign office who does not work for the state agency.
“It was an error by a staffer. The posting did not reflect the views of Commissioner Miller and, as a result, it’s been removed,” Bullock said, calling the post “inappropriate.” He added Miller “will ensure that future postings do not reflect views that do not align with his view.”
Later Monday, however, Miller’s campaign spokesman, Todd Smith, called the Chronicle because he thought it needed “a little bit of clarity.”
“I don’t know if it reflects the view of Commissioner Miller or not. He’s on a trip to China,” said Smith, referring to the 11-day trade mission from which Miller will return on Aug. 23. “He has not made any bones about where he stands on the issue of radical Islamic terrorism and we’re not going to be creating a witch-hunt or doing anything to find out who posted it. And I think it was a powerful post that caused people to stop and think about the current state of the world.”
No apology
Referencing calls from the Texas Democratic Party and some lawmakers’ calls for Miller to apologize, Smith continued, “There’s not going to be any apology. I want to put that on the record, and if anybody needs to call for an apology they need to call ISIS ... or the Iranian leadership.”
Pressed on whether he disagreed with Bullock’s characterization that the post was “inappropriate,” Smith said “I’m not going to call it inappropriate or appropriate. I just think it was thought-provoking.”
Smith said he exchanged a few text messages with Miller on Monday, but felt he knew the commissioner’s stance enough to reach out to clarify the earlier remarks. He would not respond to multiple questions about how the post references the entire “Muslim world,” not just radicalized individuals espousing violence.
“Commissioner Miller does not believe we need to drop an atomic bomb on the entire Muslim population of the world, I can assure you that,” he offered.
Before it was removed, Miller’s shared post had received 2,232 likes and more than 300 comments. Most of the comments agreed with the post with only one or two users disagreeing or stating that using atomic weapons would be a step too far.
“24 empty missile tubes, a mushroom cloud and now it’s Miller time!” wrote a user named Michael Linder. Betty Miller wrote, “Time to drop another one but make sure that Obama, Clinton and Kerry are present.”
“You’re wrong on this 1Sid !” wrote David Oster, one of the few users that disagreed with the post.
Increased prejudice
Japan marked the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki earlier this month. At least 130,000 people died from the initial blast and acute affects in the first few months after the bombings, which took place on Aug. 6 and Aug. 9, 1945.
Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the post is symptomatic of a recent increase in anti-Islamic prejudice online.
“I would regard (the post) an implicit call to genocide. When you’re talking about nuking one-fifth of the world’s population, that’s genocide,” he said. He did not call for the staffer’s firing, but said “some kind of disciplinary action should be taken.”
This is not the first time Miller has been tied to controversial remarks about Muslims. At a Texas Public Policy Foundation forum in January, Miller said he was kept up at night over “long-range concerns as I hold those two grandbabies on my lap. I have to wonder, when they have grandbabies to hold in their lap, will we be a socialist country? Will we be a Muslim country? Are we doing enough?”