Muslim teen & her dad go viral for heartwarming clapback to Islamophobic troll

Lamyaa, 17, received a hateful, Islamophobic message in a group chat because she identified herself as a Muslim woman who wears a hijab.

17-year-old Lamyaa received awful abuse from an Islamophobic troll, but clapped back with a heartwarming image. Source: Twitter / @lxmyaa.

Lamyaa, a 17-year-old from Pennsylvania in the United States, has experienced social media fame after a text message conversation between her and her father went viral. 

She posted a tweet with two images: one, showing a hateful message that she received because she is a Muslim woman, and the other image showing a lovely conversation between her and her dad, who lives in Saudi Arabia. 

Lamyaa told Buzzfeed that she is part of a group chat, which recently had the topic turn to the current political climate and President Donald Trump. She spoke against the President, saying she was deeply affected by his views, particularly his immigration ban on several Muslim countries.

"I personally had very strong views [on Trump] considering the presidency did impact me because I am an Arab, Muslim woman," she said. 

When she identified herself as a Muslim woman, she received a hostile response from another member of the group. They told her to stop defending her faith, and told her, "you couldn't take that scarf off or your dad would beat your ass".

The Islamophobic message Lamyaa received in a group chat. Source: Twitter / @lxmyaa.

Lamyaa says that sadly, she has grown used to this kind of sentiment from Americans who are not Muslim, but felt the need to prove this particular person wrong. 

The teenager was not considering removing her hijab, but decided to message her father in Saudi Arabia telling him she was considering it, purely to gauge his reaction.

His response was incredibly heartwarming:

Lamyaa's father responded with unconditional support for his daughter's choices. Source: Twitter / @lxmyaa.

Lamyaa's tweet has now received 145,000 retweets and more than 300,000 likes.

Some users responded back to Lamyaa with criticism, saying that her father was in the minority of Muslim men, and there are plenty of Muslim women who are forced to wear coverings by their fathers and husbands.

But Lamyaa responded that she was not trying to say women forced to wear the covering do not exist, she was simply explaining that the hijab is not supposed to symbolise oppression:

She also emphasised that in majority of cases, women being forced to wear the hijab comes from local culture and tradition, not religion. Several users responded, agreeing with her:

Mostly, Lamyaa's tweet has received an overwhelmingly positive response:

Plus, if you're wondering what the Arabic text says in Lamyaa's father's message, it translates to: "Are you okay, my love?"