A Dublin fancy dress company has withdrawn from sale a bloody Ku Klux Klan costume after a group was accused of a hate crime for wearing it outside an Islamic prayer centre in Co Down (Aaron Rogan writes).
“It’s bad enough that these people thought it appropriate to parade around the center of the town in these costumes, but to . . . pose outside the Islamic center and mosque is pathetic.
“This group did not simply dress up for Hallowe’en; rather they deliberately posed outside the prayer house. This is a demonstration of aggression and bullying towards a particular religion.”
The incident occurred late last month when photographs of a group of people dressed up as members of the Ku Klux Klan outside a local mosque in Newtownards, Northern Ireland, went online.
The Ku Klux Klan is an extremist Christian Protestant movement that was created in the US in 1865 and is known since then for its terrorism against Christian Catholics.
Based in Baileys Court, Dublin 1, the company Costumesinireland.ie withdrew the €21 costume this week after being contacted by the Belfast Telegraph.
It told the newspaper that the outfit was “satire” and had been used in a “horrible and deplorable attack”.
“This costume obviously is to laugh, ridicule and condemn this organization. It’s a satire costume. We sell this costume in other countries and we think that everybody understands this costume is not real; it has fake blood too,” it said in a statement given to the paper.
