{"id":7606,"date":"2015-11-17T20:03:31","date_gmt":"2015-11-17T20:03:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/?p=7606"},"modified":"2015-11-17T20:03:31","modified_gmt":"2015-11-17T20:03:31","slug":"cardiff-mans-facebook-post-paris-attacks-goes-viral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2015\/11\/17\/cardiff-mans-facebook-post-paris-attacks-goes-viral\/","title":{"rendered":"Cardiff man\u2019s Facebook post on Paris attacks goes viral"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure id=\"attachment_7611\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7611\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/LM.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-7611\" src=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/LM.jpg\" alt=\"Leigh Matthews, whose Paris Attacks post attracted a lot of support.\" width=\"540\" height=\"540\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7611\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-7611\" src=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/LM.jpg\" alt=\"Leigh Matthews, whose Paris Attacks post attracted a lot of support.\" width=\"540\" height=\"540\" \/><\/noscript><\/a> Leigh Matthews, whose Paris Attacks post has attracted a lot of support.<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nA CARDIFF man has described the \u201cunreal\u201d reaction to a post he put on Facebook following the Paris terrorist attacks.<br \/>\nLeigh Matthews, 30, posted a message on Saturday morning after the shocking incidents that took place in Paris the night before.<br \/>\nHis post, which urged people not to \u2018lay the blame at the doors of the innocent just because of what they believe\u2019, has since been liked more than 67,000 times and has been shared over 54,000 times on his page alone. Hundreds of thousands of others have also seen the post after it was copied by other Facebook users.<br \/>\nIn the open letter he told readers that the staff of their local shop, the people who work in the bank and the drivers of their taxis were not responsible for what happened in Paris.<br \/>\n\u201cThe people behind last night\u2019s attacks weren\u2019t Muslims, they were extremists using vindication for their cowardice,\u201d he said.<br \/>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7619\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7619\" style=\"width: 490px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-17-at-16.07.57.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-7619\" src=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-17-at-16.07.57.png\" alt=\"Mr Matthews's post in full\" width=\"490\" height=\"422\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7619\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-7619\" src=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-17-at-16.07.57.png\" alt=\"Mr Matthews's post in full\" width=\"490\" height=\"422\" \/><\/noscript><\/a> Mr Matthews&#8217;s post in full.<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nMr Matthews, who works at PunkPanda restaurant and bar in Cardiff Bay, said that his head is &#8220;still spinning\u201d after the amazing reaction to his post.<br \/>\nHe said: \u201cI wanted to make sure the wider Muslim community weren\u2019t being victimised for the attacks in Paris.<br \/>\n\u201cI wanted people to understand that just because they [the attackers] used the name of Islam when they were carrying out the attacks in Paris, it doesn\u2019t necessarily mean that they are speaking for the entire Muslim community.<br \/>\n\u201cThe reason the message is getting such a response is because people believe what I believe. It\u2019s not that I said anything special, people were thinking it already.\u201d<br \/>\nHis Facebook page has since been flooded with messages of support, a few of which have really stood out to him. \u201cI had a message from a young girl to say thank you, because she got up yesterday and was afraid to go outside,&#8221; he said.<br \/>\n\u201cShe\u2019d been victimised in the past when the London bombings happened. She\u2019d been punched in the street because of her faith and after what happened in Paris she was terrified.<br \/>\n\u201cAfter seeing how many people had shared and liked my status, she felt more comfortable, she felt like she had a place in the world to go to where she wasn\u2019t going to be victimised.\u201d<br \/>\nThe post has received an extraordinary amount of attention on Mr Matthews\u2019s page alone and it has been copied by countless others too.<br \/>\nDespite this, he says that it doesn\u2019t matter who posts it: \u201cAs long as the message is getting out there I don\u2019t mind whose mouth it\u2019s coming from.\u201d<br \/>\nSince the post Mr Matthews has been asked to speak at a vigil in Newport, as well as making a guest appearance on Mohammed Shafiq\u2019s show on UK-based Islamic TV station Ummah Channel.<br \/>\nMeanwhile Mr Matthews\u2019s post continues to attract new messages of support but he emphasises that this post is not about him.<br \/>\n\u201cAfter all, the good that comes out of this is what really matters,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A CARDIFF man has described the \u201cunreal\u201d reaction to a post he put on Facebook following the Paris terrorist attacks. Leigh Matthews, 30, posted a message on Saturday morning after the shocking incidents that took place in Paris the night before. His post, which urged people not to \u2018lay the blame at the doors of the innocent just because of what they believe\u2019, has since been liked more than 67,000 times and has been shared over 54,000 times on his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":248,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,92,3],"tags":[3270,1291,1220,2353,3271,3272,3273],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-7606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cardiff-bay","category-city","category-news","tag-attacks","tag-cardiff-2","tag-facebook","tag-paris","tag-paris-attacks","tag-terror","tag-viral"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.2 - 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