A LOCAL ELECTION candidate in Castleknock has penned an open letter to the community after his posters were defaced in a racist manner for the second time.
Memet Uludag, who is of Turkish-born but has been living in Ireland since 1998, is running for a seat on Fingal County Council in the Castleknock ward for the People Before Profit Alliance.
His posters were previously defaced with raw bacon, a tactic used to vandalise posters of muslims by the far-right in Europe.
The posters have again been targeted, with pictures of a pig, after others were torn down. However, Uludag says that this won’t stop him.
In his open letter, he says that the vandalism is “outright racism”.
“I love my bacon, but not on my election posters, rather in the morning on the frying pan. Does it matter who, which candidate, has what beliefs or comes from what background?
What is happening to my posters is outright racism and it is not a spontaneous act of vandalism. Nobody walks around with a pack of bacon, pictures of pigs, cello-tape and a stepladder.
“This is, however small number they may be, an act of of people who are motivated and who are planning these acts of racism.”
He added that he wanted people to vote for him in order to send a message to those who were defacing his posters.
We need to give a strong and firm answer to these racists in our community. I am asking for your vote. I am asking you to support me if you agree with some of the things I stand for, but also if you reject racism in our communities.
“I haven’t run my election campaign on a migrant ticket. But I am a migrant, a much integrated migrant who has spent most of his adult life in Ireland. I am not selected to run in Castleknock – Blanchardstown because of some migrant quota. I have been selected based on my record of activism and my contribution to the political life in Ireland.”
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