The Central Ohio man who’s behind the white nationalist website "The Daily Stormer" has gotten a lot of attention since this weekend’s violence in Virginia. He’s now getting hit with a defamation lawsuit filed in Columbus by a well-known Muslim comedian, columnist and radio host.
SiriusXM Radio host Dean Obeidallah is suing Andrew Anglin of Worthington for a "Daily Stormer" post in June. The lawsuit says Anglin fabricated tweets showing Obeidallah was the terrorist mastermind behind the Ariana Grande concert bombing in England in May.
The suit claims that the article's defamatory statements were intended to incite violence against Obeidallah, citing other alleged examples of Daily Stormer readers who did just that, including Dylann Roof, who read the site before killing black churchgoers in South Carolina.
Obeidallah said he’s received death threats since, and after this weekend’s white nationalist march in Virginia, he and the Oakland-based legal group Muslim Advocates are filing the suit now.
“I don’t think the timing could be any better in that there’s such an imperative to make it clear that we’re going to stand up against the 'Daily Stormer' and Andrew Anglin,” Obeidallah said.
Anglin's site takes its name from Der Stürmer, a newspaper that published Nazi propaganda. The site includes sections called "Jewish Problem" and "Race War."
Anglin, an Ohio native who uses a post office box in Worthington, Ohio, didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment Wednesday on Obeidallah's suit.
Obeidallah said if Anglin had taken down the post as he’d asked him to, he wouldn’t be filing the suit, though he calls the death threats “stunning and revolting.” One comment said Obeidallah "just earned himself a spot at the gallows," and another threatened him with hanging.
"Mr. Obeidallah is an ardent believer in and defender of the First Amendment. He recognizes the importance of freedom of speech and political discourse, regardless of viewpoint. But the First Amendment does not license defamation," his suit says.
Obeidallah's lawsuit claims Anglin libeled him, invaded his privacy and intentionally inflicted "emotional distress." It seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
