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Who the hell is the Westboro Baptist Church?

Meet Fred Phelps, and his congregation at the Westboro Baptist Church. They hate you; gay people; Jewish people; dead people; and Nelson Mandela.

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While the internet is a liberal place that delivers harsh judgement on anyone with extremist views, it should be noted that even most religious individuals and organisations consider this group to be controversial and inflammatory in its views. And with today’s announcement that it intends to fly to South Africa to picket the funeral of former president Nelson Mandela, it might finally get what it deserves.

In the past WBC has taken a lot of criticism for its choice to picket the funerals of celebrities, fallen soldiers, victims of terrorist attacks, and school shooting victims, as well as picketing comic book conventions, gay pride parades, and, well, everything else it believes is a sin. As a result, the internet and online collective Anonymous have responded by making the WBC the butt of jokes, making hoax calls, hijacking Facebook pages, and even taking down WBC’s websites.

This is a group that’s known for its despicable online presence – its official websites are GodHatesFags.com and GodHatesAmerica.com (neither linked, because they don’t need the traffic) – and attempts to be controversial at every opportunity. Sister sites include GodHatesIslam, GodHatesTheMedia, and JewsKilledJesus. At the GodHatesTheWorld.com website it lists several reasons why God (allegedly) hates specific countries. The church even issues press releases thanking God for the death of soldiers, leaders, and future picketing events.

Under US law, the American supreme court has ruled, the WBC’s views and protests are legal under freedom of speech laws. Phelps, a disbarred lawyer and former civil rights activist knows how to skirt the law, and raise enough eyebrows and ire to get media attention. As controversial as his views are – they often read like terrible satire – he is 100% serious.

Thankfully, though, other countries aren’t as tolerant. The group was denied entry to Canada by the government, when it wanted to picket the death of a man on the ground’s of Canada’s stance on certain issues. The UK, too, banned Phelps from entering the country to spread more hate. Even other hate groups don’t see eye to eye with the WBC; the KKK famously raised its voice on this matter, by counter-picketing a WBC picketing.

This time, it might find itself on the wrong side of many pitchforks, both physical and virtual. Let’s just hope that the South African government does the right thing.

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