French-Syrian singer Mennel Ibtissem withdrew from the French version of The Voice talent show after being the target of Islamophobic attacks and campaigns on social media.
The 22-year-old student was one of the top contestants on The Voice, where her English and Arabic version of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah went viral and became an internet sensation.
But within days of her performance, she was under pressure to bow out over old Facebook posts that appeared to question the terrorist nature of attacks that claimed scores of lives in France in 2016.
The posts have been deleted but screen shots have been widely shared on far-right websites.
In one post after the July 2016 truck attack in the city of Nice, in which 86 people were killed, she said: “Here we go, it’s become a routine, an attack a week, and, as usual, the ‘terrorist’ takes his ID with him. It’s true that when you’re plotting something nasty you never forget to take your papers with you.”
For more details, watch the full report in the video above