An editor of Newsweek Pakistan made highly controversial remarks on Tuesday about sexual abuse of children.
In a series of tweets, editor Fasih Ahmed cynically dismissed the importance of recent attention paid to child sexual abuse, saying it “will always exist.” But the statement that stirred up the most outrage was his comment that sometimes “it leads to great art,” something he later explained was “sarcasm.”
Ahmed ignited a firestorm when he wrote:
Ahmed continued:
Ahmed then appeared to explain his initial tweet when he referenced Zainab, the six-year-old girl who was raped and murdered in Pakistan.
In a back and forth with one angry follower, Ahmed said this his initial comment about child abuse leading “to great art” was “sarcasm”:
After receiving thousands of responses to his remarks, Ahmed made sure to clarify that he meant what he wrote and that his account had not been hacked.