CHULA VISTA - A local elected official is accused of being hurtful and hateful towards Muslims in a series of tweets.
Hector Gastelum, elected to the board of directors at the Otay Water District, posted the comments on Twitter.
One of the tweets reads: “Let’s pressure our legislators to prevent #subhuman #scum from #USA to #MAGA”
MAGA stands for make America great again.
“It's never my intention to be hurtful but nowadays sometimes people are hypersensitive,” Gastelum told 10News.
The tweets have since been deleted from Gastelum's Twitter account. He did posted another tweet including the hashtag "#civilsociety."
Very sad when a place of worship is terrorized
There's no place in a #CivilSociety for this type of violence https://t.co/hm732T0ZeK— Hector Gastelum (@HectorVote) February 25, 2017
“Of course it hurts. His comments were very, extremely offending,” said Taha Hassane, Imam of the Islamic Center of San Diego.
Gastelum said his tweets were misunderstood.
“My comments were specific to the people that are doing gang raping women, stoning them to death, throwing homosexuals from the roof,” Gastelum said.
Another tweet reads “This is how the left learns #Muslim #Islam #Sharia aren’t compatible with any form of #civilsociety #equality.”
“Portraying Muslims as sub-humans, rapists, who don’t have any problems stoning women, and all, you know this is nonsense, this is nonsense,” Hassane said.
Gastelum said he was sorry to anyone who was offended.
“I feel bad that people got their feelings hurt. It was never my intention to hurt good Muslim people,” Gastelum said.
“Another victim of this Islamaphobic industry that is spreading a lot of lies, a lot of rumors, a lot of false information about my community and my faith,” Hassane said.
Hassane reached out to Gastelum.
“We had a beautiful conversation and if people got their feelings hurt on my comments, I apologize. It’s sincere,” Gastelum said.
