A year-long saga that began when one of Australia\u2019s most popular YouTubers threw a doughnut on the floor has erupted overnight, with two influencers posting lengthy videos attacking each other amid claims of \u201cIslamophobia\u201d.<\/p>\n
Former criminal turned social media and food truck sensation Anthony Lees – aka Spanian – broke his silence on the beef, claiming he had \u201cheld his tongue\u201d during 12 months of criticism.<\/p>\n
The 41 year old said he had been accused of \u201cIslamophobia\u201d over a video he made three years ago in which he travelled around Sydney in a quest to find the city\u2019s best doughnuts.<\/p>\n
One moment in the YouTube video appears to have rubbed some up the wrong way.<\/p>\n
In the video he buys a doughnut from a highly popular shop in the city\u2019s southwest called L.A Donuts, which is owned by Muslim comedian Frida Deguise.<\/p>\n
In the clip he admits he \u201cjust doesn\u2019t like doughnuts, they\u2019re just rubbish\u201d before loudly chewing on the doughnut and throwing it on the floor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just sick of it. I didn\u2019t even want to chew it,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t like that doughnut as you can tell. That doughnut was just dry. It tasted like nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a video posted overnight, Spanian claimed he had been attacked by Muslim influencers over the video for months on end, calling him disrespectful and Islamophobic.<\/p>\n
He stressed he didn\u2019t even know the L.A Donuts owner was Muslim, before rattling off a string of other Muslim-owned businesses he had shouted out in previous videos.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat about when I went to the Ramadan markets and absolutely glazed there and all the Christians are saying, \u2018Why are you going there? You don\u2019t do anything Christian.\u2019 I\u2019m saying, \u2018Who cares, bro? I\u2019ll go where I want\u2019. \u201c he said. \u201cWhat about that? What about when I\u2019ve done Sydney\u2019s best kebab… and I went to the Indian one… but you know who I gave it to? The Muslim lads in Rockdale, Brothers Kebabs, and I glaze the f**k out of them. Where\u2019s the reactions to any of that?<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead of being thankful for all of those Muslim stores that I had line ups of my followers. how many Muslim stores have youse had line ups at? When you sit around in your car yelling at your phone about how you used to be someone, calling it content. How many Muslim stores have you helped? I\u2019ve done that.\u201d<\/p>\n
He claimed that when he opened his kebab store, Muslim influencers tried to \u201ctrash the f**k out of it\u201d by leaving bad reviews.<\/p>\n
\u2018Islamophobic\u2019 claims<\/p>\n
In the video, he shot back at Muslim influencers, claiming they are weaponising religion to cancel him after other personal attacks failed to stick.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the bulls**t yarns of \u2018Spanian\u2019s a dog, he\u2019s a snitch\u2019 \u2014 that didn\u2019t work,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a coward\u2019 \u2014 it doesn\u2019t work. I know what youse are doing now. Youse are trying to make every single thing Islamophobic.<\/p>\n
\u201cI make a video about how I\u2019m too good looking to have a beard a joke video. Youse turn it into, \u2018That\u2019s Islamophobic.\u2019 I don\u2019t know if you know that Christians had beards 700 years before you… But no, \u2018I\u2019m too good looking to have a beard\u2019 is Islamophobic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spanian is famous for travelling the world and walking through some of the roughest places on Earth.<\/p>\n
He said one of his recent videos has brought the whole saga up again \u2014 his trip to Central Asia to cover the treatment of Uyghur Muslims \u2014 a minority that is heavily persecuted.<\/p>\n
\u201cI travelled to f**king Kazakhstan to do this video,\u201d he said. \u201cDid you watch the actual f**king video? And all yous can do is nitpick… Put hashtag Free Palestine in your f**king bio, or talk about it once every three months, big freedom fighters, and you criticise every f**king thing. I flew over there for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the backlash was all about jealousy.<\/p>\n
\u201cYouse can talk about me all youse want. I promise you one thing: youse are not going to get anywhere by being social commentators, criticising, trying to bring people down,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just rubbish, cuz. <\/p>\n
\u201cTake it from somebody who was a junkie in jail. Youse are all living in my footsteps, trying to achieve what I achieved. That\u2019s why youse hate me so much. But just take it from me. If you want to make it, you need to actually make good content. Stop talking about people. Stop trying to bring people down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Muslim influencers hit back<\/p>\n
The video appears to have struck a chord with former bikie enforcer turned Muslim influencer Fred Nagi, who issued a personal response to Spanian on his Instagram page.<\/p>\n
In the video he told Spanian he wasn\u2019t always a critic, pointing out that he previously defended the rival creator\u2019s kebab business when others tried to review-bomb it.<\/p>\n
\u201cBrother, if you remember correctly, I was the first one to stick up for you and defend you, not for any reason, but because people were lying against your food,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI actually went to your shop multiple times and you know what? I still go… whoever had a go at you, it wasn\u2019t me, you know that?\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the outrage over the doughnut video stems from Islamic cultural values regarding food wastage, especially given current global conflicts.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhoever was having a dig, it\u2019s because in Islam, food is sacred,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s about throwing the food, the way you threw the food, like disrespect, like bang. When people are in Palestine starving all around the world, got nothing to eat. That\u2019s number one.\u201d<\/p>\n
He hit back at Spanian\u2019s defence that he simply hates doughnuts and wasn\u2019t targeting the specific Muslim-owned business.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou say, \u2018it\u2019s nothing against this store. I just hate doughnuts. I\u2019m sick of doughnuts.\u2019 Brother, then why did you go to a doughnut shop to eat a doughnut?\u201d he said. \u201cIf you\u2019re sick of doughnuts and you\u2019re over doughnuts, why did you go there? Why? <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so easy to say, \u2018I\u2019ve got nothing against this doughnut store.\u2019 You do have something against that doughnut store. That\u2019s why you went and shunned it like that, brother. Throwing food, smashing food, launching food, stepping on it, chucking it, pulling, spitting at it. That\u2019s not a good characteristic.\u201d<\/p>\n
He claimed Spanian was facing criticism because of his older \u201chood logic\u201d videos where he gave advice on how to commit violent street crimes.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou gotta remember, you gotta remember Spaniard, people have been hating on you because the videos you used to make, oh, \u2018if you want to rob someone, hide in a bush, when you\u2019re walking past, come out with a brick, whack him in the back of the head. Oh, climb up here, stab this bloke, jump off the balcony\u2019.\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s why… Positivity, speak positive, it\u2019s all G. But when you\u2019re saying stuff like that, that\u2019s why, that\u2019s why people have a dig at you.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also hit out at Spanian for claims he made about making Muslim inmates cry in prison.<\/p>\n
Spanian spent several years behind bars before turning 30. His incarcerations were the result of numerous offences.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd when you want to say you had Muslim blokes for two hours in their cells crying, brother, you can\u2019t make no Muslim cry,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can\u2019t make no one cry in jail. Brother, you were just a puppet in there. You were just doing \u2014 that\u2019s why you hate the Muslims, eh?You\u2019re still f**king in pain over it. Get over it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former bikie boss Moudi Tajjour, who left the Nomads Motorcycle Club in 2018 after a four-year jail sentence for manslaughter, also took issue with Spanian\u2019s resurfaced doughnut review.<\/p>\n
In a series of Instagram stories he repeatedly challenged the YouTuber to meet up with him before sharing footage of Spanian enjoying a Krispy Kreme doughnut.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe truth of the f***ing fact is, youse know in your hearts, what\u2019s gonna happen,\u201d he told his followers.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnderneath this face, youse know, a lot of you f***s wouldn\u2019t dare meet up. Beneath this social media facade, a lot of you real n****s know what I\u2019m like.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tajjour took to social media on Thursday morning to claim he had been raided by police after his rant online, writing: \u201cI guess they didn\u2019t like my posts\u201d.<\/p>\n
Fellow creator John Lavulo, also known as Big Kash, backed Spanian against the backlash saying he would \u201calways have his back\u201d.<\/p>\n
The former bikie and gangster rapper said the \u201cpeople who have nothing going on\u201d were \u201creally embarrassing\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese c**ts have been picking on him for a long time, saying stuff that isn\u2019t true,\u201d he said. \u201cThe people that have nothing going on just sit there and observe, brother. Maybe you should get something to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Doughnut store owner\u2019s reaction <\/p>\n
L.A Donut owner and Muslim comedian Ms Deguise did not want to comment on the latest videos, but she has addressed the controversy before.<\/p>\n
She spoke in a candid 2024 YouTube interview, saying she was going to post a video about it at the time but held back. <\/p>\n
She said the weekend after the video came out, the shop was packed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI reckon people just watch him and know he\u2019s full of s**t and just go \u2018mate he said that place is s**t let\u2019s go there and try it,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think he actually did me a favour because I\u2019ll never ever forget that weekend it was one of my busiest weekends ever.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A year-long saga that began when one of Australia\u2019s most popular YouTubers threw a doughnut on the floor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":788571,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-788570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=788570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/788571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=788570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=788570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=788570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}