As disturbing as this hashtag might appear, however, it’s actually quite the opposite. #StopIslam is only trending now because thousands of people are criticizing it. . . .

The hashtag has been in circulation for at least five years , when it first entered the tea party-Twitter lexicon alongside bigoted mainstays such as #bansharia and #IslamIsTheProblem. It began spiking in Spain early this morning, when some trollish, right-wing Twitter users there began tweeting it.

#StopIslam didn’t really take off, however, until the backlash against it began.