Muslims against the First Amendment concoct a
report saying criticism of Islam on the internet, which it defines as
‘hate speech,’ can lead to violence
From: Bare Naked Islam
A new report
shows that ‘Islamophobia’ is metastasizing on the Internet. After
anti-Muslim sentiment crystallized in 2010 around the proposed Ground
Zero Victory Mosque in Manhattan, there’s been a sharp increase in such
feelings.
The Progressive(aka The Communist)
“In recent years, we have seen hate groups and anti-Muslim activists
use the Internet and social media platforms to spread hate,” Madihha
Ahussain, staff attorney at Muslim Advocates and lead author of the
report, tells me. “For example, Pamela
Geller, a well-known anti-Muslim proponent who has her own blog, had
19,000 supporters on Facebook last summer. Today, less than a year
later, she has over 78,000 supporters.”
The report is entitled, “Click Here to End Hate: Anti-Muslim Bigotry Online & How to Take Action.” It mentions several hate groups.
There’s Act! for America, led by Brigitte Gabriel,
who, the New York Times reports, “presents a portrait of Islam so
thoroughly bent on destruction and domination that it is unrecognizable
to those who study or practice the religion.” Her outfit claims to have roughly 875 chapters and 279,000 members nationwide.
Its Facebook page has almost 84,000 likes.
The United States Defense League, dedicated to “exposing Shariah law,” has nearly 23,000 likes for its page.
A blog named Bare Naked Islam has a reported 51 million hits since 2008.
The report does a good job of highlighting disturbing use of social media by elected representatives.
“It’s quite
troubling to see the extent of hate online, particularly when it comes
from public officials and public figures that are using their personal
Facebook pages or social media accounts to encourage violence against
American Muslims,” Ahussain says. “It’s clear that anti-Muslim bigotry
online is alive and well on these various social media platforms.”
The report
cites the case of a Tennessee county commissioner, Barry West, who
posted a Facebook picture of a man aiming his gun with one eye closed.
The photo was captioned: “How to Wink at a Muslim.”
And there is
the online spewing of hate by public commentators. After the April Fort
Hood shooting, Patrick Dollard, a documentary filmmaker and past
Breitbart News contributor, tweeted, “If there is even one more act of
Muslim terrorism, it is then time for Americans to start slaughtering
Muslims in the streets, all of them.” In the immediate aftermath of the
Boston bombings, Fox news contributor Erik Rush was more succinct: “Yes,
they’re evil. Let’s kill them all.”
Ahussain and
her colleagues recommend some things that can be done to fight such hate
without violating free speech. “The report focuses on two methods of
responding to hate online: using the tools that Internet companies have
put in place to report content that violates their policies, and
engaging in counterspeech,” Ahussain says.
“Counterspeech
has been a powerful antidote to bigotry that can completely transform a
hate-fueled conversation into something productive and positive,” she
adds. “We were inspired by the research surrounding counterspeech and
how powerful it can be. In research that Twitter shared with us for the
report, we saw that social media users often use ridicule and humor to
drown out hate and we hope that this report will encourage others to do
the same.”
Ahussain wants
the White House to address such bigotry. “We recommend that the White
House convene a national-level dialogue on hate against religious
communities,” she says, “and invite Internet companies to participate in
discussions about how to address this issue.”
Recent events have proven the report’s relevance.
“Buddha didn’t
create us, Mohammed didn’t create us, it was the God of the Holy
Scriptures,” Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore is reported to have said in
remarks that leaked public in the past few days. “They didn’t bring the
Koran over on the pilgrim ship.”
And California
GOP gubernatorial candidate Tim Donnelly recently reposted on his
Twitter account an article accusing primary opponent Neel Kashkari of
assisting in the imposition of Shariah law when he was part of the
Treasury Department in the Bush Administration.
A new report
shows that ‘Islamophobia’ is metastasizing on the Internet. After
anti-Muslim sentiment crystallized in 2010 around the proposed Ground
Zero Victory Mosque in Manhattan, there’s been a sharp increase in such
feelings.
There’s Act! for America, led by Brigitte Gabriel,
who, the New York Times reports, “presents a portrait of Islam so
thoroughly bent on destruction and domination that it is unrecognizable
to those who study or practice the religion.” Her outfit claims to have roughly 875 chapters and 279,000 members nationwide. 
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