Perspective: Let’s Talk About All That Anti-Muslim Garbage In Your Newsfeeds | Christopher Mathias

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A recent report from the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, documented at least 260 hate crimes against Muslims in 2015

Times of Ahmad | News Watch | US desk
Source/Credit: The Huffington Post 
By Christopher Mathias | October 6, 2016

“Remember: An entire religion can’t be summed up in just one meme.”

As Donald Trump and other public figures have ratcheted up their anti-Muslim political speech this election cycle, you’ve probably noticed more and more posts in your Facebook and Twitter feeds that look like this.

The Columbia Journalism Review documented the “widespread” posting of such anti-Muslim memes over the last year, as well as the use of hashtags like #banislam, #killmuslims, #attackamosque, #bansharia and #islamisterror. Facebook and Twitter have become platforms where people who “actively believe in the extermination of Muslims... are not afraid to state their views in public,” according to the CJR report published last month.

And it’s not just your crazy ― but lovable ― uncle sharing these memes. It’s your school board chairwoman, your town council member, your postal worker and your state’s agricultural commissioner.

These memes would have you believe that the Quran compels Muslims to violence, that Muslims want to take over the U.S. and implement (gasp!) Sharia, that Islam hates women, and that all Arabs are Muslim and all Muslims are Arab.

In short, these posts are garbage.

And it’s precisely this kind of misinformed, misguided hate speech that can lead to crimes targeting Muslims because of their faith, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League.

The last two years have seen a steep rise in such crimes. A recent report from the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, documented at least 260 hate crimes against Muslims in 2015 ― a nearly 80 percent rise from the year before and the highest annual number of such crimes since 2001.

The Huffington Post has also documented over 260 instances of anti-Muslim violence, harassment, discrimination and political speech so far in 2016.


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