Today is International Day to Combat Islamophobia. As we have seen in the news, Islamophobia is a major problem around the world. Some of the more recent examples of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim bias have been the “pogrom” carried out by Israeli settlers in the Palestinian town of Huwara last month and the suggestion by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich that Huwara should be “wiped out” (1, 2). Sweden caused uproar in January when it gave far-right activist Rasmus Paludan permission to burn Quran. However, Sweden didn’t give permission to burn Torah, the holy book of Judaism. (3, 4) Controversial French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo seems to use every opportunity to insult Muslims – example of this was a cartoon mocking victims of the disastrous earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria (5).
Big Tech has had important role in spreading Islamophobia and anti-Muslim content. Last year Amnesty International published a report where it claimed that Facebook’s algorithms “proactively amplified” anti-Rohingya content and that Facebook’s parent company Meta “substantially contributed” to human rights violations perpetrated against Rohingya ethnic group in Myanmar (6). Report published by Islamic Council of Victoria (ICV) in Australia stated last year that nearly 86% of anti-Muslim posts on Twitter come from the USA, United Kingdom and India. The report noted that Twitter is “drastically failing at removing anti-Muslim content”. (7)
More information about the International Day to Combat Islamophobia:
https://www.un.org/en/observances/anti-islamophobia-day
References:
1) “Settler extremists are sowing terror, Huwara riot was a ‘pogrom,’ top general says” The Times of Israel 28.2.2023
2) “Far-right Israeli minister Smotrich claims his ‘wipe out Hawara’ comment was not a military order” The New Arab 9.3.2023
https://www.newarab.com/news/smotrich-backtracks-again-his-wipe-out-hawara-comment
3) “‘Over 1.5 billion Muslims hurt’: Reaction to Quran desecration in Sweden” TRT World 21.1.2023
4) “Man prevented from desecrating Torah outside Israeli embassy in Sweden despite Quran burning incidents” The New Arab 28.1.2023
https://www.newarab.com/news/torah-burning-sweden-stopped-despite-quran-desecration
5) “The banality of evil: Charlie Hebdo mocks Türkiye quake victims” TRT World 7.2.2023
6) “Meta’s Facebook Algorithms ‘Proactively’ Promoted Violence Against the Rohingya, New Amnesty International Report Asserts” Time 28.9.2022
https://time.com/6217730/myanmar-meta-rohingya-facebook/
7) “Majority of anti-Muslim Twitter posts come from US, UK and India” Middle East Eye 19.9.2022
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/majority-anti-muslim-twitter-posts-come-us-uk-india
IDIS Observer 