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Religious hate on Facebook
By Rabbi Abraham Cooper
The tragedy of Tyler Clementi, a college student, who leapt to his death after his sexual encounter was broadcast online, is the latest example of the power of the virtual world wreaking havoc in the real world. Before committing suicide, he felt compelled to post a goodbye on Facebook.
We at the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Digital Terror and Hate Project track the darkest side of the Internet. In 1995, there was one "hate site." In 2010 we're tracking over 12,500 problematic websites, newsgroups, blogs, and increasingly Facebook and other social networks. Now parallel to the Jewish Holy Days, there has been a spike in virulent anti-Semitic Facebook pages, with over two- dozen titles like "Kill a Jew Year" and "Kill a Jew Day" this past week alone. Some originate from the US, others from abroad. Are they just words? In the real world, hateful words have consequences, with hate crimes against Jews and other minorities a brutal fact of life on both sides of the Atlantic. Also, consider that "Kill a Jew" campaign mimics last November's "Kick a Ginger Day," which resulted in numerous assaults against redheads.
The issue here is not only Facebook or YouTube, who meet with us frequently about these issues. They must do more to block haters who leverage social networks to launch serial bigotry against "the enemy," recruit and even fundraise. But the wider online community also must act. You can do more by sending us problematic links to ireport@wiesenthal.com
By Rabbi Abraham Cooper |
October 7, 2010; 12:23 PM ET
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Posted by: jparrott1908 | October 8, 2010 4:37 PM
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R. Cooper,
Let me be honest with you. Blogging and disseminating has its place, albeit limited.
The day that your Center does more than print, mail, and discuss, I will scrape together what I have and donate.
Get in touch when you have the next nationwide demonstration. Then I'll do more than toss your mailings.
Farnaz
Posted by: FarnazMansouri2 | October 7, 2010 11:46 PM
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Mark:
There's no reason for anything like "Kill a Jew Day."
But if Samuel Sheinbein is paroled in 2013 like he's eligible, I just might start "Victims of Israeli Killers Day."
_____________________________________
And victims of American killers day? Days?
Decades? Centuries? Millennia?
Jes' sayin'
Posted by: FarnazMansouri2 | October 7, 2010 11:45 PM
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There's no reason for anything like "Kill a Jew Day."
But if Samuel Sheinbein is paroled in 2013 like he's eligible, I just might start "Victims of Israeli Killers Day."
Posted by: WmarkW | October 7, 2010 9:24 PM
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There are numerous anti-Muslim facebook pages as well.