al-Qaida-linked Tavbid wal-Jihad kidnap Italian

Italian human rights activist was kidnapped in the Gaza Strip by the al-Qaida-linked radical terrorist group Tawhid wal-Jihad, the group announced on Thursday.

From Sky News photo
The radical Islamist terror organization Tawhid wal-Jihad announced on Thursday that it has kidnapped an Italian human rights activist in the Gaza Strip, Israel Radio reported.

According to sources in the Strip, Victorio Larginoni arrived on one of the first flotillas to Gaza several years ago and has been living there since, according to the report.

In a video released by the group, the captive can be seen blindfolded with his hands tied. Tawhid made an ultimatum to Hamas that if it doesn't release one of its senior members by 5 p.m. Friday, that it will execute the Italian national, Israel Radio reported.


The ISM admitted that he is one of theirs.

His name is spelled Vittorio Arrigoni, and his anti-Israel articles are all over the Internet, mostly in Italian.

UPDATE: Here's the video (h/t Israellycool)


UPDATE 2: Here's a blog post where our prisoner complains that the French Foreign Minister expressed solidarity with Gilad Shalit. You know, the other person being held prisoner in Gaza, one that Vittorio did not have much sympathy for.

He signs off that post with "Stay human and angry!"


It sounds like his kidnappers are taking the second half of that statement quite seriously.

His Facebook page has lots of vile anti-Israel photos.

UPDATE 3: He was found dead.
Elder of Ziyon

You Too Can Improve the Image of Israel

It is no secret that Israel has a severe problem with hasbara. Over the past forty years, the Jewish state has been slowly but surely been transformed in the public eye from a tiny nation proudly defending itself from annihilation into a state that is perceived as an oppressor, a human rights violator, and – to many of its detractors – to one of the most evil regimes on the planet.

Most Zionists who follow the news know how absurd these characterizations are. We also know that Israel is, to put it charitably, inconsistent in getting its message across properly to the world. Everyone complains about it, and everyone has their own ideas on how to fix it – but very few people are actually doing anything about it themselves.

This is a shame, because everyone who is reading this article can help Israel, starting today.

I have a pro-Israel blog, Elder of Ziyon. I have written thousands of articles about Israel and the Arab world over the past six years, and I get a fair number of readers. Lately, I have been using my blog as a laboratory to test out different ways of getting the message across. I can track the number of readers for any particular post, how many times people “tweet” the post and how many link to it on Facebook and other social media sites. Using these methods I can see what works and what doesn’t. The lessons are valuable not only to bloggers but to everyone who cares about helping Israel.

One problem that we Jews have is that we are too logical. Thousands of years of studying Gemara may have made us good at arguing, but it also convinced us that anyone can be swayed by a good argument. So we happily read and write long texts explaining why the “settlements” are legal, why US Resolution 242 does not imply that Israel must stay within the Green Line, and why a blockade of Gaza does not flout international law.

Our enemies, on the other hand, spend their time reaching people on an emotional level. They show photos and videos of crowded camps, of bombed out buildings, of old women crying.

In the real world, the emotional argument wins.

As much as we like to pretend that everyone shares the Jewish love for an innovative and logical thought process, in reality people usually make up their minds about Israel (and everything else) based on their gut. If a person who is not already emotionally invested in the argument one way or the other sees a tear-jerking film that pushes one side of the story, nine times out of ten that person will instinctively gravitate towards the side that pulled at his or her heartstrings.

We need to prioritize our emotional arguments. We need to talk about our deep connection to the land of Israel. We need to emphasize how we have cried every year over the destruction of the Temples. We need to show the human toll that would result from hundreds of thousands of Jews who the world wants to uproot from their homes. We need to describe the pain that would result from losing Har HaZeitim again, and what happened to it during those tragic 19 years that Arabs had control.

Not only is our emotional connection to the Land far deeper than anyone else’s, but no one can argue against love and fear. Emotions are our most potent weapon, but one that we are ceding almost completely to those who hate Israel. We know that we are right from a legal, historical and moral perspective – but we need to humanize the message.

It is not only the message that must hit emotional chords – but also the media that the message is communicated in. People respond to messages that are visceral, and that hit all of their senses. Powerpoints, posters, songs, poetry, film, novels, plays, even cuisine - all need to be employed to impact people on every possible level. Text alone generally does not have the same impact as more visual media.

On the Internet, the goal is to create something that will “go viral” – that ordinary people will see and want to forward to their friends. Videos do better than written articles, and humor is possibly the biggest weapon of all. Most of us have seen Latma’s “We Con the World” video created last year, and it was hugely effective with millions of views on YouTube. Why? Because it was funny, timely, and visceral.

While defending Israel is important, it is vital to go on the offensive. No one wins any games by only playing defense. The fact is that every accusation made against Israel – true or false – can be made much more plausibly and effectively against Israel’s neighbors and enemies. Attack the abysmal human rights records of the Arabs themselves. Publicize how nearly every Arab country has laws that specifically deny citizenship to Palestinians alone.

Arab nations constantly attack Israel to distract their people from their own human rights violations. The recent riots in Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Bahrain, Yemen Egypt and Jordan – and the deadly police responses – prove that Israel is not the problem in the Middle East, not by a long shot. The Arab and Islamic dictatorships, where there is no freedom of expression or of the press, are the ones who need to be put on the defensive.

Beyond that, we need to publicize the good things that come out of Israel every day. Art, dance, fiction, scientific achievements, medical advances – we know it is amazing, but the world doesn't get to see these parts of the country.

So how can you, personally, help?

There are two basic ways to help: by creating pro-Israel content, and by publicizing the best content that is made by others.

For those who have the ability, creativity and time, by far the best thing to do is to apply the concepts of emotional and visceral media to the creation of pro-Israel videos, songs or song parodies, articles, comics, or even video-games and phone apps. One of my readers says that a good romance novel with a strong, masculine Zionist protagonist could do wonders to change Israel's image among those that read them.

Challenge yourself to distill a pro-Israel argument into a 140-character tweet (or even a bumper sticker.) Think outside the box and use your talents! Then send your efforts to popular Zionist websites to get publicized.

Think of ways that Zionist messages can be made available to the world. Do you have interesting video of your last visit to Israel that shows a side of the country that the news media ignores? Upload it to YouTube!

Once one of my readers sent me a photo taken in the Rami Levy supermarket in Gush Etzion, showing a smiling religious Jew joking with an Arab woman. I put it on my blog, to show how life really looks in Judea and Samaria, and a number of European websites picked up the story. A simple thing like that humanizes the “settlers” that the world regards as faceless, evil creatures.

Are you going to a fundraising dinner with a terrific speaker? Take video of the speech and upload it to YouTube. I did this with a speech by Mike Huckabee and thousands of people viewed it – people who would never have even known about it otherwise.

Don’t just write letters to the editor of a local paper – post them on the Internet, too. Make sure that everything you write remains somewhere permanent on the web so that search engines can find it. Put them on a blog (easy to set up) or email them to influential sites, so your points can be seen by many more people.
Elder of Ziyon

Facebook Shuts Down Third Intifada Page

Breaking News: Facebook Shuts Down Third Intifada Group Honest Reporting, Alex Margolin

Despite previous statements saying they would monitor but not remove the controversial Facebook group calling for a Third Intifada, Facebook administrators shut down the group early Tuesday morning in response to enormous pressure from pro-Israel activists. All links to the group now go to users personal Facebook profile.

The group had been calling for a march on Israel to “liberate” Palestine beginning on May 15. It remains to be seen how Facebook will respond if similar groups emerge with similar message of a Third Intifada.

New media expert Andre Oboler, one of the first to discover the group was down, told HonestReporting that Facebook made the correct decision shutting down the group. “It’s about time,” he said. “Facebook needs to learn to distinguish between the right to ‘attack’ conceptual ideas, and the ‘wrong’ of attacking people be it because of their race, religion, nationality or political view. When they start to understand that, perhaps they will stop making so many mistakes.”

See our previous post on the issue for background on the issue.

Pam Geller

Hating Israel on Facebook

If we started a Facebook page calling for death to Arabs or Muslims, how long do you think it would last?

Let me give you an idea: When this video of the Fogel family massacre in Itamar was posted on Facebook and YouTube, it was down within three hours.

Can you say "double standard"?

Labels: anti-Israel media bias, Facebook, Fogel family massacre, Itamar, YouTube

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:35 PM

Is Syria Next?

Is Syria the next Arab domino to go? Syrian activists have been using Facebook to call for a 'day of rage' against the Assad regime on Saturday, February 5.

In the past week, Syrian activists have been using Facebook to call for mass protests in Syria on Saturday, February 5, 2011, dubbing it the "Day of Rage." In Facebook pages created specifically for this purpose, members have called on the Syrian public to take to the streets on that date and stage peaceful demonstrations and rallies in all parts of the country, as well as in front of Syrian embassies in Arab and European capitals, in protest of the oppressive Syrian regime. These Facebook pages also feature images and videos slamming Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and supporting protest against his rule.

The organizers of the Syrian protests have expressed support for the demonstrators in Tunisia and Egypt, and have adopted their methods:[1] opening special Facebook pages on which information is posted regarding the place and time of the planned protests, and creating a special profile picture, associated with the protests, to be used by all Facebook members sympathizing with the cause. However, it seems that the scope of their activity is limited compared to that of the Tunisian and Egyptian activists. So far, the number of people who have registered as members on these Facebook pages is relatively small, and some of the members reside outside the country.

Among those promoting the "Day of Rage" protests is the Independent Islamic Bloc – part of the "Damascus Declaration" opposition movement – which has called upon Syrians to attend a "sweeping protest and mass rally" in front of the Parliament house in Damascus on February 5. In its announcement, the organization praised the protests in Tunisia and Egypt and warned the Syrian regime against continuing its oppression, corruption and political arrests.[2] Websites have also published a message by "the Popular Committees in Aleppo Province" announcing a February 5 protest rally in the center of Aleppo, the second largest city in Syria.[3]

The organizers of the planned demonstrations in Damascus and Aleppo have listed their demands: an improvement in living standards, respect for human rights, freedom of speech for all Syrian citizens, and greater influence for Syrian youth. They requested that the protesters come equipped with nothing more than Syrian flags and signs expressing their demands.[4]

Syria is on the alert for the possible spread of protests to its territory. On January 29, 2011, the Syrian authorities prevented the holding of a demonstration in solidarity with the Egyptian protesters in front of the Egyptian embassy in Damascus, fearing a conflagration.[5] It was also reported that Syrian security chief 'Ali Mamlouk has met with province governors and police commanders in order to prepare for possible protests in the country.[6]

There are conflicting reports regarding the accessibility of Facebook, which has played a crucial role in mobilizing the public for the current wave of protests in the Arab world. According to a January 25, 2011 report on Alarabiya.net, the Syrian authorities have restricted access to Facebook in a bid to keep the protests from spreading to Syria, but some users are managing to access the site through proxies. [7] The Syrian news agency SANA has denied this, saying that access to the Internet is unrestricted throughout the country.[8]

Read the whole thing. The problem is that Assad is liable to just gas them all.

Labels: Bashar al-Assad, Facebook, Politics, Syrian regime change, World Politics

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:32 AM

Palestinian Faces Prison for Facebook Comments

Obama just sent these cavemen nother 150 million dollars was cutting off Israel's oxygen. Appalling.This Palestinaian blogger needs by bus ad.

Palestinian held for Facebook criticism of Islam Y Net News

[...]

The case of the unlikely apostate, a shy barber from the West Bank town of Qalqilya, is highlighting the limits of tolerance in the Western-backed Palestinian Authority – and illustrating a new trend by authorities in the Arab world to mine social media for evidence.

Residents of Qalqilya say they had no idea that Walid Husayin – the 26-year-old son of a Muslim scholar – was leading a double life.

Now, Husayin faces a potential life prison sentence on heresy charges for "insulting the divine essence." Many in this conservative Muslim town say he should be killed for renouncing Islam, and even family members say he should remain behind bars for life.

"He should be burned to death," said Abdul-Latif Dahoud, a 35-year-old Qalqilya resident. The execution should take place in public "to be an example to others," he added.
[...]

His Facebook groups elicited hundreds of angry comments, detailed death threats and the formation of more than a dozen Facebook groups against him, including once called "Fight the blasphemer who said 'I am God.'"

Husayin is the first to be arrested in the West Bank for his religious views, said Tayseer Tamimi, the former chief Islamic judge in the area.

The Western-backed Palestinian Authority is among the more religiously liberal Arab governments in the region. It is dominated by secular elites and has frequently cracked down on hardline Muslims and activists connected to its conservative Islamic rival, Hamas.

[...]
Caught by café owner

Husayin used a fake name on his English and Arabic-language blogs and Facebook pages. After his mother discovered articles on atheism on his computer, she canceled his Internet connection in hopes that he would change his mind.

Instead, he began going to an Internet cafe – a move that turned out to be a costly mistake. The owner, Ahmed Abu-Asal, said the blogger aroused suspicion by spending up to seven hours a day in a corner booth. After several months, a cafe worker supplied captured snapshots of his Facebook pages to Palestinian intelligence officials.

Officials monitored him for several weeks and then arrested him on October 31 as he sat in the cafe, said Abu-Asal.

Husayin's family has been devastated by the arrest. On a recent day, his father stood sadly in the family barber shop, cluttered with colorful towels and posters of men in outdated haircuts. He requested that a reporter not write about his son to avoid being publicly shamed.

Two cousins attributed the writings to depression, saying Husayin was desperate to find better work. Requesting anonymity because of the shame the incident, they said Husayin's mother wants him to remain in prison for life – both to restore the family's honor and to protect him from vigilantes.
Hamas 'stalks' Facebook pages

Gaza's Hamas rulers stalk Facebook pages of suspected dissenters, said Palestinian rights activist Mustafa Ibrahim. He said Internet cafe owners are forced to monitor customers' online activity, and alert intelligence officials if they see anything critical of the militant group or that violates Hamas' stern interpretation of Islam.

Both governments also create fake Facebook profiles to befriend and monitor known dissidents, activists said. Such "stalking" on Facebook and other social media sites has become increasingly common in the Arab world. In Lebanon, four people were arrested over the summer and accused of slandering President Michel Suleiman on Facebook. All have been released on bail.

In neighboring Syria, Facebook is blocked altogether. And in Egypt, a blogger was charged with atheism in 2007 after intelligence officials monitored his posts.

[...]

He could face a life sentence if he's found guilty, depending on how harshly the judge thinks he attacked Islam and how widely his views were broadcast, said Islamic scholar Tamimi.

Even so, a small minority has questioned whether the government went too far.

Zainab Rashid, a liberal Palestinian commentator, wrote in an online opinion piece that Husayin has made an important point: "that criticizing religious texts for their (intellectual) weakness can only be combatted by ... oppression, prison and execution."

He sounds like our "liberals."
Atlas Shrugs

Obama's "Peace Partner's" Chilling Hunt, Slaughter of Med Aid Group Suspected of Christianity But Spares Muslim Driver -- Pak-trained killers 'used Fa

Obama's "Peace Partner's" Chilling Hunt, Slaughter of Med Aid Group Suspected of Christianity But Spares Muslim Driver -- Pak-trained killers 'used Facebook
This story in today's NY post is so brutal and savage, your blood will run cold. It did mine and I cannot recover myself.

This group of medical aid workers traveling in the what was considered one of the safest provinces in Afghanistan before this massacre (even billed as a future tourist spot for adventuring travelers) were tracked and murdered because the "perceived sin" of preaching Christianity.

The devout Muslim Taliban spared the driver, who dropped to his knees and recited from Koran.

"The group denied it was doing anything but rendering medical aid to the needy." But so what if they were? What kind of evil is advancing in the face of the West's cowardice?

Nothing will be done. The UN will say nothing. Free men will keep silent. Those who denounce, report or criticize such savagery are "Islamophobes" and "bigots."

Worse still, Obama is negotiating with the Taliban, his would-be peace partner. Sick. During the campaign Obama declared that Afghanistan was the war that should be fought. Iraq was the wrong war (though now he is clucking that Iraq is a feather in his cap). Obama promised he would defeat the enemy in Afghanistan. Who knew he meant by partnering with them.

Taliban's chilling hunt & slaughter Pak-trained killers 'used Facebook' to track aid group

"What's going on?"

Upstate optometrist Tom Little, 62, reportedly shouted his final words as Taliban fighters, faces covered by scarves and bodies wrapped in blankets, rushed at him and nine other charity workers.

In an account of the terrorist atrocity, the Sunday Times of London reported that the small group, led by Little, had just stopped their all-terrain vehicles after navigating a river that had washed out part of the dirt track they'd followed in Afghanistan's remote Badakhshan province.

Little, a father of three from Delmar, outside Albany, yelled his last words as the 10 masked thugs began shooting in the air.

His answer was a blow from the butt of an AK-47 -- and a bullet to the gut.

In a terrible twist, the sole survivor of the attack, driver Safiullah, said that one of the gunmen was part of a group of three that the convoy had offered to drive through the rugged terrain.

Two women with Little made a desperate bid to escape by climbing into a nearby ATV. But a Taliban goon calmly lobbed a hand grenade into the vehicle, killing them both, the newspaper reported.

The account also revealed that British aid worker Karen Woo was lashed across the face by a gunman wielding a Kalashnikov. She fell face-first onto the stony track, and the gunman shot her twice in the back.

The team's cook was fatally shot as he hid beneath an ATV.

One by one, the entire team -- Little, Woo, five other Americans, one German and two Afghans -- were wiped out.

Only their driver, who fell to his knees and recited from the Koran, was spared.

"God was good to me," Safiullah told the AP in his first interview since being released.

No, he was spared because he was a Muslim.

When the slaughter was over, one of the Taliban killers spoke Urdu into his radio.

"Mission accomplished," he coldly declared.

When news of the brutal Aug. 5 killing surfaced, the Afghanistan government initially blamed rogue bandits. But now authorities believe the deaths were anything but random, the newspaper reported.

Testimony from Safiullah has convinced Afghan officials that Little and his group were tracked and executed for the perceived sin of preaching Christianity, the paper said.

"They had made a plan," said the survivor, who suggested that the attackers may have also been after their satellite phones. "It was a very organized group."

"If it's 100 years later and I see them, I'll know them."

Little and the others were part of the Christian charity International Assistance Mission, which has denied the group was doing anything but rendering medical aid to the needy.

They day the group was ambushed, the medical workers were returning from a 120-mile trek on foot and horseback to treat villagers in the remote Nuristan region.

Intelligence sources told The Sunday Times it appears the Taliban tracked the medical team for days. Other intelligence sources said the group's Facebook page may have alerted the Taliban to the trekkers' intentions before they had reached Nuristan.

"It appears the doctors were followed across the mountain passes between Nuristan and Badakhshan by the Taliban. The information we have suggests that this was a targeted killing," an Afghan security service agent told the paper.

Some of the killers had been trained in Pakistan, police told the newspaper.

In crossing Badakhshan, Little and his other aid workers had no idea they were walking into an area rife with Taliban.

Will England Fall to the Global Jihad?

English Defense League Jewish Division Deleted From Facebook

Facebook continues to stupefy good, decent people and work with the forces of evil. Last week I reported on and was proud to be a supporter of the EDL Jewish Division on Facebook.

Facebook, for no reason and without notice, deleted the group.

Roberta and Shoshanna tell me they are starting it up again. Please join. Fight these quislings everywhere.

We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I will say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be ..... Winston Churchill.

Breitbart isn't Alone

Here's the original post on his own blog in which he launched his campaign:

His words and instructions:
Some insane woman from Alaska is ranting on Facebook about how an Islamic community center built near Ground Zero would be a “stab in the heart of the families of the victims.”
Quite frankly, she’s being a racist loon.
Go report her post on Facebook for being “Racist/Hate Speech” to the admins. Let’s see if Mark Zuckerberg has any balls left.
Update: Oh, hey. If you’re on Tumblr, reblog me!

Once exposed, this dishonest fraud twittered:

This is not really about ‘refudiating’ Sarah Palin. It was a social experiment to explore the boundaries of Facebook’s government-like Terms and Conditions and the power of the Tumblr community.

Free speech on the internet is still a work-in-progress.

And yes, I started it. But Tumblr launched it.

Brian the beast is lying when he claims that it was simply "an experiment to see where the lines are drawn."

UPDATE: Why is this page still up? Where is the left barbarians?

Freedom of [Hate] Speech

As with any social networking site that is free and accessible to millions of people worldwide you are bound to have issues and therefore many rules as well. According to the Facebook “Terms” last updated April 22, 2010:

“Safety”

6- You will not bully, intimidate, or harass any user.

7- You will not post content that: is hateful, threatening, or pornographic; incites violence; or contains nudity or graphic or gratuitous violence.

10- You will not use Facebook to do anything unlawful, misleading, malicious, or discriminatory.

How well is Facebook enforcing the Pages that blatantly break these rules?

There are 282 pages on Facebook of pages with the name “F*** Israel!”, or “F*** you Israel!” Some of these pages have over 30,000 members. I know that they have been reported because I had hundreds, if not thousands, of associates and their colleagues report these pages on several occasions since January.

Samplings of posts from some of these pages are vile to say the least (beware of clicking the links on account of foul language):

F*** Israel Page:

you F***in jew! do you wanna die or what? i am gonna make soap from you! from all jews! sieg heil!!!!!

F*** Jews Page:

Simona Liukenskiene: yup, kill them all \m/

Matt Kliethermes: Hey Simona my band has a song called Dead Jews Do No wrong

F*** You Israel Page, discussing Hitler:

Kamal Saba god rest his soul he is our man for burning and grilling the jews

Kamal Saba soon hes coming back to grill netenyaho and companyyyyyy hahahahah

And then there are those whose Page name says it all: Why didn't Hitler get Tactical Nuke first? He had a 6 million kill-streak.

Among the full page of various rules and regulations it is explained that Facebook can, of course, close your account at any time for the breach of any of these rules:

“Termination

If you violate the letter or spirit of this Statement, or otherwise create risk or possible legal exposure for us, we can stop providing all or part of Facebook to you. We will notify you by email or at the next time you attempt to access your account. You may also delete your account or disable your application at any time.”

One way, and undoubtedly the most commonly used way of having Facebook shut down a page is by sending a notification from your Facebook page to the Facebook Administrators. The problem with this is: the amount of people that send in notifications just because they don’t like what someone posted, even if it doesn’t break the rules.

From any page you can click on “Report Page” which then loads a drop down box of the following:

Nudity or Pornography

Impersonating me or someone I know

Racist/Hate speech

Targets me or a friend

Direct call for violence

Excessive gore or violent content

Spam

I personally know of over a dozen people who have had their Facebook pages removed due to a complaint by another Facebook user, and they had to fight to get it back. In some cases they were never able to get back their page.

In each and every case I know of, the person was accused of “Racist/Hate speech” because they said one or more things that offended a Muslim. Never, in any of these cases did anyone call for, hint or advocate violence of any kind towards any individual, group or religion. Every one of these cases people had stated things about terrorism, Islamic law (Sharia) and the Quran. I read the posts that caused these pages to be removed by Facebook and in every single instance, the statements were factual. At no time was anything personally derogatory either said or implied.

What started as a way for people to connect and re-connect with other people has become a place for everything from “Fan Pages” to “instant messaging” to “blogging” to instant news, politics and ultimately, even “cyber bullying” that ended in suicide.

In February 2004 Mark Zuckerberg was a sophomore at Harvard and started a website that was exclusive to Harvard students. The new idea that he started with three of his fellow students Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes and Eduardo Saverin was known as Facebook.

The original idea for Facebook was actually something borrowed from Zuckerberg's prep school Phillips Exeter Academy, which for years had published a manual of all students and faculty, unofficially called the "face book". In June of 2008 Facebook surpassed MySpace as World's Most Popular Social Network and in February of this year Facebook membership reached over 400 million people.

Now, according to NBC News from July 14, 2010, “Facebook has a new PR issue on its hands”:

“Apparently, it’s made as many as 2.5 million customers mad enough to threaten a boycott.

The group claims to represent Muslims who are mad about the removal of four Facebook pages.

These are the pages no longer available on the site:

Facebook.com/Rassoul.Allaah

Facebook.com/Logo.Ramadan

LikesFacebook.com/I.Love.Mohammed

Facebook.com/Quran.Lovers

They go on to list their demands:

1. Reactivating the four pages that have been disabled.
2. Adding a Facebook Term that illegalizes disrespecting all Islamic religious symbols, including Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) and the Qur'an, as well as Prophet Moses (PBUH), Prophet Jesus (PBUH), and the original Bible.
3. Disabling any Facebook Page, Group, or Event that shows direct or indirect disrespect towards Islamic religious symbols.

The deadline is a week from today. The group claims it has hundreds of thousands of users who are ready to jump ship to another site called madina.com, which is an “Islamic social networking site.”

Wait, let me get this straight… Make it “illegal to disrespect all Islamic symbols” as well as “Disabling any Facebook Page, Group, or Event that shows direct or indirect disrespect towards Islamic religious symbols”?

What about the over 300 Pages calling for the death and destruction of Israel, Jews, Christians and America?

Most of the hate posts on these pages are in Arabic which is easily translated, but some of the English posts on these pages call for “Death to Israel”, “Death to Jews”, “Finish what Hitler started”, They call all Jews “Pigs and monkeys”, etc. The profile pictures on these pages have everything from the Israeli flag in flames as well as the American and Israeli flags burning to Israeli flags with a swastika in place of the Jewish Star.

When it comes to Islam, we know how easily offense is taken. Pakistan shut down Facebook for 11 days back in May 20, 2010. Yes, Pakistan, as in the whole country, in protest against “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day” on Facebook. According to “Inside Facebook”, an independent service of Inside Network, the first company dedicated to providing news and market research to the Facebook platform:

“Pakistani judges ruled to ban Facebook in the country Wednesday in anticipation of May 20, which a Facebook Page had claimed would be “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day.” The ban began Wednesday evening and is to be in effect at least until the end of the month. Tuesday the Page had about 42,000 fans and it’s since almost doubled to about 82,000; there are also countless imitation Pages and dozens upon dozens of opposition Pages.”

Bangladesh also banned Facebook from May 29, 2010 until June 8^th for the same reason – “Draw Mohammed Day”. A report from Asia News.it stated:

“Facebook is again accessible in Bangladesh after “offensive” cartoons were removed. The famous online social network was blocked on 29 May after the publication of cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad was deemed offensive to the religious sentiments of the Muslim majority of the population. In Bangladesh, Muslims represent 90 per cent of the population.”

Okay, so the “Draw Mohammed Day” was found to be offensive by Muslims. We all know what happened after the Danish Cartoons of Mohammed came out on September 30, 2005.

But here is the pot calling the kettle black; one of the “demands” as mentioned in the NBC story above is: “Reactivating the four pages that have been disabled”. Two of the page names on the list, Rassoul Allaah and Quran Lovers are both listed on the “info” portion page of the most popular “F*** Israel” page. I guess it’s okay to call for the death of Israel and the Jews, but “don’t disrespect Islamic religious symbols”.

There is really no surprise here. Radical Muslims and even Islam as a whole have always been hypocrites when it comes to freedom of speech. They can say whatever they want about Jews, Israel, America or Christianity. Say one thing about Mohammed and there will be a “Fatwa” on your head, calling for your death, faster than Ahmadinejad can deny the Holocaust.

As explained by “The Religion of Peace” website:

“The Quran contains at least 109 verses that call Muslims to war with nonbelievers. Some are quite graphic, with commands to chop off heads and fingers and kill infidels wherever they may be hiding. Muslims who do not join the fight are called 'hypocrites' and warned that Allah will send them to Hell if they do not join the slaughter.”

According to the website “Secrets of Quran miracles” by Abduldaem Al-Kaheel where he wrote about the “mocking” of Mohammed he asks the question:

“Praise to Allah! How dare they, mocking Muhammad (peace be upon him), the greatest creature of Allah?”

Later in the same article he answers the question:

“But let's first read what Allah says about these mockers, God says in the Holy Quran:

Lo! those who malign Allah and his messenger, Allah hath cursed them in the world and the Hereafter, and hath prepared for them the doom of the disdained* and those who malign believing men and believing women undeservedly, they bear the guilt of slander and manifest sin. {Al-Ahzab: 57-58}.

These drawings are bad deeds to Allah, mockery of his messenger causes harm for every believing man and woman. So, we warn them of a painful punishment if they do not desist.”

Facebook has its hands full and I understand that, there are many other pages here that I have yet to mention from the KKK and White Supremacist groups to one page by the name of “F*** Palestine”. Yes, there is only page by that name as opposed to the 282 pages by the similar name with Israel.

Does Facebook actually believe that they may lose 2.5 million Muslim members if these demands are not met? For that matter, do they really care when these same people are calling for the death of Israelis, Americans, Jews, Christians and even other Muslims on a daily basis?

Not a day goes by without a terror attack in the name of Islam. At the time of this writing there had been only 2,973 days since 9/11/01, yet there have been 15,678 deadly terrorist attacks all in the name of Islam since 9/11/01. This past week alone there were 40 attacks with 276 killed and 595 critically injured.

At what point do we stop this politically correct madness and draw the line between freedom of speech and hate speech? At what point do we look at what culture or group is asking us to never say anything negative about them, their so-called religion or their Prophet while all the while they spew their hate, celebrate and call for death of others?

It is near impossible to “police” the internet and certainly Facebook cannot control over 400 million pages. As Pakistan and Bangladesh have shown, it is just easier to shut an entire site down rather than trying to pick and choose.

Facebook is a free site and anyone who finds anything offensive has the same rights as everyone else, Muslim or otherwise. I only hope that those threatening to leave if “their” demands are not met do what any one of us can do, stop using it and click the little “X” in the top right corner of the page.

Trust me; your hate speech will not be missed.
Gabi Adelman, Family Matters

Hate and Slander from Facebook

Fan photos from DEAR LORD, THIS YEAR YOU TOOK MY FAVORITE ACTOR, PATRICK SWAYZIE. YOU TOOK MY FAVORITE ACTRESS, FARAH FAWCETT. YOU TOOK MY FAVORITE SINGER, MICHAEL JACKSON. I JUST WANTED TO LET YOU KNOW, MY FAVORITE PRESIDENT IS BARACK OBAMA. AMEN