My welcoming back to the online world (after two days offline celebrating the Jewish Sabbath and festival of Shavuot) did not go exactly according to plan, as I was greeted with news of the barbaric terror attack in Orlando, which claimed the lives of 50 people and wounding over 50 more.
My initial reactions were of course of sadness and pain, thinking of the families and friends of the innocent victims of this murderous rampage.
There was also the anger and frustration at the propensity of so many to immediately try to distance such acts from the faith of the perpetrator, even going so far as to sympathize with his co-coreligionists almost as much as his victims! And while it is clear to me and all reasonable people that not all Muslims are vicious murderers (an offensive, patently false suggestion), there is a sizable number who are, fueled by a fundamentalist doctrine. I have dealt with this before, based on actual data taken from Pew Survey results.
I am comfortable admitting I am not knowledgeable enough about the Quran to know whether this represents strict doctrine of Islam – I suspect not, since I know plenty of devout Muslims who are appalled at this kind of act. But when you have potentially hundreds of millions of people worldwide who might be ok with it, then that is a huge worry.
What else is a huge worry are the types of reactions we are seeing from so many on social media.
At this time of this post, the below Facebook postings on the palestinian Shehab News have thousands of Likes and “Haha”s. As you can imagine, most of the comments are repulsive. Click on the posts to see for yourself (there is a See Translation option for all of them).
https://www.facebook.com/ShehabAgency.MainPage/posts/1422752017767214
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The following posts also have many Likes and “Haha”s:
https://www.facebook.com/ShehabAgency.MainPage/videos/1422756524433430/
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https://www.facebook.com/ShehabAgency.MainPage/videos/1422762374432845/
.
https://www.facebook.com/ShehabAgency.MainPage/posts/1422864344422648
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https://www.facebook.com/ShehabAgency.MainPage/photos/a.182662565109505.38264.179609608748134/1422905487751867/?type=3
.
https://www.facebook.com/ShehabAgency.MainPage/posts/1423009501074799
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https://www.facebook.com/ShehabAgency.MainPage/photos/a.182662565109505.38264.179609608748134/1423010311074718/?type=3
.
https://www.facebook.com/ShehabAgency.MainPage/videos/1423066794402403/
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Then there’s these tweets by antisemite and Holocaust denier Alison Chabloz, who has slipped into her default mode – conspiracy theory and antisemitism.
https://twitter.com/AJCTmusic/status/741956666460114944
https://twitter.com/AJCTmusic/status/741957177536045056
https://twitter.com/AJCTmusic/status/742099297014013953
https://twitter.com/AJCTmusic/status/742111530196598784
https://twitter.com/AJCTmusic/status/742113173503901696
https://twitter.com/AJCTmusic/status/742119026546118656
And she’s not alone with the Jew hatred.
https://twitter.com/ladybug_lady200/status/742013015088762882
https://twitter.com/FromSoDak/status/742221281714536448
https://twitter.com/mikelbtko/status/742196521656057856
https://twitter.com/Grimreaper8814/status/742060372895666177
https://twitter.com/baronvonjewham1/status/741993064290521088
https://twitter.com/N1K0LAK1/status/742202237326262272
Let’s not forget the Israel haters who are trying to appropriate the tragedy for their cause, or otherwise make offensive comparisons that do not exist.
https://twitter.com/lasharis21/status/742165524730286080
https://twitter.com/lasharis21/status/742164228589654016
https://twitter.com/arshakhan10/status/742153033023401984
https://twitter.com/RODAdoomy/status/742149380208107520
https://twitter.com/HinaShahAli/status/742146490617999360
https://twitter.com/ahmadaq_95/status/742097261748981760
https://twitter.com/arnaud_wnb/status/742022534426660865
As for those of us in Israel, we are with our brethren in Orlando.
