Perhaps I’m being overly simplistic, but I sense, as a result of the ability to communicate quickly, to form ‘mobs’ quickly and to voice our opinions we have lost some of our ability to reason. As a result, I feel (just my opinion) that far too many are migrating into a society of ‘cyber lynch mobs’. What drives this is perhaps fear, the feeling of helplessness (we hear a lot about that these days), maybe even ignorance and maybe simply the desire to ‘shout’ about something; the reactionary cause.
I’ve written before about our selective rage. Something will hit a headline and because it’s about a group the ‘mob’ are currently targeting the ‘internet’ goes into melt down. The kidnapping of the girls in Nigeria is a very good point in case. Social media users, celebrities and even a President’s wife were tweeting about the plight of these poor girls the hashtag #bringhomeourgirls was trending for days. As always however and despite the fact that most of the girls are still in captivity, not a word is uttered now. The reactionary cause ’mob’ moved on.
There was meltdown when ISIS was accused of issuing a fatwa that all women and girls were to be subjected to FGM. I can understand that. FGM can be a brutal practice and much like male circumcision it is an invasion of a person body most often without their consent. As it turned out, the ISIS story appears to have been a fake, thankfully. Every time the word FGM and Muslim comes up we get a similar reaction. It’s largely kneejerk. There’s a lot of ignorance about this subject but that another story.
After the preamble I’ll get to the point of this story. The situation in Gaza has polarised large parts of our global community. We have the pro-Israel ‘mobs’ the pro-Palestinian ‘mobs’ and those of us in the middle we only want to see the slaughter of innocent people stop. One of the demands of the ‘lynch mobs’ is that non-violent anti-terrorist Muslims need to speak up. Absolutely right, they do. The interesting thing is many do exactly that. However, few get credit or even acknowledgement.
I did a little test last week. I posted four articles where very influential Muslim groups over the past week had condemned terrorist groups. They also condemned the attacks on Christians in Iraq and elsewhere. In one case they called for the ‘reconstruct of contexts’ that breeds extremists group. In other words extremists who take written text and present that in such a way that is anti to the true meaning to promote their vile cause and to suppress. So who were these groups; they were senior Muslim religious leaders in Asia including Indonesia (the country with the largest Muslim population) and more importantly the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). The OIC is the second largest inter-governmental group after the UN. It has a membership of 57 states spread over four continents. In essence, the collective voice of the Muslim world. These are not back yard Imams they are very senior Muslim leaders.
So I posted the articles on twitter with the message to those who are critical of Muslim leaders for not speaking up and condemning acts of violence that here’s ‘hot off the press’ articles that prove they do. I pondered if people would bother reading the articles and if they would help spread the message by retweeting. To be honest, I wasn’t that surprised with the result. Three people retweeted. One person suggested everyone was lying; the usual it’s taqiyya (another indication of ignorance in taking a text and twisting it to suit the agenda). So it became fairly obvious that those shouting and demanding certain actions in fact are not really interested in proof their demands are being met. It’s simply ‘the cyber lynch mob’ and their cause. They are rarely concerned with facts in fact they just ignore them.
We have every right to be concerned about threats that come from global terrorists groups, be they Muslims, Buddhists or Christians. In our country, the possibility of the threat coming from Buddhists (as happens in Burma and Sir Lanka) or Christians (as happens in CAR) is remote; our more immediate threat is from fundamentalists Muslims. We have every right to be vocal about our concerns (I would hope in a constructive manner). I also think that is all the more reason to work with and to support those Muslims who have the courage to speak up and who share the same concerns we do? We won’t win the battle on our own unless we want to turn into the ME and start killing each other regardless of whom or what they are. That is too horrific to even contemplate. And we certainly won’t win the battle in forming quick draw ‘cyber lynch mobs’. We have to be smarter and more inclusive than that.
I expect I’ll be swamped with a rush of twitter ‘unfollows’ as a result of this article. And, no doubt I’ll cop my share of attack; I can just see the ‘you are raving leftie’ (which I’m not) ‘you’re a traitor’ (I’ve already copped that one)’you’re a Muslim sympathiser’ (which I’m not). If that happens it happens.
I made a commitment to speak my truth and to endeavour to be fair. I accept in putting pen to paper I’ll be perceived as attacking ‘my kind’. It’s just that I’ve been so shocked by the viciousness over the past couple of weeks that I’ve ‘heard’ on social media from ordinary people I felt compelled to say something; to share my concern. Which brings me back to my question; when did ordinary people become so vicious. Perhaps ‘we’ always were and now ‘we’ have the forum say what we really think and remain anonymous in doing so. Maybe it's just we react first and we think about it later. Maybe it is fear. Or maybe it's just that we have to hate something to make ourselves feel better. Maybe it is after all ignorance. I'm really no clearer but I feel a lot better having committed my thoughts to paper.
Martin Luther King, Jr. once said “I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality....I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.”
For what it is worth, I share that view.
