In our time and capacity combatting hate speech and extremism in the past few years, one thing has really stood out.
It isn’t hate speech during times when there is no conflict that is most concerning, although of course that remains utterly important.
No, what has proven to be horrific beyond measure is the vitriolic rhetoric and hate speech during times of war, particularly the horrors we are witnessing today. Hate speech during conflict has proven to be far more important to combat because some people have demonstrated tendencies to dehumanise human suffering and to dehumanise victims of war and terror.
Even as countless people die in Gaza, far-right, and anti-Arab extremists across the world and in Israel have celebrated the deaths of Palestinians — viewing them as “others” not worthy of humanity even in death.
This lack of compassion, this lack of intellectual capacity to distinguish between Hamas militants that committed atrocities on October 7 and Gaza’s innocent civilians has resulted in calls for the wholesale destruction, ethnic cleaning and deaths of people in Gaza — not just by extremists but also by people who prior to the war were not wholly familiar with the subject.
The same applies to extremists who have targeted Jews across the world for the actions of Israel in Gaza, conflating Judaism and Jewishness to Israel’s terrible war in Gaza. These extremists, some of them Islamists and some not, feed off the extremists belonging to the other side.
This war has regrettably amplified the inhumanity, hate, and lack of compassion by so many individuals — and unfortunately social media has acted as an echo chamber for many of these narratives.
He also named the Muslim Association of Britain, Cage and Muslim Engagement and Development (MEND) as organisations that "give rise to concern for their Islamist orientation and views" https://t.co/PSJ7NvpP9w
“The Torah does not allow you to let every soul live” “The terrorists of today are the children of the past.”
Rabbi Eliyahu Mali, head of a Jewish religious school in occupied Yafa, urged his IDF students during a lesson he gave on Friday to kill all Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, including infants, children, women, and the elderly.
When asked about what should be done to infants and the elderly, Mali simply answered: “The same.”
The UK government is creating a “blacklist” of organisations under a new definition of extremism which would see their funding cut.
Several Muslim groups are likely to be on the list after being singled out in government reports. https://t.co/5Bx2pInRrC
Some 21% of respondents in the three-day poll, which closed on Sunday, said "political extremism or threats to democracy" was the biggest problem facing the U.S., a share that was marginally higher than those who picked the economy (19%) &immigration (18%) https://t.co/qxKjJtxeXW
Welcome news that Türkiye has revoked the citizenship of Muslim Brotherhood’s Istanbul faction acting leader Mahmoud Hussein, along with 50 other MB officials.
https://t.co/YVr3wRKKcP
As two major neo-Nazi music concerts are set to take place in France and Italy over the coming weeks, @FightExtremism Senior Advisor @alexRitzmann warns that they function as “central networking hubs” for transnational extremism. https://t.co/4K8xH2KK9E
Another important election to watch out for:
“Monitoring efforts by Indonesia’s National Counterterrorism Agency reveal the dissemination of propaganda by groups such as the Daesh-linked Jamaah Ansharut Daulah and the former AQ affiliate Jemaah Islamiyah” https://t.co/KmUCsgOffV
The German people have made it clear that they will not tolerate far-right extremism in any form — legal or illegal — in their country. The moves by Germany to ban far-right political parties or classify them as extremist should be an example to all. https://t.co/omyONHaK90
“For over a decade, an ever-growing array of zealots advocating violence and sedition have been given practically free rein on social media platforms. With sometimes tragic consequences, they easily target some of society’s most vulnerable individuals”.
https://t.co/zYnwEsd2EM
Ethnocultural groups, most especially religious minority communities such as Jews and Muslims are sounding alarm bells over growing concern around hate-motivated crime and violence and anxieties around community safety. https://t.co/TUEKZHAGtJ
Germany's president called Monday for a broad “alliance against extremism” in the wake of a report about far-right discussions of deporting millions of immigrants that prompted protests by hundreds of thousands of people https://t.co/uU5k3DrZoA
A group of pro-Palestinian Orthodox Jews being told by an extremist lady that "Hitler should have put them in gas chambers", and that "they're going to hell".
Utterly vile and despicable!
🇵🇸🇮🇱 "Hitler made a big mistake, he should've put you all in the gas chambers, too bad."
Says a Zionist to Pro-Palestinian Jews.
https://t.co/27qKltinNK