Opinion: Social Media’s War Against Islam | PKKH.tv
Anti Islamic Propaganda: New Fronts for the Pakistani Youth
PKKH Exclusive | by Syed Asad Shah
Anti-Islam propaganda under the guise of free speech is not a new thing anymore. There are hundreds of websites which publish anti Islam material in an attempt to malign the teachings of Islam. By the time our religious scholars and people adapted to the World Wide Web, these elements found a novel battleground in the form of social networking websites. Very soon this highly interactive and popular forum came teaming with misinformation. Thanks to the growing extremism and intolerance in our society incidents like ‘Badami Bagh’ have always provided a fodder for these Anti-Islamic elements.
On Facebook – the most popular social networking website today – one often encounters an anti-Islamic page or profile. Until recently, they have been sprouting their hatred for Islam in English language. However, a sudden shift in their strategy was noted when they started to spread misinformation mainly in Urdu language typed in Arabic transcript. It isn’t certainly because of the love of Urdu language or their Pakistani identity. It speaks of something sinister, a strategy to reach out to the maximum of the Pakistani youth. After analyzing the posts of a few Anti-Islamic pseudo-liberal pages on Facebook, one finds a striking similarity in them. The way of addressing the people, grammar, writing style, fake stories of how-I-left-Islam share a common pattern. An outright similarity in the names of the profiles of those who often share contents of these pages is visible even to a cursory eye. *Interconnectivity between two different pages propagating the same ideology is obvious in many*cases.
Once you dig deep into the mystery of the people behind this campaign, you get a feeling that an indigenous and organized campaign like this cannot run without proper funding. You’ll find people advertising on websites that they need skilled workers for translation & type in Urdu, offering handsome wages. *You’ll find that their campaign is not limited to Facebook; they are present on World Wide Web as websites, on Twitter and surprisingly on YouTube as channels too.
I call them pseudo-liberal because they are certainly not liberals. Liberals and leftist groups and parties have been a part of the mainstream politics of Pakistan since the early 70’s. They often oppose policies of religious groups and criticize constitutional amendments but they have never lowered themselves to the use of*dubious identities. (Traditionally Liberals had a limited circle, while in this case Pakistani youth in a broader perspective is being targeted, which is an alarm, and calls for probe in this fast changing phenomenon.)
A question arises here - Why are they targeting Pakistani youth? The answer is simple; today our Pakistani youth is vulnerable to anti-Islamic propaganda like never before.* Most of the youth know very little of Islam and are mainly dependent upon local Religious scholars who many times, interpret *issue differently, which leaves young minds more perplexed about what is real Islam and the know-little ones get easily prone to alternatives, which may be just as faulty but warped in the gloss of modernity. In addition, the Seculars often draw comparisons between religious and non-religious societies by mentioning the law and order situation. People with a lesser understanding of geo-political issues are easily led to believe that religion is the root cause of all problems.
A close examination of the whole scenario reveals that the enemies of Islam and Pakistan are utilizing a two-pronged strategy for their attack. On one hand they support extremist outfits like TTP and LeJ, who carry out act of sabotage in the name of God which*in turn vilify*and create an aura of indifference to the real message of Islam. *On the other, they are targeting our youth with misinformation in an attempt to keep the pot of confusion boiling. Sadly a number of young minds are becoming their victims. Not many months ago I met a 16 year old blogger on Facebook from Karachi, proudly calling himself an atheist and criticizing Islam for intolerance and killing in the name of Religion.
An outright ban on such Facebook pages and websites is not a solution as some will suggest. What’s needed is a comprehensive approach to counter this type of propaganda. Educating our youth about the teachings of Islam, fostering tolerance to the people of other sects as well as religions and raising awareness about the changing strategies of Anti-Islamic & Anti-Pakistan elements may provide a solution much needed in these dismal times.
The writer is Social Activist and Web Researcher
Source
Anti Islamic Propaganda: New Fronts for the Pakistani Youth
PKKH Exclusive | by Syed Asad Shah
Anti-Islam propaganda under the guise of free speech is not a new thing anymore. There are hundreds of websites which publish anti Islam material in an attempt to malign the teachings of Islam. By the time our religious scholars and people adapted to the World Wide Web, these elements found a novel battleground in the form of social networking websites. Very soon this highly interactive and popular forum came teaming with misinformation. Thanks to the growing extremism and intolerance in our society incidents like ‘Badami Bagh’ have always provided a fodder for these Anti-Islamic elements.
On Facebook – the most popular social networking website today – one often encounters an anti-Islamic page or profile. Until recently, they have been sprouting their hatred for Islam in English language. However, a sudden shift in their strategy was noted when they started to spread misinformation mainly in Urdu language typed in Arabic transcript. It isn’t certainly because of the love of Urdu language or their Pakistani identity. It speaks of something sinister, a strategy to reach out to the maximum of the Pakistani youth. After analyzing the posts of a few Anti-Islamic pseudo-liberal pages on Facebook, one finds a striking similarity in them. The way of addressing the people, grammar, writing style, fake stories of how-I-left-Islam share a common pattern. An outright similarity in the names of the profiles of those who often share contents of these pages is visible even to a cursory eye. *Interconnectivity between two different pages propagating the same ideology is obvious in many*cases.
I call them pseudo-liberal because they are certainly not liberals. Liberals and leftist groups and parties have been a part of the mainstream politics of Pakistan since the early 70’s. They often oppose policies of religious groups and criticize constitutional amendments but they have never lowered themselves to the use of*dubious identities. (Traditionally Liberals had a limited circle, while in this case Pakistani youth in a broader perspective is being targeted, which is an alarm, and calls for probe in this fast changing phenomenon.)
A question arises here - Why are they targeting Pakistani youth? The answer is simple; today our Pakistani youth is vulnerable to anti-Islamic propaganda like never before.* Most of the youth know very little of Islam and are mainly dependent upon local Religious scholars who many times, interpret *issue differently, which leaves young minds more perplexed about what is real Islam and the know-little ones get easily prone to alternatives, which may be just as faulty but warped in the gloss of modernity. In addition, the Seculars often draw comparisons between religious and non-religious societies by mentioning the law and order situation. People with a lesser understanding of geo-political issues are easily led to believe that religion is the root cause of all problems.
A close examination of the whole scenario reveals that the enemies of Islam and Pakistan are utilizing a two-pronged strategy for their attack. On one hand they support extremist outfits like TTP and LeJ, who carry out act of sabotage in the name of God which*in turn vilify*and create an aura of indifference to the real message of Islam. *On the other, they are targeting our youth with misinformation in an attempt to keep the pot of confusion boiling. Sadly a number of young minds are becoming their victims. Not many months ago I met a 16 year old blogger on Facebook from Karachi, proudly calling himself an atheist and criticizing Islam for intolerance and killing in the name of Religion.
An outright ban on such Facebook pages and websites is not a solution as some will suggest. What’s needed is a comprehensive approach to counter this type of propaganda. Educating our youth about the teachings of Islam, fostering tolerance to the people of other sects as well as religions and raising awareness about the changing strategies of Anti-Islamic & Anti-Pakistan elements may provide a solution much needed in these dismal times.
The writer is Social Activist and Web Researcher
Source
