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Tuesday, January 6, 2015

UK: Muslim anti-hate group thinks the law protects Jews from insults


I've been told before that Jews are 'better protected' than other minorities.  As one Belgian interviewed said: "there's a hierarchy in racism".  Not that he's antisemitic or anything, but obviously the all-powerful Israel ensures that Jews worldwide are better off than the 'regular' minorities.

It is true that in some European countries, for example, 'antisemitism' is considered 'racism', as far as hate-crimes are concerned, while anti-Muslim crimes aren't. But does that mean Jews are better off?  Hardly.  Just recently the Chief Rabbi of Paris complained that while the laws exist on the books, judges don't use them.

So, having all this in mind, let's take a look at Fiyaz Mughal, director of Faith Matters, an interfaith organisation which runs a helpline called Tell MAMA, has to say:
Mr Mughal added that social media platforms needed to make their content management procedures stricter.

If users were to express such unacceptable opinions about ‘shooting’ Black British citizens or discussed Jews as a ‘cancer’, their speech would not be legal. The same protections should be forwarded to references to the Muslim community,” he said.

Notice the comparison.  Inciting to murder against Blacks and insulting Jews.  Obviously online platforms ban insults against Jews, right?

As I was arguing the point with Tell MAMA on Twitter, somebody popped up with the following.

"but Judaism is a cancer"

Wait - didn't Mughal just say that it's illegal?  That Jews don't have to worry about such attacks online because Twitter and Facebook would immediately take care of it?

My experience with Twitter is that such comments are accepted.  I really expected somebody who deals with interfaith matters and hate speech to know that, and not to assume that Jews have it better.

Now, is it bad that such comments are accepted?  I'm not sure it is.  I hate such comments, and I hate to be targeted with them, but Twitter is not the world's Mommy, deciding what is permissible speech and what isn't.

And if somebody threatens to kill people, it should be handled by the police.  Not by Facebook and not by Twitter.

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