Global Courant 2023-04-25 04:40:34
during Ramadan, a man attacked a mosque in Markham, Ontario, Canada. He reportedly shouted slander, tore up a Quran and tried to run down worshipers in his vehicle.
Some people on Twitter have floated the idea that the attacker had ties to Hindu extremist groups; however, the investigation is still ongoing.
This is one of two hate-motivated incidents at mosques in Markham in a week. Although the police said they don’t believe the incidents are related, as a researcher of online extremism, I can theoretically link these events to a global trend of Islamophobic violence.
Legal discrimination and violence
By the Muslim prohibition of the United Statesto India Citizenship Amendment ActUnpleasant Quebec Bill 21Muslims worldwide face legal discrimination.
Muslims worldwide have faced legal discrimination. Here members of the community gather outside the Islamic Society of Markham in Ontario. THE CANADIAN PRESS / Chris Young
In addition to these laws, Muslims face physical violence. This includes: the to beat, lynch And burning of the Muslims in India, the 2019 Christchurch massacre in New Zealandthe 2017 Québec City mosque shootingand more recently the murder of the Afzaal family in London, Ont.
Collectively, these policies and these killings demonstrate one transnational quality of Islamophobic prejudice and violence.
While the two incidents in Markham may not be directly related to extremist groups, they occurred within them global ecosystem of Islamophobia. To me, the attacks indicate that these online conspiracies don’t happen in a vacuum and could potentially have horrific real-world consequences.
Hindutva-based terrorism in Canada
In recent years I have looked closely at the digital and transnational connections between white supremacists in North America and far-right Hindu nationalists in India.
My preliminary findings show how these two apparently unrelated extremist far-right groups have increasingly become allies on social media platforms as they position Muslims as a “common enemy.”
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)the right-wing Hindu nationalist organization, promotes the Hindutva ideology that believes India belongs only to Hindus.
A recently published report by the National Council of Canadian Muslims and the World Sikh Organization documents how this organization has gained ground in Canada. Jasmin Zine is a Canadian scholar whose recent report also outlines a network of Hindu nationalists that help spread ideologies that promote Islamophobia.
Governments spreading disinformation
In 2014, the BJP was the most prominent Hindu Nationalist Right Party in India came to power. Like the RSS, the BJP and other Hindu nationalist parties believe that India belongs only to Hindus.
Since his election, the BJP has been actively proliferating misinformation and conspiracies about Muslims through social and mainstream mediagrowing hostilities between Muslims and Hindus.
Anti-Muslim protest in the US. Photo: ABC News
While Hindutva is seemingly different from white supremacy, my research shows how these two movements similarly mobilize emotional rhetoric and visual content to spread their influence.
Twitter, as one of the main platforms for both groups, has been widely used to perpetuate new messages forms of gendered Islamophobia and to forge surprising alliances and affinities.
The Love Jihad Conspiracy
One of the conspiracy theories shared by these groups is called Love Jihad. Originating from India Hindu nationalists in 2013this conspiracy alleges that Muslim men are actively enticing non-Muslim women to marry and convert them to Islam.
The #LoveJihad hashtag was quickly picked up on social media by white extremists and other Islamophobic groups in North America, adapting it to their own conspiracies, such as The great replacement.
This example shows how anti-Muslim sentiment spreads quickly and internationally online.
Groups I follow on Twitter from India talk constantly about the perceived threat of Love Jihad. One such Hindu nationalist group, Hindu Jagruti Org, warns Hindu women about “dangerous, sexually aggressive” Muslim men. The tweet below is an example:
These tweets portray Muslim men as “deceitful, sexual monsters” who see Hindu women as “objects to fulfill their lusts”. Hindu extremists claim that fighting these “Muslim monsters” requires precautions.
#LoveJihad travels to North America
The #LoveJihad conspiracy was quickly adopted by Islamophobic groups in North America. An example is a tweet from Robert Spencer, who runs Jihad Watch, which has a large following among Hindu nationalists.
The tweet includes an article claiming that the Islamic State Love encourages jihadis to target non-Muslim women and “kidnap”, “forcibly convert and marry” them.
Love Jihad has proven to be a farce.
Still, Spencer continues to argue that there are “real cases that show how, year after year, Muslim men have tricked Hindu women into toxic romantic relationships.”
User comments on Spencer’s post demonstrate his success in establishing #LoveJihad as a fact. For example:
Screenshot of tweets responding to Robert Spencer’s comments about Love Jihad. Author provided
As these reports indicate, Love Jihad easily reinforces beliefs in Muslim men as “terrorists” and “groomers” — that is, men who build confidence in girls and young women to exploit them.
Transnational tuning of hate
This shared intense hatred of “monstrous” Muslim men brings Hindu and white extremists into a “transnational affective alignment.” That is, the mutual hatred of Muslims and a mutual love for Hindu and white national ideals.
Social media platforms such as Twitter are important in creating these alignments and perpetuating related conspiracies, which are gaining significant popularity due to their repetition.
This alignment comes about through the demonization of Muslim men and the shared hatred and fear of extremists across borders. Through transnational responses and retweets, extremists forge a layered and cumulatively condensed affective message: Muslim men are dangerous. We are afraid of them. That’s why we hate them.
While it remains to be seen whether or not the recent attacks on mosques were directly influenced by online, transnational and affective Islamophobia, recurring incidents like this should remind us that hate does not respect international borders.
Misinformation and conspiracies find fertile ground in the echo chambers of social media.
Our response to such crimes – and their online equivalents – must take into account that Muslims’ fear and hatred are not accidental.
As the #LoveJihad conspiracy demonstrates, strange bedfellows are made easy when there is a perceived common enemy. Conspiracies and acts of hatred against Muslims affect us all.
Zeinab Farokhi is an assistant professor of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies at the Mississauga campus of the University of Toronto.
This article has been republished from The conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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