Facebook Islam Kerfuffle

Or, I also hate it when free speech has to be stifled II

So, as you may have seen in NYT, there's this group on Facebook called Fuck Islam. In case you didn't bother to spend a couple hours investigating more thoroughly, you know I did!

Here is the description of the group by the creators:

The Quran contains many lies and threats. Islam is false, no god exists, and someone should say that loud and clear. Heaven and hell are fables, prayer is a waste of time, and angels and jinn are obviously mythology. This is not a group against Muslims. They have it bad enough. If you doubt that go to Palestine. If you hate Muslims or are here to harrass them or promote your religion, go away. Muslims can be and usually are peaceful and respectful. The best thing for the whole world is a rejection of all religions and a renewed discovery of the love for humanity and naturalism. Fuck Christianity and Judaism as well. These religions are just as false and have a variety of disadvantages. There are other groups devoted to each of these false ideologies. Here is one devoted to religion in general: http://unm.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2225572075and here is one for Christianity: http://unm.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5857745671

Now that sounds all fine and dandy and for the record I am with you 100% on the first couple of sentences (though this "Muslims can be and usually are peaceful and respectful" bit sounds just a skosh like "articulate and bright and clean" if you ask me, but whatever). I will concede that your request for those who hate Muslims to stay away seems to have fallen on deaf, hate-filled ears, as one of the three featured discussions currently on the page is entitled "Why are muslims cocksuckers????", so fine.

But, the reason why this is a story is because of another group which has sprung up with a petition, entitled "if "f**k Islam" is not shut down..we r quitting facebook". Their description:

if the group "f**k Islam" and all similar disrespectful groups of religion are not shut down before the end of september..we are all goin to close our facebook accounts..and thats the least we can do to show our respect to religion and our disagreement of such humilating and ignorant groups.

Now I am not going to make any comments about the relative grasp of English grammar, spelling and punctuation betwixt the two, cause, you know, the internet (honestly I can't even read any of the posts to try to figure out who has a point cause it's just all this

nate forget dee, i forgive from his sideand for the verses u gave>>wat u posted was very short, and to make complete sense u also hav to read wat comes before and after thesethey talk about maountains and rivers, and animals [beasts] etc createdthat allah made the sky, the stars; he brings down rain and then clears the skybut yet they[non muslims] do not believe

and this

hey realy i respect all religons and respect evry one but when some one say talk about islam i will be to angry fro this fuck u alllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll.

and this

hey amanda fernando realy i think ur a great bitch and i hope have date with u to fuck u gooooooo tooooooooooo hilllllllllllllllllllllllfuck u bitch u talk about islam what u know about islam

and like are you people even talking? I mean, is this in some way intelligible to others? (Go to hill?)

But anyway, I just think it's weird that in the group Fuck Islam they link to their other Fuck groups, such as Fuck Religion and Fuck Christianity and yet nobody seems to be all that het up about those, except some spillover by the Lebanese (they do take their Christianity seriously in Lebanon) on the Christianity one (I can't stop quoting):

i will talk in english to let everyone understand what i am going to say. First of all, I hope that someday I will meet the creator of this group because I swear that I will let him regret of creating this group. Second, I will fuck his mother and sisters because I am surethat they are bitches. Third, I will fuck you (creator of this group) in your big fat ass and I will let you scream very loud because my dick will really heart you motherfucker. kiss 100 2ekhtak bi2ayre w ya reit fiyye 2etkammach fik ya akhou l 1000 charmouta. ya zaber

and

this mexican variable variable? or u living in your truthful world or not? if u wanna think scientifically, u won't be more than a small sand stone, tiny one!!!! that in case we say that we are scintifically thinking and arranging our selves in the world each by his role! are you gonna say, that all this systimatic, escimatic, and well planned & executed system, is without a creator?probably cocain, wead, or marijuana, have effected your mind and thinking, and got you so high where you reached a stage that you think that you are darwin or nitshe or Dostayevski.

I mean, really, what?

But anyway, it seems to me like the majority of the hate speech (and rape threats) seem to be coming from people not belonging to the group (Fuck Islam has 813 members. "if "f**k Islam" is not shut down..we r quitting facebook" has 61,199 members), so -- and I know this is crazy -- stop looking at the group. It just seems weird to me -- there is so much true hate on the Internet, why do you focus on a silly little thing like this? (61,199 people! It's the fucking Internet! Do you have ANY IDEA what is out there?)

So fine, Facebook, if you're going to censor, you're going to censor, I can't stop you. But I can't believe you're considering removing this group, and not banning the account of the guy who threatened to rape the group's founder as well as his mother and sisters. I really hope that's not how you decide.

And, while I'm at it, a brief shout-out to Google, host of this here blogger blog, who will just put the whole thing behind a content warning if people identify hate speech:

Special Case for Hate Speech
When the community has voted and hate speech is identified on Blog*Spot, Google may exercise its right to place a Content Warning page in front of the blog and set it to "unlisted."

I love you Google. So on that note here is a handy little doohicky from Amnesty International which will load up a new serving of content that was censored by somebody every time you reload. Enjoy whatever it is, and click on it to find out what it is.