Islamophobic Group Creaed Website To Incite Hatred Against Illinois Muslims

An unknown anti-Islam group created a website pretending to represent an Illinois Muslim organization that posts only the stuff you'd see on websites owned by extremists their intent being to make anyone who reads anything posted on the site hate Muslims.

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2016/01/12/3738612/wheaton-islamic-center-fake-website/

This [creating the website] in itself would be bad enough but the website owner went a step further and sent emails to Wheaton City officials including the mayor claiming that ICW [the real Muslim organization] has an affiliation with ISIS.

 

These days it seems that more and more people are using the internet to do things like this, and it's a warning to everyone that you cant always trust everything you see, read or hear.

While the internet can be a valuable source of information, it's people like this that spoil it for others and in this situation, I'm not even sure they needed to run this site in the first place. The genuine Muslims are already creating enough issues and making people turn against them anyway.

 

It's hard for the average citizen to vet what's "real" and what's just contrived on the internet. You see faux news websites that post satirical articles that have the appearance of a legit publication. Some people get confused, and that's the dangerous thing especially in the case of this website. They are inciting mistrust in a certain group in the community, and in turn creating an atmosphere for violence.

 

I'd have to agree with what you guys have said. The web is just so vast that we may not be sure the information we get are true. That is why we should really be wary on the things we read and learn from the internet. I myself would have to read at least 5 or more articles from different sites about a topic I'm searching for before I finally conclude the legitimacy of what I've just learned.

 

You cannot trust the internet anymore. Even the social media has so many trash posted and even news of deaths are posted that later on would turn out to be a hoax. With a website to fool the public, it can be successful at first but later on the public will realize what the real intention is.

So the extremists are now waging their campaign in the internet.

 

Disinformation is a serious business; if the government, corporate entities, and so-called NGOs are allowed to do it, I don't see why private citizens can't get in on the act too. Freedom is a two-way street, and being free to craft a narrative is all part-and-parcel of this crazy world.....

 

Wow, who has time for this non-sense?
Think if we collectively spend the time we waste on hate, and we took that time to make positive contributions we could solve all manner of problems we face.
You think after a few thousand years of civilization we could have a more enlightened view of the world and our obligation to it.

 

I suppose the phrase "the devil makes work for idle thumbs/hands" is sort of relevant to this.

What with the ISIS situation it's hardly surprising someone made up something like this. Not saying it's right at all, but it's what happens. Anyway I'd good they've been exposed.

 

I would counter in that in some instances the internet is one of the FEW places where you can get a bead on what's ACTUALLY going on in any given situation. There are many that believe that the New Years assaults in Cologne, Germany would have been kept quiet if not for people on social media and in the alternative press shining light on it.

I lament that in this day in age, while we are awash in more information than ever before, the issue is that I have no clue what to believe anymore.

 

This is not out of the ordinary. Right wing mainstream American news outlets have been doing this since the early 90's. I don't think, in the general population and especially on the right, they would find a shortage of pliable antagonisms towards Arabs and Islam, especially considering the continual pulse of violent political Islam that has occurred in the west over the last two decades (both regarding the real, as well as the contrived, events).

I know this might sound far reaching, but it would not surprise me if this effort was actually a defamation of the political right, instead of being a defamation of Islam. The level of effort, specificity, and innuendo that is put into manipulating public opinion in today's techno world is beyond comparison to anything that has existed in the past. I quote from the godfather of modern Public Relations, Sigmund Freud's nephew, Edward Bernays, in his book Propaganda (1926):

"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. ...We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. ...In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons...who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.”