Inciting hatred through social media
Social media, the wonderful information tool that Saudis cant seem to live without, often brings out the idiots and the ignorant.
At a sensitive time when the region is witnessing unprecedented violence and division, certain events seem to bring out the worst in people.
The privacy that social media ensures emboldens people to spit venom against any country or peoples. This writer has noticed people criticizing Saudi Arabia and its policies on various social media platforms. Most of their criticism is undue and without any solid basis.
What hurts Saudis the most is these hurtful comments usually come from countries that Saudi Arabia has aided for decades, particularly Lebanon and Syria.
Any country deserves a certain amount of criticism for its policies, but there are certain limits. Sometimes those comments are sickening and not even remotely Islamic. Social media, as we have seen with relentless precision, affords cowards to hide behind their screen names. Why should I have them as friends on Facebook and other platforms if they disrespect me so much that they must push their hatred in my face?
Its no secret why Saudis use social media.
We have virtually no public entertainment and there is only so much our ubiquitous malls have to offer. They certainly dont offer anything to single young men. That is why 60 percent of all Saudis use the Internet and 8 million of us are on Facebook. Add the fact that 87 percent of the Saudis using social media are men and you have a young population connected to the world. Who needs television when you have YouTube?
The price we pay, though, is the unbridled sectarian rhetoric by anonymous individuals who dont have the courage to use their own name. Its beyond the pale that foreign Arabs who have fled their own countrys violence to find refuge in Saudi Arabia or leave their homes to earn a better wage in the Kingdom to criticize and use hateful language against our country.
These so-called Muslims enjoy a comfortable life away from the poverty and violence of their homeland. They send the money they earn to their relatives at home. The Saudi government provides their government with generous monetary aid. Yet those very same people fail to see their hypocrisy.
Sometimes, social media users dont even respect the dead and spit venom against deceased individuals.
The Prophet (peace be upon him) reminds us that when a person dies, all his deeds come to an end except ongoing charity, the benefit of which is continuous.
Its a lesson the Prophet gave us that we must all follow: Relate to your dead only that which is good, and refrain from speaking ill of them.
Those social media users who think of themselves so clever with their wit at the expense of the deceased have failed to recognize that they have strayed from the path of their religion.
Source
Social media, the wonderful information tool that Saudis cant seem to live without, often brings out the idiots and the ignorant.
At a sensitive time when the region is witnessing unprecedented violence and division, certain events seem to bring out the worst in people.
The privacy that social media ensures emboldens people to spit venom against any country or peoples. This writer has noticed people criticizing Saudi Arabia and its policies on various social media platforms. Most of their criticism is undue and without any solid basis.
What hurts Saudis the most is these hurtful comments usually come from countries that Saudi Arabia has aided for decades, particularly Lebanon and Syria.
Any country deserves a certain amount of criticism for its policies, but there are certain limits. Sometimes those comments are sickening and not even remotely Islamic. Social media, as we have seen with relentless precision, affords cowards to hide behind their screen names. Why should I have them as friends on Facebook and other platforms if they disrespect me so much that they must push their hatred in my face?
Its no secret why Saudis use social media.
We have virtually no public entertainment and there is only so much our ubiquitous malls have to offer. They certainly dont offer anything to single young men. That is why 60 percent of all Saudis use the Internet and 8 million of us are on Facebook. Add the fact that 87 percent of the Saudis using social media are men and you have a young population connected to the world. Who needs television when you have YouTube?
The price we pay, though, is the unbridled sectarian rhetoric by anonymous individuals who dont have the courage to use their own name. Its beyond the pale that foreign Arabs who have fled their own countrys violence to find refuge in Saudi Arabia or leave their homes to earn a better wage in the Kingdom to criticize and use hateful language against our country.
These so-called Muslims enjoy a comfortable life away from the poverty and violence of their homeland. They send the money they earn to their relatives at home. The Saudi government provides their government with generous monetary aid. Yet those very same people fail to see their hypocrisy.
Sometimes, social media users dont even respect the dead and spit venom against deceased individuals.
The Prophet (peace be upon him) reminds us that when a person dies, all his deeds come to an end except ongoing charity, the benefit of which is continuous.
Its a lesson the Prophet gave us that we must all follow: Relate to your dead only that which is good, and refrain from speaking ill of them.
Those social media users who think of themselves so clever with their wit at the expense of the deceased have failed to recognize that they have strayed from the path of their religion.
Source
