{"id":85447,"date":"2022-11-23T15:59:14","date_gmt":"2022-11-23T20:59:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/muslimmatters.org\/?p=85447"},"modified":"2022-11-24T00:10:08","modified_gmt":"2022-11-24T05:10:08","slug":"dirty-dawah-part-3-the-infuriating-manufacturing-muslim-outrage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/muslimmatters.org\/2022\/11\/23\/dirty-dawah-part-3-the-infuriating-manufacturing-muslim-outrage\/","title":{"rendered":"Dirty Da’wah [Part 3] – “The Infuriating” | Manufacturing Muslim Outrage"},"content":{"rendered":"

What do Alex Jones and the Muslim community have in common? I\u2019ll tell you, but it\u2019s going to make you mad.<\/p>\n

In this third part of the Dirty Da’wah series, I explore problematic trends in our online outreach to Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Click here to read Part 1- Insulting in the name of Islam<\/a>, or Part 2 – “Satisfying” Revenge In The Name of Islam.<\/a><\/p>\n

And Now, To Dive In<\/h2>\n

Alex Jones is a right-wing radio host whose fame has been built on conspiracy theories and outrageous accusations. When the yogurt company Chobani began hiring refugees<\/a> from Afghanistan and Syria, he accused them of “importing migrant rapists.”<\/a><\/p>\n

He accused Hillary Clinton of operating a child sex ring below a pizzeria (PizzaGate)<\/a> and created mass hysteria by “alerting” the residents of Texas to an imminent invasion by the US military – operation Jade Helm.<\/p>\n

“This is sensational news, Texas is listed in red as a hostile sector…I told ya, I’m deep behind enemy lines folks. I mean this\u2014we are listed as a hostile sector, they’re having Delta Force, Navy SEALS, with the Army, train to basically take over. This is over the top.” [source]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The hysteria became so widespread<\/a> that the Governor of Texas, Greg Abbot, sent the Texas State Guard<\/a> to monitor the exercises conducted by the US military, as a sort of ‘just in case.’<\/p>\n

Alex Jones was most recently in the news for being ordered to pay nearly one billion dollars<\/a> to the families of those killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. He had been alleging that the shooting was another hoax, and that the “victims” and their “families”<\/a> were actors. Twenty six people were killed, many of whom were elementary school children.<\/a><\/p>\n

So what does this have to do with the Muslim community? It’s all big business in the industry of Manufactured Outrage.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"On Outrage – Artificial vs. Organic<\/h2>\n

This really is a case where it’s better to go with organic. Good old natural outrage isn’t a problem. A certain amount of anger for the sake of Allah \"sub\u1e25\u0101nahu isn’t just permissible, it’s expected as a decent human. The Messenger of Allah \"\u1e63allall\u0101hu said,<\/p>\n

“The parable of the believers in their affection, mercy, and compassion for each other is that of a body. When any limb aches, the whole body reacts with sleeplessness and fever.\u201d [Sahih Muslim]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Not only is righteous outrage a natural response to the outrageous, it’s also a force of positive social change.<\/p>\n

When 14 year old Emmett Till was brutally murdered,\u00a0 his death “pushed many who had been content to stay on the sidelines directly into the fight” for civil rights. 1<\/a><\/sup>https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wgbh\/americanexperience\/features\/emmett-impact-emmett-tills-murder\/#:~:text=Emmett%20Till’s%20murder%20was%20a,sidelines%20directly%20into%20the%20fight.<\/span> A photograph of Emmett’s mother standing beside the open casket of her son’s mutilated body was deemed to be one of the”100 most influential images of all time.2<\/a><\/sup>Hampton, Henry (1990). Voices of Freedom: An Oral History of the Civil Rights Movement from the 1950s through the 1980s<\/span>” by Time magazine.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Publications like What Has Happened to Me<\/em><\/a>\u00a0 and Guantanamo Voices<\/a><\/em> tell stories that appeal to the righteous outrage we feel when a grave injustice has occurred.\u00a0 How we respond to this grave injustice -or not- says as much about us as a society as it does individually.<\/p>\n

“Of course, there is a good reason we feel an obligation to feel and express outrage: We assume it is a reliable force for social change. The absence of outrage in the face of the outrageous reflects a cowardly quietism, resignation, or apathy.” Professor Richard Thomson Ford. “The Outrage-Industrial Complex” Stanford School of Law<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Righteous outrage, the kind that results from true injustice, spurs us to take positive action to rectify a wrong. It is a commendable and universal human response, and that is why manufactured outrage works so hard to impersonate it. Where righteous anger demands a response to factually established wrong, manufactured outrage demands action for a wrong that is established through misinterpretation, misinformation, or misrepresentation.<\/p>\n

Also referred to as outrage porn, manufactured outrage refers to any media designed to evoke a strong backlash, particularly for the sake of getting online traffic. Politicians use the anger they incite to rile up supporters, or claim the moral high ground in order to tar their opponents. On slow news days, media outlets use it to inflate minor occurrences into major stories.<\/p>\n

“The ubiquitous outrage of today is a perversion of this American custom of politics-as-entertainment: Now, instead of reflecting sincere and mature political engagement, conspicuous outrage takes the place of it.” Professor Richard Thomson Ford. “The Outrage-Industrial Complex” Stanford School of Law<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/h2>\n

Conflation And Conflict<\/h2>\n

Compared to plain old lying, outrage media is harder to dispute because it is built on a grain of truth that is then deliberately misinterpreted. That is why its purveyors are able to present the \u201cevidence\u201d that lends legitimacy to their claims. It’s like a wolf wearing what was<\/em> part of a sheep, but no longer qualifies as one.<\/p>\n

It makes things even harder when the wolf in sheep’s skin grows a beard, wears a kufi, and uses the defense of Islam to deter disagreement. It’s a bit of a hostage situation, where people are discouraged from disagreement for fear of attacking Islam.<\/p>\n

Conflating the sanctity of their opinion with the sanctity of Islam itself, videos like these can be hard to disprove without a depth of Islamic study not available to your standard Muslim viewer.\u00a0 Or, without taking a deep-dive into some of the nuanced topics so often misrepresented in over-simplified ways, and who has time for that?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

There are many, many ways that this distortion is happening in the Muslim media, and in the next few installments of this series of Dirty Da’wah, I’ll be sharing a few specific examples. I will not be sharing the channel names or identifying information about the Muslim da’ees who are making the errors I discuss. For a full explanation of why, please see the disclaimer in Dirty Dawah [Part 1] Insult in the Name of Islam.<\/a><\/p>\n

Dirty Da’wah [Part 1] – Insult In The Name Of Islam<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n