Islamophobia is a huge problem worldwide. More so because it is often confused with the freedom of expression and thought. Being unbiased here, it’s safe to say that Islam and Quran at their core, are willing to accept challenges and questions.
The problem arises when these questions are not meant to bring about the understanding of the religion of Islam — or any religion/ideology for that matter — but to turn people against it. In the end, such online abuse can often lead to actual offline abuse and violence within the people.
Today, cyberspace is the major tool to promote Islamophobia. However, at the same time, it is also being used to monitor and combat it, and countless Muslim organizations are using the Internet and social media for these purposes today. Although a lot of big names are involved in fighting Islamophobia, they are rarely successful due to their open public image.
I was approached by one of the organizations that prefer not to make them public. They are anonymously known as the “Shadow Hunters”. The forum was created back in 2016 in Turkey by Muhammad Umais – a board member and representative of all alliance Turk Cyber Forums.
After achieving considerable success, they started receiving threats and the site had to be taken down due to, quote, “At the beginning of 2018, there were several issues and I received threats. Our board asked me to stop my work but it was difficult for me – this fight was very personal to me.”
Ultimately, in late 2019, Muhammad Umais primarily started operating in the Pakistani domain while their team continued their fight against Islamophobia back in Turkey. To date, they have removed “almost 1,000+ accounts and websites, including official pages and high-profile celebrities” promoting direct or indirect hate speech against Islam and its allies – mostly in Turkey, India, and Pakistan.
“A famous Indian cyber group named “Indian Cyber Troops”, backed by RAW through confirmed sources, started disturbing Pakistan Armed Forces public Facebook groups and pages. I was contacted because they were damaged badly and no one was able or willing to counterstrike them.
On 4th October 2020, I managed to remove the official page of “Indian Cyber Troops” along with all their administration Facebook accounts in one day. I only later found out that those Indians were posting anti-Islamic content in the hacked Pakistani groups and pages.”
Muhammad Umais has allied with a lot of Pakistani teams and activists working on removing Islamophobic content from social media platforms. But since these hackers often work independently, it is not uncommon for them to receive threats or get influenced by some bigger organization.
Ultimately, they either have to stop or shake hands with such organizations that have their agendas. That is one of the reasons why Muhammad Umais thinks these cyber-soldiers cannot survive long without the local support of their people; “Fighting for religion and country, we are no less soldiers than the ones in the battlefield.” He said.
“Some people from Pakistan came in contact with me. They were running official Armed Forces groups and they called themselves the Defenders of Pakistan. I thought it's good to have links with them as there were some officials as well but later I found out that they are just using me for their own purposes.
I have voice notes from some of the officials from FIA; they said they cannot do anything in this regard even if they wanted because the higher authorities are not interested in this and their hands are tied.”
The problem arises when these questions are not meant to bring about the understanding of the religion of Islam — or any religion/ideology for that matter — but to turn people against it. In the end, such online abuse can often lead to actual offline abuse and violence within the people.
Today, cyberspace is the major tool to promote Islamophobia. However, at the same time, it is also being used to monitor and combat it, and countless Muslim organizations are using the Internet and social media for these purposes today. Although a lot of big names are involved in fighting Islamophobia, they are rarely successful due to their open public image.
I was approached by one of the organizations that prefer not to make them public. They are anonymously known as the “Shadow Hunters”. The forum was created back in 2016 in Turkey by Muhammad Umais – a board member and representative of all alliance Turk Cyber Forums.
After achieving considerable success, they started receiving threats and the site had to be taken down due to, quote, “At the beginning of 2018, there were several issues and I received threats. Our board asked me to stop my work but it was difficult for me – this fight was very personal to me.”
Ultimately, in late 2019, Muhammad Umais primarily started operating in the Pakistani domain while their team continued their fight against Islamophobia back in Turkey. To date, they have removed “almost 1,000+ accounts and websites, including official pages and high-profile celebrities” promoting direct or indirect hate speech against Islam and its allies – mostly in Turkey, India, and Pakistan.
“A famous Indian cyber group named “Indian Cyber Troops”, backed by RAW through confirmed sources, started disturbing Pakistan Armed Forces public Facebook groups and pages. I was contacted because they were damaged badly and no one was able or willing to counterstrike them.
On 4th October 2020, I managed to remove the official page of “Indian Cyber Troops” along with all their administration Facebook accounts in one day. I only later found out that those Indians were posting anti-Islamic content in the hacked Pakistani groups and pages.”
Muhammad Umais has allied with a lot of Pakistani teams and activists working on removing Islamophobic content from social media platforms. But since these hackers often work independently, it is not uncommon for them to receive threats or get influenced by some bigger organization.
Ultimately, they either have to stop or shake hands with such organizations that have their agendas. That is one of the reasons why Muhammad Umais thinks these cyber-soldiers cannot survive long without the local support of their people; “Fighting for religion and country, we are no less soldiers than the ones in the battlefield.” He said.
“Some people from Pakistan came in contact with me. They were running official Armed Forces groups and they called themselves the Defenders of Pakistan. I thought it's good to have links with them as there were some officials as well but later I found out that they are just using me for their own purposes.
I have voice notes from some of the officials from FIA; they said they cannot do anything in this regard even if they wanted because the higher authorities are not interested in this and their hands are tied.”
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Pakistani Prime Minister, Imran Khan, is a staunch supporter of the fight against Islamophobia. “As a result, a dangerous cycle of actions and reactions are set in motion,” he wrote recently in a letter to the leaders of Muslim states – encouraging them to act collectively to counter the growing Islamophobia in non-Muslim states, especially Western states causing increasing concern amongst Muslims the world over.
Resultantly, according to Al Jazeera, Khan's efforts welcomed a decision by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to approve a resolution setting March 15 as the International Day to Combat Islamophobia. The resolution, adopted on Tuesday by consensus by the 193-member world body and co-sponsored by 55 mainly Muslim countries, emphasizes the right to freedom of religion and belief and recalls a 1981 resolution calling for “the elimination of all forms of intolerance and of discrimination based on religion or belief”.
In the end, as mentioned in the beginning, such online abuse can often lead to actual offline abuse and violence within the people – the result of which we are all witnesses. The only way forward is in realizing that in the growing world of virtual currency and Metaverse, how seriously will we take our cyber-soldiers?
Pakistani Prime Minister, Imran Khan, is a staunch supporter of the fight against Islamophobia. “As a result, a dangerous cycle of actions and reactions are set in motion,” he wrote recently in a letter to the leaders of Muslim states – encouraging them to act collectively to counter the growing Islamophobia in non-Muslim states, especially Western states causing increasing concern amongst Muslims the world over.
Resultantly, according to Al Jazeera, Khan's efforts welcomed a decision by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to approve a resolution setting March 15 as the International Day to Combat Islamophobia. The resolution, adopted on Tuesday by consensus by the 193-member world body and co-sponsored by 55 mainly Muslim countries, emphasizes the right to freedom of religion and belief and recalls a 1981 resolution calling for “the elimination of all forms of intolerance and of discrimination based on religion or belief”.
In the end, as mentioned in the beginning, such online abuse can often lead to actual offline abuse and violence within the people – the result of which we are all witnesses. The only way forward is in realizing that in the growing world of virtual currency and Metaverse, how seriously will we take our cyber-soldiers?
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Alyan Khan (b. 2002) is an independent writer, youth activist, and author of the book, “The Seven Venoms”.
© ALYAN KHAN | OFFICIAL