IN this social media driven world, where outrageous claims are often broadcast with none of the traditional journalistic fact checking, it is easy for public opinion to be herded from one point of view to another.
But every once in a while, along comes a social media story that has nothing to do with “alternative facts” or crass political spin, which can make people realize that the world is not such a brutal, confrontational place.
On Monday, racist bigots attacked a cemetery in St Louis, Missouri. During their rampage they knocked over or completely smashed some 170 tombstones in the Chesed Shel Emeth cemetery. Such desecration of memorials to the dead would be bad enough of itself. What made the St Louis attack so disturbing was that the targeted graves were Jewish.
This hateful behavior appalled many, not least America’s Muslim community. Within hours of the attack being publicized, local Muslims had launched a crowdfunding appeal aiming to raise $20,000. In an astonishingly short time, this target had been exceeded and via 3,000 donations more than $80,000 had come in and the figure is now heading toward $100,000. The majority of the people who have given so generously are Muslim Americans.
The organizers of this astonishing gesture say that they wanted to demonstrate that Muslim Americans stand in solidarity with the Jewish American community and condemn the disgusting desecration in St Louis. They also say that since the money raised is clearly likely to exceed the amount needed to restore the Chesed Shel Emeth graveyard, the surplus will be used to restore other Jewish cemeteries that have been vandalized recently.
Most reasonable people would be heartened by this generous gesture from an American Muslim community that at the present time has troubles enough of its own. Unfortunately, there are exceptions. It may seem barely credible but US Zionists have been urging those responsible for the cemetery to reject the Muslim money. The rumor mill appears to be gathering pace. The suggestion from the Zionists is that the damage was very probably caused by Muslims as a cynical stunt to give them an opportunity to grandstand in defense of American Jews. One US Zionist apparently said that Jews in the United States could look after their own and did not need any outside help, especially from the Muslim community.
Such a reaction to a genuine gesture of solidarity and support is deeply troubling. What it seems to emphasize is that in Zionist eyes, there is nothing that American Muslims can do to demonstrate their patriotism and their defense of fellow Americans, regardless of race and religion.
Washington’s well-funded and devastatingly effective Zionist lobby is not about to welcome any gesture that puts the Muslim and Arab world in a good light. More to the point, they are willing to produce the “alternative facts” which suggest that Muslims themselves may have been responsible for the damage to the St Louis gravestones.
In such an atmosphere of vituperation and lies, the core truth is in danger of being drowned out. That truth is that a group of Americans, who happen to be Muslims, decided to support fellow Americans whose dead had been subjected to outrage. But Zionists don’t do common decency. They are exploiting the anti-Muslim panic that has gripped America to try and turn an act of generosity into some sort of sinister plot.
