Islamophobia on the internet – even the Mail draws the line at Jihad Watch

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The Mail on Sunday examines the hatred generated by the right-wing internet campaign against the so-called “Rage Boy”, Kashmiri Islamist protestor Shakeel Ahmad Bhat:

“Don’t you hate Islamic Rage Boy? ‘MoBlows’, writing on the Jihad Watch website, certainly does. ‘I just want to put my fist down his throat’, he says. The ‘boy’ in question rose to prominence earlier this year when he was photographed at a demonstration in Srinagar, capital of Indian-administered Kashmir…. On Jihad Watch, which says its aim is to bring public notice to the role that jihad theology and ideology play in the modern world, ‘The Goobs’ writes: ‘Can you IMAGINE how nasty it would smell standing next to this nutter? Whatcha wanna bet he hasn’t ever owned a can of Right Guard?’ … Many other internet postings about Rage Boy are so revolting that they cannot be published in a family newspaper.”

Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch is indignant that his hate-filled website should be criticised in this way (particularly by the Mail, which he regards as “a cut above the general run of clueless, collaborationist and dhimmi fishwraps”). He writes: “As I’ve said many times, I believe in free inquiry, and that the antidote to bad speech is more speech, not forcible silencing.”