From BBC News
by Anisa Kadri
Amid concerns over an increase in Islamophobic content on social media following the recent Paris attacks, BBC Asian Network has been hearing from Muslims about their experience of being the target of anti-Islamic sentiment online.
Activist Akeela Ahmed says she uses Twitter to campaign on equality issues. Her profile picture shows her in her hijab.
“If I tweet something to do with women’s rights, I’ll get tweets usually from men saying, ‘How can you tweet that when you’ve got that thing on your head?’ They’re talking about my hijab.
“Post-Paris, the abuse increased and it was a lot worse,” she says, referring to negative comments posted online following the attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, in which gunmen said they were killing in the name of Islam.
“One particular person was quite specific in their threats and wanting to kill Muslims. Normally, I’m not threatened by it, but on this occasion I was.”
That Twitter account has been taken down. But there are concerns that some Islamophobic content remains online.
Campaigners from the organisation Tell Mama, which monitors hate against Muslims online, sent Asian Network some examples.
“When events like Paris happen, what seems to happen is that people on social media sites have bigger discussions,”says Bharath Ganesh.
“The language we’ve seen is extremely derogatory towards Muslims.
“Hashtags like #killallmuslims appear. Some Muslims used that hashtag to highlight anti-Islamic sentiments online.”
