'Sharp spike' in anti-Muslim posts on X since US-Israel war on Iran, study shows
There has been a "sharp spike" in anti-Muslim posts on Elon Musk's X platform since the US and Israel began their joint war on Iran on 28 February, a social media monitor revealed on Monday.
The Washington, DC-based Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH) said it tracked posts that explicitly dehumanised, excluded, and incited violence against Muslims from 1 January to 5 March.
On the day the war began, the volume of such posts surged from just under 2,000 per day to more than 6,000, the report said.
The group only looked at posts originating in the US that targeted US Muslims, CSOH told Middle East Eye.
The reach of the posts was the most concerning, the report said.
"Reposts dramatically amplify the visibility of harmful content, allowing it to spread far beyond the original accounts that generated it."
With reposts included, "the total mention volume of Islamophobic content rises to 279,417, representing an 11-fold amplification of the harmful original posts".
By 5 March, the report noted a definitive decline in such posts, but added that "the underlying conditions that fueled this surge remain firmly in place".
The content examined by CSOH encompassed a wide swath that included everything from personal hate-fuelled opinions to calls for lawmakers to institute strict anti-Muslim policy, including a "Muslim Exclusion Act" and the deportation of all Muslims.
Since the Trump administration swept to power in January 2025, hardline Republicans such as Congressman Randy Fine and Senator Tommy Tuberville, as well as conservative pundits like Laura Loomer, have at various levels all engaged in calls to target, isolate and remove Muslims in the US.
'Genocidal rhetoric'
A "significant indicator of escalation risk" is the scale of posts that refer to Muslims as "rats", "pests", "vermin", and "parasites", CSOH said.
"Such language has historically preceded and enabled the most extreme forms of violence against targeted communities," the report noted.
Other posts framed Muslims as an "infestation", portraying them as a spreading contagion threatening American cities and institutions, thereby needing to be eradicated, CSOH said.
The report further highlighted what it deemed clear calls to use violence against Muslims, describing such posts as within the frame of "self-defense or civilizational survival, lending a veneer of patriotic duty to the genocidal rhetoric".
As part of its study, CSOH said it reported 30 posts to X support in the categories of "Violent Speech" and "Hate, Abuse or Harassment". Only 11 were removed, with the other 19 remaining on the platform as of 9 March, the report showed.
Muslims especially face an enforcement gap on X because of "a critical disconnect between platform policies and their application", CSOH said.
Given the volume of anti-Muslim posts, the report recommended that social media platforms across the board establish "Trusted Flagger status" for Muslim civil rights organisations, along with a dedicated reporting channel for flagging mass incitement and threats.
Civil society groups, law enforcement agencies, and community leaders must also step up their own monitoring mechanisms to help them better engage with political leaders and "support more informed responses to online narratives and incidents that have the potential to translate into violence targeting Muslims".
CSOH also strongly urged elected officials to take responsibility for their rhetoric.
"Language that conflates a military confrontation with a religious or civilizational struggle, or draws on Christian nationalist narratives, risks inflaming domestic hostility toward minority communities," the report said.
That's despite most lawmakers who engage in such language doubling down on their stance, given that the Trump administration and the Republican-controlled Congress have thus far shown no interest in standing up for Muslim communities, or even for non-Judeo-Christian religious freedoms.
This article was sourced from Middle East Eye.
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