Professor: Islamophobia enhanced by online trolls

Islamophobia is nothing new in America and it has only been amplified by the internet, according to a Washington State University professor.

Edward R Murrow College of Communication professor Lawrence Pintak, who authored the book, “America and Islam: Soundbites, Suicide Bombs and the Road to Donald Trump,” spoke to a packed room Tuesday at the WSU Foley Institute in Pullman.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, now-President Donald Trump provoked fear of Muslim migrants and called for surveillance of mosques in America. His GOP opponents that year took similar stances.

“This was a key theme in the 2016 presidential Republican primaries,” Pintak said.

Pintak said the roots of the Islamophobia among Americans can be traced all the way to the beginning of U.S. history. He said Roger Williams was prejudiced against Muslims, despite creating what is now Rhode Island as a safe haven for people of various religions. Later, Thomas Jefferson was called the “Arabian prophet” by critics, Pintak said.

Pintak said modern media often presents a negative perspective on Muslims. He said a study of New York Times headlines showed more than 57 percent of headlines with the word Muslim or Islam were negative.

Violence committed by radical Muslims in America only worsens the issue, and Pintak showed a New York Post magazine cover after the 2015 San Bernadino mass shootings that simply read, “Muslim Killers.”

“If they had been Catholics, would the headline have been ‘Catholic Killers?’ No,” Pintak said.

He said this Islamophobia has played into the hands of those looking to sway public opinion and spread fear on the internet.

“All of the rhetoric of the 2016 election absolutely provided fodder for the trolls online,” he said.

Russian bots have spread anti-Islam content on Twitter and Facebook, even going as far as orginizing anti-Islam events.

Pintak was part of a research team that studied anti-Muslim Twitter messages about Minnesota Rep. Ihan Omar. He said a relatively small number of acccunts were responsible for anti-Muslim messaging, but the messages reached a vast network of thousands of bots and “trolls” who forwarded those tweets.

This Twitter network interacts with right-wing blogs and websites before eventually the content makes its way into mainstream media.

“These bots are basically soldiers in a new online war,” he said.

This has not stopped Muslims from being active politically. Pintak said his team identified 166 Muslims ran for political office in 2018, and many more are expected to run in 2020.

Anthony Kuipers can be reached at (208) 883-4640, or by email@dnews.com.