Some in the mainstream media have been quick to accuse anyone of spreading “Islamophobic conspiracy theories” if they question whether the Notre Dame blaze may be a jihad attack. An NBC article states: “Images and videos of the flaming cathedral spread quickly across social media and were quickly seized upon to push Islamophobic narratives that have flourished in far-right politics.” The Huffington Post shouted “racial hatred.”
No one knows whether jihadists ignited the blaze or not, and there is ample reason to ask questions. Many in the media, however, have lost an ability which was once a job requirement of journalists: to ask probing questions.
One should not jump to conclusions about Nortre Dame, but there are a few occurrences that likely prompted questions.
- Despite the unusually quick response to blame renovations for the fire, “the chief architect of historical monuments responsible for the restoration of the spire of Notre Dame, Philippe Villeneuve, states: ‘the work had not started yet, only the scaffolding was being assembled.’ From his point of view, ‘the hot spot hypothesis is therefore not the right one.” So there were no workers in the cathedral and no heat sources near the timber frame.
- In September 2016, a Muslim was arrested after his car is found packed with explosive gas cylinders outside Notre Dame cathedral.
- A couple days later, three more Muslims were arrested over a Notre Dame Cathedral jihad bomb plot.
- In France, three churches a day are vandalized on average and last month “over 800-year-old Basilica of Saint-Denis in the now heavily migrant-populated suburbs of Paris was also vandalised, with the basilica’s organ being heavily damaged and stained glass windows were broken.” Across Europe, churches are routinely being desecrated.
- A Catholic priest was beheaded by jihadists in front of horrified onlookers during mass in 2016. Father Jacques Hamel was first forced to his knees before he was murdered, while the jihadists “filmed themselves preaching in Arabic by the altar.”
- And consider the words of Muslim political candidate Eve Torres in Montreal: she stated that the Notre Dame fire was divine retribution and that “firefighters should sleep in the church on Notre-Dame Street in Montreal.”
- “The Australian Jewish Association cited alleged social media post by Muslims and people with Arab names that delighted in the church’s destruction.”
Prudent people ask questions in the face of suspicious occurrences, and it is not spreading conspiracy theories to do so. Nor is it “far right,” “racist,” or “Islamophobic.”
“Notre Dame Cathedral fire spurs Islamophobic conspiracy theories on social media,” by Ben Collins, NBC News, April 16, 2019:
As firefighters worked to contain the fire that ravaged the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris on Monday, Twitter and YouTube struggled to take down conspiracy theories being pushed by both anonymous accounts and verified white nationalists who spread Islamophobic theories about the disaster.
French officials investigating the fire have ruled out arson and terrorism, saying the fire that led to a roof collapse may have been tied to ongoing repairs at the cathedral.
Images and videos of the flaming cathedral spread quickly across social media and were quickly seized upon to push Islamophobic narratives that have flourished in far-right politics around the world in recent years. Those sentiments then made their way to more mainstream conservative pundits, who questioned whether the fire had been set on purpose.
Some anonymous users used editing software to push conspiracy theories on YouTube and Twitter, and their accounts remained active on the platforms — despite repeated debunkings and reports on the platform. One video on YouTube, viewed 40,000 times, superimposes audio of a man yelling “Allahu Akbar” (Arabic for “God is great”) over a video of the Notre Dame fire. The audio comes from a years-old video, which is the first result when a user searches for “Allahu Akbar Scream” in Google. The video has not been removed from YouTube….