Facebook has intervened in a political dispute between Muslim reformist and activist Shireen Qudosi and Muslim leader Javed Ali by banning Qudosi permanently from Facebook.
The spat originated after Qudosi stood up for Clarion Project’s National Security Analyst Ryan Mauro, who provided training in San Diego to various police departments last week on what to be aware of when fighting radical Islam.
Mauro was subjected to a silencing campaign by the Muslim Brotherhood-linked Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), which attempted to shut down the training sessions by inundating the police with complaints. CAIR was founded by Muslim Brotherhood members and was designated by the FBI as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation trial, the largest terrorism financing trial in American history.
CAIR was designated as a terrorist organization in 2014 by the United Arab Emirates.
After Qudosi wrote a post in defense of Mauro, Ali got in touch with her to harangue her for her support of Clarion and to accuse her of selling out for money to anti-Muslim interests.
Qudosi warned him to leave her alone, saying she would publish screenshots of his comments if he did not. She did publish the screenshots and a post slamming Ali.
The post was removed for “violating Facebook’s Community Guidelines” and she was initially given a two-day suspension. Subsequently, she was banned permanently and her account disabled.
All previous messages between her and others, in an Orwellian twist, have been erased, redacted as if they had never been sent.
Qudosi told Clarion she suspects Ali of calling on his supporters to flood Facebook with complaints about her until she was banned.
It is outrageous that Facebook should intervene in this draconian manner in a political dispute between two Muslim leaders and especially egregious that it should permanently ban a respected female Muslim activist for a post which seemingly did not make any threats or even bigoted remarks about Islam or Muslims.
Facebook’s cavalier attitude to free speech is seriously endangering the fight against Islamism.