News and Analysis (6/13/19)

The neo-Nazi organ that “falsely claimed that [Dean] Obeidallah planned and executed the horrific terrorist attack that took place at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester” must pay the comedian/activist $4.1 million:

• First Lawsuit Against Daily Stormer to Reach Resolution (Muslim Advocates)

Authorities’ failure to investigate the “beating that sent her to the hospital with a broken nose and a head injury forced her to do the investigative work herself, uncovering surveillance video … near the crime scene”:

• Muslim Woman Investigated Her Own Hate Crime After NYPD Dismissed Her Case (Huffington Post)”

“Russia advised the Sudanese military to use fake news and videos to portray demonstrators as anti-Islamic, pro-Israeli and pro-LGBT”:

• Russia Joins Gulf States in Coaching Sudan’s Military (Middle East Soccer)

“Follow Me, Akhi is deeply researched, surprising and considerate. It portrays the online world of British Muslims as diverse, rich and fraught – but above all else innovative, exciting and criminally under-reported”:

• Hussein Kesvani’s Follow Me, Akhi: Investigating Islam and the Internet (New Statesman)

Hindu nationalists used the Pepe the Frog image “favored among American white supremacists … to glorify the 1992 desecration of the Babri Masjid mosque … that triggered riots … killing of hundreds of innocent Muslims” …

• Facebook in India Is Drowning in Anti-Muslim Hate Speech (Vice News)

“… After decades of standing behind the Palestinian people, India under the [BJP] has tilted in Israel’s favour as the Hindu nationalism of India finds common cause with the ethno-nationalism of the Zionist state”:

• India Embraces Israel in Unprecedented anti-Palestine Vote at the UN (Middle East Monitor)

“Chapel Hill Police Chief Chris Blue said he wished the department had recognized that the deaths of Deah Barakat, his wife Yusor Abu-Salha and her sister Razan Abu-Salha were about more than a parking dispute” …

• Chapel Hill Police Chief Expresses ‘Sincere Regret’ over Muslim Murders Message (Herald Sun)

… and after a victim’s father’s wrote that “[i]n no just world should he be able to murder children and not face the words of the families whose lives he has destroyed,” the killer “withdrew his request to leave the courtroom”:

• He Killed 3 Muslim Students. But Did He Commit a Hate Crime? (NY Times)

Israel’s well-documented disinformation campaign might as well have been a model for the alleged Russian troll campaign that gets the media attention:

• Inside Israel’s Million Dollar Troll Army (electronic intifada)