Increasing attacks on Bangladeshi activists – some facts Islamic fundamentalists have stepped up attacks on secular Bangladeshi bloggers and campaigners in the past few months, with the latest being the murder of an LGBT activist. DW presents some facts about the killings. By Arafatul Islam https://www.dw.com/en/increasing-attacks-on-bangladeshi-activists-some-facts/a-19217814
War criminals and bloggers’ murders
On February 15, 2013, blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider was hacked to death in front of his house in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka. Soon after his murder, an Islamist group claimed that Haider was an atheist who had made “blasphemous” comments about Prophet Muhammad and Islam on social media.
Haider was killed at a time when thousands of people had taken to the streets demanding capital punishment for a number of top Islamist leaders accused of war crimes during the country’s War of Independence in 1971. The unprecedented protest was organized by a group of secular bloggers and activists, who mobilized the people through Facebook. It was also the first of its kind demonstration representing the power of social media in the South Asian country.
Atheists are targeted
Since Haider’s assassination in 2013, five more secular bloggers have been slain in Bangladesh. All of these activists were self-proclaimed atheists and critics of religious fundamentalism. Islamist groups claimed responsibility for each of these killings on Twitter, releasing press statements in English and Bengali languages stating the reasons for their deaths. The jihadist organizations have said they killed the activists for their “blasphemous activities.”
Social media is considered a threat
Bangladesh is not a developed country but due to growing Internet connectivity, the number of people using social media and expressing their views publicly has been on the rise.
Bangladesh has now more than 30 million Facebook users, and secular bloggers and activists are making good use of it, criticizing religious fundamentalism and promoting secular values. After the murder of American-Bangladeshi blogger Avijit Roy in Dhaka on February 26, 2015, it became clear that the country’s Islamists felt threatened by the secular writers’ social media activism.
Bloggers are not the sole target
Islamic militants have carried out 34 attacks over the past 14 months in Bangladesh. “Islamic State” (IS) has claimed responsibility for at least 15 of these attacks, whereas Ansar al-Islam, an al-Qaeda affiliated Islamist group, has claimed responsibility for eight. The IS attacked mostly foreigners and religious minorities, whereas Ansar al-Islam targeted atheist bloggers, freethinkers and gay activists. The recent killing of two LGBT activists is another proof of the expanding influence of Islamists in the Muslim-majority country.
Government denies IS existence
Recently, IS published a six-page interview with its chief in Bangladesh in its propaganda magazine, Dabiq, detailing why the South Asian country is strategically important for them. The militant group said it intended to carry out attacks in India and Myanmar using Bangladesh as a base. Despite these claims, the Bangladeshi government has always denied the presence of international terror groups on Bangladeshi soil.
Police inaction
Activists accuse the nation’s security agencies of inaction against Islamic groups. The general response from the police, they say, borders on apathy. After the murder of atheist activist Nazimuddin Samad earlier this month, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said her government shouldn’t be held responsible if someone got killed for criticizing Islam. The premier has generally shied away from condemning the killing of secular activists, with the exception of the assassinations of gay activist Xulhaz Mannan and his friend Tanay Majumder.
Secularism is a strong force
Religious fundamentalism is still not as deep-rooted in Bangladesh as in some other South Asian countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan. The secular culture is extremely potent. However, in the past few years, extremist religious groups have successfully created an environment of fear in the country. That is the reason why most Bangladeshis do not publicly protest the killings.
Mo Norai has worked in Silicon Valley for a decade. He’s done stints at Google, Twitter, Facebook, and Apple, but only as a contract worker, meaning he has missed out on the tech giants’ storied perks, benefits and job security. So when he was approached last April by a recruiter from a company called Tech Jobs Box about a full-time job, he was intrigued.
A woman named Kelly Dale contacted him via LinkedIn promising that “salary and benefits would be competitive.”
“It really hooked me,” Norai told me last month.
After a brief phone conversation, Dale said he seemed like a great candidate and set up in-person interviews with her colleague and an investor in the company. Those went well and for four months last year, Norai thought he had a new job. He was in regular communication with his new colleagues, meeting up with them for dinner, drinks, and a baseball game, but they kept pushing his start date back, saying they were securing office space and finalising funding.
But in fact, there was no job. Tech Jobs Box wasn’t a real company. Kelly Dale and the rest of his new “colleagues” were actually operatives for Project Veritas, a conservative investigative group founded by James O’Keefe that specialises in secretly recording people. It’s perhaps best known for catalyzing the downfall of ACORN, a low-income advocacy group that lost its federal funding after Project Veritas released undercover videos of the group’s employees counseling a sex worker and her “pimp” (a disguised O’Keefe).
Project Veritas traditionally targets politicians, government agencies, and media organisations, but decided to go after Silicon Valley last year because of its perceived biases against conservatives. “Big tech companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter have become media monopolies and they are censoring people,” said O’Keefe by phone.
In January, Project Veritas released three videos about Twitter’s content-moderation practices that feature hidden camera footage of nine current and former Twitter employees – one woman and eight men, including Norai. They even secretly filmed Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey by having an operative pose as a homeless person and confront him at a Blue Bottle coffee shop.
The videos don’t contain blockbuster information. The employees reveal that there aren’t a lot of conservatives at Twitter; that Twitter tries to make spammy content less visible on the platform; that many of the sock puppet Twitter accounts banned in the last year posed as Trump supporters; and that Twitter would cooperate, as required by law, in any investigation of President Trump by handing over his private Twitter messages. The most surprising part was a former engineer’s claim that Twitter historically “shadow banned” users. (A “shadow ban” means that a user’s content on a platform can’t be seen and the user doesn’t realise it.)
Project Veritas points out that Senator Ted Cruz cited their videos while questioning tech companies during a hearing about content moderation, terrorism, and Russia in January.
“The individuals depicted in these videos were speaking in a personal capacity and do not represent or speak for Twitter,” said a Twitter spokesperson by email, pointing me to a page that explains how and why Twitter accounts are censored or made less visible. “Twitter does not shadowban accounts. We do take actions to downrank accounts that are abusive, and mark them accordingly so people can still click through and see this information if they so choose.”
While Project Veritas’s findings weren’t particularly shocking, how they were obtained was. Project Veritas didn’t just fake-recruit its targets, it fake-seduced them. Many of the male employees were secretly recorded while on dates at dimly-lit restaurants, sipping wine. Based on the number of times he appears in the videos in different locations and dress, one security engineer, Clay Haynes, appears to have been enamoured enough with the operative pumping him for information to go out with her at least three times. All of the Veritas operatives’ faces are blurred, but you can see his date’s jangly bracelets and long blond hair. It’s unclear just how far the seduction of Haynes went, but they became serious enough to go on a double date to Morton’s Steakhouse with her friend, a disguised James O’Keefe.
“NO ONE should have to experience this,” said Haynes via Facebook message. Haynes, who is still employed by Twitter, ultimately opted not to talk to me at the company’s request.
Beyond the questionable journalistic ethics of exploiting people’s desires for work and love, Project Veritas’s tactics broke the law, says John Nockleby, a professor who specialises in privacy at Loyola Law School-Los Angeles. While consent laws for recording conversations vary from state to state, California is a two-party consent state, meaning you have to tell someone if you’re recording them, or face up to a year of jail time and a $US2,500 ($3,240) fine. “You’re allowed to do video in a public place without getting consent, but not take audio, unless it’s someone like a politician giving a speech to a crowd,” Nockleby told me by phone. “In California, even in a public place, if you’re audio recording without consent, that’s not legal.” In California, even in a public place, if you’re audio recording without consent, that’s not legal.
O’Keefe, who paid a $US100,000 ($129,600) settlement in 2012 to an ACORN employee who sued him over California’s law against surreptitious recording, expressed the belief that his operatives are allowed to record people in public places, like bars, restaurants or a conference room where a door is open.
“We have a number of lawyers who handle compliance for us. California is a two-party state but we can operate in areas where there are no expectations of privacy,” said O’Keefe by phone. “With the Twitter story, we did not break the law. Period.”
In a follow-up email, a Project Veritas spokesperson pointed to an exception in the law for circumstances in “which the parties to the communication may reasonably expect that the communication may be overheard or recorded.”(Norai says the door to the conference room where his interviews took place was closed.)
The story Silicon Valley likes to tell about itself is that it conquered the world by making it more open and connected, and by getting strangers to trust each other. Project Veritas exploited that ecosystem of connection and trust to wage its year-long investigation, turning the tools that Silicon Valley created against it. In a phone interview, O’Keefe declined to reveal how many undercover journalists were involved or how much it spent on the operation, saying only that it “was very expensive” because travel and lodging in San Francisco “was outrageous.” (Project Veritas doesn’t seem to be having money problems; its budget has nearly doubled every year, according to financial filings. O’Keefe says it raised more than $US7 ($9) million in 2017.) He said he couldn’t talk about his group’s methods because the investigation of tech companies is ongoing. Google and Facebook employees should beware. The investigation of tech companies is ongoing. “We still have active investigators out in the field,” said O’Keefe.
“We still have active investigators out in the field, which is why I can’t reveal the techniques used to gather information,” he told me. “I wish these companies would be honest about what they are doing. Unfortunately, we live in a society where there is so much dishonesty that it requires undercover work.”
In other words, deceit requires more deceit. I was able to unearth some of the group’s methods of deception: It sent targets messages on LinkedIn and dating apps, built false identities on social networks, and operated a fake start-up out of a WeWork blocks from Twitter’s headquarters.
The larger revelation of the project is not that Twitter is biased against conservatives; it’s that Silicon Valley has given strangers who bear you ill will all the tools they need to infiltrate your life. Our identities are scattered across the web on multiple platforms, giving people countless ways to make contact with us as well as dossiers of what we do, whom we like, and where we go.
“You’re on the national news talking about Twitter,” a friend told Mo Norai via Facebook message after the first video was published. Norai had no idea what she was talking about at first. “You know I don’t work at Twitter anymore, right?” he sent back.
Then he went to Project Veritas’s site and watched the video. “Oh fuck, this is bad,” he thought.
In the videos, Norai is dressed formally, wearing a tie and a black suit vest, his long hair pulled back in a ponytail. Norai’s experience at tech companies is in content moderation — deciding, essentially, what speech needs to be taken down. He’s removed spam from iTunes and reviewed posts as a contractor for Facebook. He was hired as a contract worker at Twitter after the Paris attacks in November 2015 because terrorism results in increased offensive postings on social networks. “We were warned it was going to be grisly,” Norai told me.
He was there for just three months, and was gone by March 2016, months before Trump became the Republican presidential nominee. Having “Content Review Agent” for Twitter on his LinkedIn résumé, though, made him a target of Project Veritas. Vaporware,a successful strategy for many a start-up in Silicon Valley, also works well for deceptive investigative operations.
Norai had two interviews with the fake start-up, which was allegedly going to make content recommendations to people based on their location and buying patterns. He says he typed the company’s name into a search engine and didn’t find anything. (Vaporware, a successful strategy for many a start-up in Silicon Valley, also works well for deceptive investigative operations.) “It seemed weird but I met the people,” Norai told me. “They said they wanted to start a start-up. It made sense it wasn’t in existence yet.”
Both his interviews were in May. Kelly Dale, the supposed recruiter, said the office was in downtown San Francisco and gave Norai an address on Mission Street. When Norai got there, it turned out to be a WeWork co-working space, which, again, is not that strange. Lots of early-stage start-ups are based out of WeWorks around the country, because they offer easy plug-and-play office space. The WeWork-Civic Center that Project Veritas used rents office space for as little as $US780 ($1,011) per month.
I went to the WeWork last month – it’s a seven-minute walk from Twitter’s headquarters, in a stylish building on an otherwise seedy street in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district – and asked for Tech Jobs Box. The receptionist recognised the name, but said they weren’t there anymore. She wouldn’t say how long they were there or how many people came in to meet with them. WeWork declined to answer any questions about the fake company that rented space from it.
Norai’s interviews were with a doughy-faced guy who introduced himself as Eric Williams. A grey-haired “investor” named Dan, who Norai later discovered was Dan Sandini, a known operative of Veritas, came to the second interview, the one posted online. Dan and Eric said they lived on the East Coast but wanted to recruit talent in the Bay Area.
Norai thought the interview questions were odd. They asked him theoretical questions about how he might have dealt with tweets from aggressive Trump supporters.
“The political questions were strange but I just thought it was because they weren’t from here,” said Norai, a life-long Californian who grew up in the East Bay.
Norai hadn’t worked at Twitter during the bulk of the 2016 campaign, nor had he dealt with Trump-related content moderation. But his theoretical comments were presented as if from experience. Project Veritas’s habit of presenting comments out of context is part of why people question the credibility of their videos. James O’Keefe says Project Veritas recently formulated a code of ethics that includes “not breaking the law” and not deceptively editing videos or “putting words in people’s mouths.”
After Norai’s interview ended, Eric and Dan took him out for celebratory cocktails at two swanky San Francisco bars, Local Edition and the View. They said Norai was hired. At the View, Norai took out his phone to Snapchat the moment. Dan protested and asked Norai not to put it online. “I just thought he didn’t want to look silly because I gave him cat ears,” said Norai. ”Current or prior Facebook or Twitter experience preferred.”
When Eric came back to town in June, he invited Norai to a Giants game with two other men, who said they were Department of Justice lawyers. The four men sat behind home plate, and Eric asked for Norai’s help in recruiting other people for the start-up. Afterwards he sent him job descriptions for two positions: “software engineer, machine learning” and “spam operations.” “Current or prior Facebook or Twitter experience preferred,” the listings read, suggesting Facebook may get the Veritas treatment next. Norai put Eric in touch with two friends who had experience at Twitter and Facebook, respectively.
The night ended at bars again. After drinks at the Starlight Room, Norai got on the train home to the East Bay. “It felt like we’d established a friendship,” said Norai.
He never saw any of them again. At some point, Norai tried to email Kelly Dale and it bounced. Eric told him she’d gotten married and had a new email address, which made little sense given that her email was “kelly@techjobsbox.com.” A few months later, Eric’s number stopped working. Dan told him Eric had been let go. Still jobless months later, Norai began to wonder if it had been some kind of scam. He decided to take a contract work position at Facebook last September.
When the Project Veritas video came out in January, he found out exactly what kind of scam it was. The videos didn’t include the two friends he put Eric in touch with.
In January, an investigator from Twitter reached out to him to ask if he had known he’d been filmed and asked whether he’d been contacted on Tinder or other dating apps, as others had been. While Norai says he mostly worries about potential professional damage, he also bears psychological scars from the episode. He says he’s paranoid now about meeting new people, and worries when a phone is out during an interview because it could be secretly recording him. He didn’t feel comfortable with me until I showed him my driver’s licence.
“Kelly Dale,” left. Allison Maass, right, who left Project Veritas last year to work for Circa News.Screenshot: LinkedIn and Circa
He asked me if I’d ever done anything like this before, which was an uncomfortable question, because I have. A couple years ago, I created a nonexistent business — the Freakin’ Awesome Karaoke Express, or F.A.K.E. — and made it a website as well as accounts on Twitter, Facebook and Yelp, in order to explore the fake reputation economy. I do believe that some stories can only be told well by going “undercover,” and while I hate to admit it, part of me is impressed by all the work that Project Veritas put into its Twitter exposé. Many a journalist knows it can be hard to get people who work at tech companies to talk. But their specific tactics were deplorable and cruel. They didn’t go undercover to find out how an industry actually works; they went undercover to exploit people’s vulnerabilities in the pursuit of information that could have been unearthed with a more traditional journalistic approach.
O’Keefe disagrees with that sentiment. “It’s hard to get [tech companies] to be honest on the record. You call them as a journalist and they say they don’t do it. We got tipped off to shadow banning and set out to confirm it. And we basically confirmed it,” he told me by phone from an Uber. “Sometimes that’s when you’re most honest, when you’re being recorded in private.”
Twitter disputes the honesty of the investigation. “We deplore the deceptive and underhanded tactics by which this footage was obtained and selectively edited to fit a pre-determined narrative,” said a spokesperson by email. “Twitter is committed to enforcing our rules without bias and empowering every voice on our platform, in accordance with the Twitter Rules.”
Since the Twitter investigation was published, Project Veritas hasn’t done much to cover its tracks. Kelly Dale’s LinkedIn profile is still up, with over 200 followers and claims that Dale worked at CUNY and went to Pace. Neither have records of her for obvious reasons: She doesn’t exist. According to Nexis’s people search engine, there are no Kelly Dales who live in Massachusetts. The profile photo looks to me like it belongs to Allison Maass, who did not respond to a media inquiry sent via LinkedIn. Maass left Project Veritas last year to work for Circa, an online media group owned by the media behemoth Sinclair Broadcasting, which famously requires its television stations to air conservative news daily, and is currently trying to expand its footprint by acquiring Tribune Media. Project Veritas and Sinclair Broadcasting have collaborated in the past.
Leaving behind the traces of abandoned identities is pretty common for Project Veritas, said Lauren Windsor, an executive producer at the web show Undercurrent who was working at Democracy Partners when the group of political consultants was infiltrated by Project Veritas in 2016. After Democracy Partners realised it had been duped and secretly filmed by an intern named “Angela Brandt,” who was in fact Allison Maass, Windsor began preserving evidence for a million-dollar lawsuit against the group. She realised it would be useful to publish that evidence – photos and details of faked identities — to help others avoid the same fate. In January, she published an online dossier with the photos and known aliases of over 150 Project Veritas operatives.
Graphic: ProjectVeritas.exposed
When shown a photo of “Eric Williams,” Windsor recognised him from another Project Veritas operation and sent me photos of him filming activist group Voces de la Frontera in Milwaukee in 2016.
Many of Project Veritas’s recent stings haven’t gone very well. Investigations into the Washington Post and the Soros Foundation were spectacular failures. But even if Project Veritas’s methods are crude and “amateurish” as the New Yorker‘s Jane Mayer put it, Windsor warns that it is a force to be reckoned with.
“They have gotten a lot of funding. They have been on a recruitment surge to try to staff up before 2018,” she said by phone. “I think they’re a real threat to media and political organisations, and, most importantly, to candidates.”
O’Keefe echoes that. “We have an untold amount of people inside organisations and they don’t know that,” he told me. “We are going from the smash-and-grab to the long con.” We are going from the smash-and-grab to the long con.
Windsor says the group’s techniques are “inhumane.” “They see themselves as being at war with the Left but the [people they secretly film] are real people despite how much Project Veritas dislikes them politically,” she said. “A lot of people [who are infiltrated and secretly filmed] have described the experience to me like psychological rape. It felt like that to me. They’re destroying lives and it’s really important to expose their political espionage as much as possible.”
Windsor has been training liberal groups how to spot a Veritas operative, mainly by thoroughly researching the online identity of anyone who offers free help or dangles the offer of donor money. If their online footprint is thin, it can be a clue. But there are, of course, legitimate reasons why someone might have a thin online footprint, so it’s not a sureproof solution.
I don’t actually have any sureproof solutions for you. We could ask social media companies to try to protect us from deceivers by authenticating people’s identities – Tinder could require users’ driver licenses; LinkedIn could ask for business records in order to list a new workplace — but that would simply invite a different sort of dystopia. We’re never going to be able to completely eradicate fake bots on Twitter or faked videos or con men on dating sites. Trolls will always find a way.
Maybe just keep in mind that, despite Silicon Valley marketing to the contrary, being in a more open and connected world has downsides. Project Veritas may not be particularly great at spycraft, but with enough manpower and enough online information at its disposal and enough hidden cameras in enough places, it will compromise people and organisations in damaging ways, fairly or unfairly. It’s the real-life manifestation of the faceless algorithms and unknown data brokers that scrape our profiles for information and constantly sit in the backgrounds of our browsers tracking everything that we do. Instead of using it to serve you Instagram ads for shoes, they’re trying to take down your organisation. You will just be a casualty along the way.
Mark Zuckerberg is responsible for mass murders, murders, terrorist attacks. By his allowing ChristoFascists, MuzzieFascistss, and Traitor Trump Fascists to spew bigotry, hate and pathological lies on Fascistbook? He is responsible for all the terrorist and mass murders that came from it. And Mark Zuckerberg should be dragged out of his home and put on his fucking knees and a bullet put in the back of his fucking Marxist head. THE HYPOCRITE COO OF FASCISTBOOK, SHERYL SANDBERG SURE DOES NOT HAVE ANY PROBLEM WITH THE MISOGYNIST PIGS ON FASCISTBOOK, LIKE DONALD J TRUMP, THE CHRISTOTALIBANS AND THE MUZZIETALIBANS.
THE INNOCENT BLOOD OF ALL THESE PEOPLE ARE ON THE HANDS AND HEADS OF FACEBOOK CEO MARK ZUCKERBERG AND COO SHERYL SANDBERG, THEIR BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND ALL EMPLOYEES OF FASCISTBOOK.
A nationwide review conducted by ABC News has identified at least 36 criminal cases where Trump was invoked in direct connection with violent acts, threats of violence or allegations of assault.
In nine cases, perpetrators hailed Trump in the midst or immediate aftermath of physically attacking innocent victims. In another 10 cases, perpetrators cheered or defended Trump while taunting or threatening others. And in another 10 cases, Trump and his rhetoric were cited in court to explain a defendant’s violent or threatening behavior.
The 36 cases identified by ABC News are remarkable in that a link to the president is captured in court documents and police statements, under the penalty of perjury or contempt.
In many cases of assault or threat, charges are never filed,
perpetrators are never identified or the incident is never even reported
to authorities. And most criminal acts committed by Trump supporters or
his detractors have nothing to do with the president. But in 36 cases,
court records and police reports indicated some sort of link.
The perpetrators and suspects identified in the 36 cases are mostly
white men — as young as teenagers and as old as 75 — while the victims
largely represent an array of minority groups — African-Americans,
Latinos, Muslims and gay men.
Federal law enforcement authorities have privately told ABC News they
worry that — even with Trump’s public denunciations of violence — Trump’s style
could inspire violence-prone individuals to take action against
minorities or others they perceive to be against the president’s agenda.
“Any public figure could have the effect of inspiring people,” FBI
Director Chris Wray told a Senate panel in July. “But remember that the
people who commit hate fueled violence are not logical, rational
people.”
MORE HYPOCRISY SPEWED OUT OF THE WELL USED OUTHOUSE PIEHOLE OF COO SHERYL SANDBURG OF FASCISTBOOK.
Beating of homeless man because Trump psychos thought he was an illegal.
Aug. 19, 2015: In Boston, after he and his brother beat
a sleeping homeless man of Mexican descent with a metal pole, Steven
Leader, 30, told police “Donald Trump was right, all these illegals need
to be deported.” The victim, however, was not in the United States
illegally. The brothers, who are white, ultimately pleaded guilty to several assault-related charges and were each sentenced to at least two years in prison.
Another Trumpanzee psycho threatening to put bullets in the heads of colored people.
Dec. 5, 2015: After Penn State University student
Nicholas Tavella, 19, was charged with “ethnic intimidation” and other
crimes for threatening to “put a bullet” in a young Indian man on
campus, his attorney argued in court that Tavella was just motivated by
“a love of country,” not “hate.” “Donald Trump is running for President
of the United States saying that, ‘We’ve got to check people out more
closely,'” Tavella’s attorney argued in his defense. Tavella, who is
white, ultimately pleaded guilty to ethnic intimidation and was sentenced to up to two years in prison.
Threatening to murder President Barack Obama and other federal officials. Posts threatening messages on Twitter and Facebook and they do nothing about his hate speech.
April 28, 2016: When FBI agents arrested 61-year-old John Martin Roos in White City, Oregon, for threatening federal officials, including then-President Barack Obama,
they found several pipe bombs and guns in his home. In the three months
before his arrest, Roos posted at least 34 messages to Twitter about
Trump, repeatedly threatening African Americans, Muslims, Mexican
immigrants and the “liberal media,” and in court documents, prosecutors
noted that the avowed Trump supporter posted this threatening message to
Facebook a month earlier: “The establishment is trying to steal the
election from Trump. … Obama is already on a kill list … Your [name]
can be there too.” Roos, who is white, has since pleaded guilty to
possessing an unregistered explosive device and posting internet threats
against federal officials. He was sentenced to more than five years in prison.
“Donald Trump will fix them” as Trumpanzee psycho attacks African American neighbor with knife.
June 3, 2016: After 54-year-old Henry Slapnik
attacked his African-American neighbors with a knife in Cleveland, he
told police “Donald Trump will fix them because they are scared of
Donald Trump,” according to police reports. Slapnik, who is white,
ultimately pleaded guilty to “ethnic intimidation” and other charges.
It’s unclear what sentence he received.
Attack of bi-racial couple with knife by Trump psycho who then said he was going to Trump rally to stomp out more Black Lives Matter group.
Aug. 16, 2016: In Olympia, Washington, 32-year-old
Daniel Rowe attacked a white woman and a black man with a knife after
seeing them kiss on a popular street. When police arrived on the scene,
Rowe professed to being “a white supremacist” and said “he planned on
heading down to the next Donald Trump rally and stomping out more of the
Black Lives Matter group,” according to court documents filed in the case. Rowe, who is white, ultimately pleaded guilty to charges of assault and malicious harassment, and he was sentenced to more than four years in prison.
“Donald Trump is the last hope for white people.” says Trump psycho assaulting African American teen.
Sept. 1, 2016: The then-chief of the Bordentown, New Jersey, police department, Frank Nucera, allegedly assaulted
an African American teenager who was handcuffed. Federal prosecutors
said the attack was part of Nucera’s “intense racial animus,” noting in
federal court that “within hours” of the assault, Nucera was secretly
recorded saying “Donald Trump is the last hope for white people.” The
60-year-old Nucera has been indicted by a federal grand jury on three
charges, including committing a federal hate crime. Nucera, who is
white, has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial. He retired two
years ago.
Trump psycho threatens to blow up mosque on Facebook but Facebook does nothing about his hate speech.
September 2016: After 40-year-old Mark Feigin of Los Angeles was arrested for posting anti-Muslim and allegedly threatening statements to a mosque’s Facebook page, his attorney argued in court that the comments were protected by the First Amendment because Feigin was “using similar language and expressing similar views” to “campaign statements from then-candidate Donald Trump.” Noting that his client “supported Donald Trump,” attorney Caleb Mason added that “Mr. Feigin’s comments were directed toward a pressing issue of public concern that was a central theme of the Trump campaign and the 2016 election generally: the Islamic roots of many international and U.S. terrorist acts.” Feigin, who is white, ultimately pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of sending harassing communications electronically. He was sentenced to probation.
Plot to bomb apartment complex full of Somali immigrants.
Oct. 13, 2016: After the FBI arrested three white
Kansas men for plotting to bomb an apartment complex in Garden City,
Kansas, where many Somali immigrants lived, one of the men’s attorneys
insisted to a federal judge that the plot was “self-defensive” because
the three men believed “that if Donald Trump won the election, President
Obama would not recognize the validity of those results, that he would
declare martial law, and that at that point militias all over the
country would have to step in.” Then, after a federal grand jury convicted 47-year-old Patrick Stein and the two other men of conspiracy-related charges, Stein’s attorney argued
for a lighter sentence based on “the backdrop” of Stein’s actions:
Trump had become “the voice of a lost and ignored white, working-class
set of voters” like Stein, and the “climate” at the time could propel
someone like Stein to “go to 11,” attorney Jim Pratt said in court.
Stein and his two accomplices were each sentenced to at least 25 years
in prison.
“Gonna burn your house down” says Trumpanzee psycho to Muslim family who bought house next door to him.
Nov. 3, 2016: In Tampa, Florida, David Howard
threatened to burn down the house next to his “simply because” it was
being purchased by a Muslim family, according to the Justice Department.
He later said under oath that while he harbored a years-long dislike
for Muslims, the circumstances around the home sale were “the match that
lit the wick.” He cited Trump’s warnings about immigrants from
majority-Muslim countries. “[With] the fact that the president wants
these six countries vetted, everybody vetted before they come over,
there’s a concern about Muslims,” Howard said. Howard, who is white,
ultimately pleaded guilty to a federal civil rights violation, and the
59-year-old was sentenced to eight months in prison.
Assault of a hispanic man. “This is for Donald Trump.”
Nov. 10, 2016: A 23-year-old man from High Springs,
Florida, allegedly assaulted an unsuspecting Hispanic man who was
cleaning a parking lot outside of a local food store. “[H]e was suddenly
struck in the back of the head,” a police report said of the victim.
“[The victim] asked the suspect why he hit him, to which the suspect
replied, ‘This is for Donald Trump.’ The suspect then grabbed [the
victim] by the jacket and proceeded to strike him several more times,”
according to the report. Surveillance video of the incident “completely
corroborated [the victim’s] account of events,” police said. The suspect
was arrested on battery charges, but the case was dropped after the
victim decided not to pursue the matter, police said. Efforts by ABC
News to reach the victim for further explanation were not successful.
Ethnic intimidation by a Trumpanzee who attacked a cab driver.
Nov. 12, 2016: In Grand Rapids, Michigan, while attacking a cab driver
from East Africa, 23-year-old Jacob Holtzlander shouted racial epithets
and repeatedly yelled the word, “Trump,” according to law enforcement
records. Holtzlander, who is white, ultimately pleaded guilty to a charge of ethnic intimidation, and he was sentenced to 30 days in jail.
Attack of a Muslim woman wearing a hajib. “Trump is here now. He will get rid of all of you.”
Jan. 25, 2017: At JFK International Airport in New
York, a female Delta employee, wearing a hijab in accordance with her
Muslim faith, was “physically and verbally” attacked by 57-year-old
Robin Rhodes of Worcester, Mass., “for no apparent reason,” prosecutors said
at the time. When the victim asked Brown what she did to him, he
replied: “You did nothing, but … [Expletive] Islam. [Expletive] ISIS.
Trump is here now. He will get rid of all of you.” Rhodes ultimately
pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of “menacing,” and he was
sentenced to probation.
Trump psycho calls a mosque and threatens to shoot them all after Trump falsely claimed on Facebook and Twitter that Muslim terrorists launched an attack in Sweden.
Feb. 19, 2017: After 35-year-old Gerald Wallace called a
mosque in Miami Gardens, Florida, and threatened to “shoot all y’all,”
he told the FBI and police that he made the call because he “got angry”
from a local TV news report about a terrorist act. At a rally in Florida
the day before, Trump falsely claimed that Muslim refugees had just launched a terrorist attack in Sweden.
Wallace’s attorney, Katie Carmon, later tried to convince a federal judge that the threat to kill worshippers could be “protected speech” due to the “very distinctly political climate” at the time. “There are courts considering President Trump’s travel ban … and the president himself has made some very pointed statements about what he thinks about people of this descent,” Carmon argued in court.
Wallace, who is African American, ultimately pleaded guilty to
obstructing the free exercise of his victims’ religious beliefs, and he
was sentenced to one year in prison.
Trump homophobe attacks gay couple. “You live in Trump country now.”
Feb. 23, 2017: Kevin Seymour and his partner Kevin
price were riding their bicycles in Key West, Florida, when a man on a
moped, 30-year-old Brandon Davis of North Carolina, hurled anti-gay
slurs at them and “intentionally” ran into Seymour’s bike, shouting,
“You live in Trump country now,” according to police reports and Davis’
attorney. Davis ultimately pleaded guilty to a charge of battery
evidencing prejudice, but in court, he expressed remorse and was sentenced to four years of probation.
Trumpanzee hater on Muslims.
May 3, 2017: In South Padre Island, Texas, 35-year-old Alexander Jennes Downing of Waterford, Connecticut, was captured on cellphone video
taunting and aggressively approaching a Muslim family, repeatedly
shouting, “Donald Trump will stop you!” and other Trump-related remarks.
Police arrested downing, of Waterford, Connecticut, for public
intoxication. It’s unclear what came of the charge.
Another Trumpanzee psycho threatening to murder Congresswoman Maxine Waters due to the twisting of her words via lies spread on Facebook by Trump and his Trumpanzees.
Oct. 22, 2017: A 44-year-old California man threatened to kill Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., for her frequent criticism of Trump and her promise to “take out” the president. Anthony Scott Lloyd left a voicemail at the congresswoman’s Washington office, declaring: “If you continue to make threats towards the president, you’re going to wind up dead, Maxine. Cause we’ll kill you.” After pleading guilty to one count of threatening a U.S. official, Lloyd asked the judge for leniency, saying he suffered from addiction-inducing mental illness and became “far too immersed in listening to polarizing political commentators and engaging in heated political debates online.” His lawyer put it this way to the judge: “Mr. Lloyd was a voracious consumer of political news online, on television and on radio … [that are] commonly viewed as ‘right wing,’ unconditionally supportive of President Trump, and fiercely critical of anyone who opposed President Trump’s policies.” The judge sentenced Lloyd to six months of house arrest and three years of probation.
When a Trump supporting couple divorce, do they go back to calling each other son and mom? Or brother and sister? Or sister and daddy?
Death threats against the Boston Globe, but Facebook does not care about Trump’s hate speech and practical death speech against the Boston Globe, NYT or any other news media as long as he keeps bring in the money to them. I wonder how Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg would love to get constant death threats like these?
August 2018: After the Boston Globe called on news
outlets around the country to resist what it called “Trump’s assault on
journalism,” the Boston Globe received more than a dozen threatening
phone calls. “You are the enemy of the people,” the alleged caller,
68-year-old Robert Chain of Encino, California, told a Boston Globe
employee on Aug. 22. “As long as you keep attacking the President, the
duly elected President of the United States … I will continue to
threat[en], harass, and annoy the Boston Globe.” A week later,
authorities arrested Chain
on threat-related charges. After a hearing in his case, he told
reporters, “America was saved when Donald J. Trump was elected
president.” Chain has pleaded guilty to seven threat-related charges,
and he is awaiting sentencing.
Another Trump psycho threatens to kill Democratic office holders, members of their family and members of both local and federal law enforcement, but Facebook and Twitter did nothing to stop his psycho hate rants on his profile.
Oct. 4, 2018: The Polk County Sheriff’s Office in Florida arrested
53-year-old James Patrick of Winter Haven, Florida, for allegedly
threatening “to kill Democratic office holders, members of their
families and members of both local and federal law enforcement
agencies,” according to a police report. In messages posted online,
Patrick detailed a “plan” for his attacks, which he said he would launch
if then-nominee Brett Kavanaugh was not confirmed as a Supreme Court
justice, the police report said. Seeking Patrick’s release from jail
after his arrest, Patrick’s attorney, Terri Stewart, told a judge that
her client’s “rantings” were akin to comments from “a certain
high-ranking official” — Trump. The president had “threatened the North
Korean people — to blow them all up. It was on Twitter,” Stewart said,
according to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Patrick has been charged with
making a written threat to kill or injure, and he has pleaded not
guilty. His trial is pending.
15 bombs sent by Trump psycho to prominent critics and members of news media but Facebook did not care about his hate speech he posted there.
Late October 2018: Over the course of a week, Florida
man Cesar Sayoc allegedly mailed at least 15 potential bombs to
prominent critics of Trump and members of the media. Sayoc had been
living in a van plastered with pro-Trump stickers, and he had posted
several pro-Trump messages on social media. Federal prosecutors have
accused him of “domestic terrorism,” and Sayoc has since pleaded guilty
to 65 counts, including use of a weapon of mass destruction. He was sentenced
to 20 years in prison. “We believe the president’s rhetoric contributed
to Mr. Sayoc’s behavior,” Sayoc’s attorney told the judge at
sentencing.
Trump psycho tells Senator “I’m going to put a bullet in ya for your constant lambasting of President Trump.”
Dec. 4, 2018: Michael Brogan, 51, of Brooklyn, New
York, left a voicemail at an unidentified U.S. Senator’s office in
Washington insisting, “I’m going to put a bullet in ya. … You and your
constant lambasting of President Trump. Oh, reproductive rights,
reproductive rights.” He later told an FBI agent that before leaving the
voicemail he became “very angry” by “an internet video of the Senator,
including the Senator’s criticism of the President of the United States
as well as the Senator’s views on reproductive rights.” “The threats
were made to discourage the Senator from criticizing the President,” the
Justice Department said in a later press release. Brogan has since pleaded guilty to one count of threatening a U.S. official, and he is awaiting sentencing.
STHU YOU HYPOCRITE.
Trump psycho threatens to murder Congresswoman Maxine Waters thanks to the lies Facebook and Twitter allowed Trump to spew against her on those sites.
Jan. 17, 2019: Stephen Taubert of Syracuse, New York,
was arrested by the U.S. Capitol Police for threatening to kill Rep.
Maxine Waters, D-Calif., and for threatening to “hang” former President
Barack Obama. Taubert used “overtly bigoted, hateful language” in his
threats, according to federal prosecutors. On July 20, 2018, Taubert
called the congresswoman’s Los Angeles office to say he would find her
at public events and kill her and her entire staff. In a letter to the
judge just days before Taubert’s trial began, his defense attorney,
Courtenay McKeon, noted: “During that time period, Congresswoman Waters
was embroiled in a public feud with the Trump administration. … On June
25, 2018, in response to Congresswoman Waters’ public statements,
President Trump tweeted: ‘Congresswoman Maxine Waters, an
extraordinarily low IQ person, has … just called for harm to supporters …
of the Make America Great Again movement. Be careful what you wish for
Max!'” As McKeon insisted to the judge: “This context is relevant to the
case.” A federal jury ultimately convicted
Taubert on three federal charges, including retaliating against a
federal official and making a threat over state lines. He was sentenced
to nearly four years in prison.
Trump will handle it and we will get rid of all these Muslims
Jan. 22, 2019: David Boileau of Holiday, Florida, was arrested
by the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office for allegedly burglarizing an
Iraqi family’s home and “going through” their mailbox, according to a
police report. After officers arrived at the home, Boileau “made several
statements of his dislike for people of Middle Eastern descent,” the
report said. “He also stated if he doesn’t get rid of them, Trump will
handle it.” The police report noted that a day before, Boileau threw
screws at a vehicle outside the family’s house. On that day, Boileau
allegedly told police, “We’ll get rid of them one way or another.”
Boileau, 58, has since pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of
trespassing, and he was sentenced to 90 days in jail.
I am going to murder innocent civilians on a scale rarely seen in this country says psycho Trump supporter.
Feb. 15, 2019: The FBI in Maryland arrested
a Marine veteran and U.S. Coast Guard lieutenant, Christopher Paul
Hasson, who they said was stockpiling weapons and “espoused” racist and
anti-immigrant views for years as he sought to “murder innocent
civilians on a scale rarely seen in this country.” In court documents,
prosecutors said the 49-year-old “domestic terrorist” compiled a “hit
list” of prominent Democrats. Two months later, while seeking Hasson’s
release from jail before trial, his public defender, Elizabeth Oyer,
told a federal judge: “This looks like the sort of list that our
commander-in-chief might have compiled while watching Fox News in the
morning. … Is it legitimately frustrating that offensive language and
ideology has now become part of our national vocabulary? Yes, it is very
frustrating. But … it is hard to differentiate it from the random
musings of someone like Donald Trump who uses similar epithets in his
everyday language and tweets.” Hasson faces weapons-related charges and
was being detained as he awaits trial. He has pleaded not guilty.
A case of murder
March 16, 2019: Anthony Comello, 24, of Staten Island, New York, was taken into custody for allegedly killing Francesco “Franky Boy” Cali, the reputed head of the infamous Gambino crime family. It marked the first mob boss murder in New York in 30 years, law enforcement officials told ABC News the murder may have stemmed from Comello’s romantic relationship with a Cali family member. Court documents since filed in state court by Comello’s defense attorney, Robert Gottlieb, said Comello suffers from mental defect and was a believer in the “conspiratorial fringe right-wing political group” QAnon. In addition, Gottlieb wrote: “Beginning with the election of President Trump in November 2016, Anthony Comello’s family began to notice changes to his personality. … Mr. Comello became certain that he was enjoying the protection of President Trump himself, and that he had the president’s full support. Mr. Comello grew to believe that several well-known politicians and celebrities were actually members of the Deep State, and were actively trying to bring about the destruction of America.” Comello has been charged with one count of murder and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon. His trial is pending, and he has pleaded not guilty.
We know where you live Mark Zuckerberg. And as you have sown? So shall you fucking reap. Oh and for fucking with the Native Americans in Hawaii? YOU will be put to death just for that.
Threatening to murder Congresswoman Ilhan Omar
April 5, 2019: The FBI arrested a 55-year-old man from upstate New York for allegedly threatening to kill Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., one of the first two Muslim women elected to the U.S. Congress. She is an outspoken critic of Trump, and Trump has frequently launched public attacks against her and three other female lawmakers of color. Two weeks before his arrest, Patrick Carlineo Jr. allegedly called Omar’s office in Washington labeling the congresswoman a “terrorist” and declaring: “I’ll put a bullet in her f—-ing skull.” When an FBI agent then traced the call to Carlineo and interviewed him, Carlineo “stated that he was a patriot, that he loves the President, and that he hates radical Muslims in our government,” according to the FBI agent’s summary of the interview. Federal prosecutors charged Carlineo with threatening to assault and murder a United States official. Carlineo is awaiting trial, although his defense attorney and federal prosecutors are working on what his attorney called another “possible resolution” of the case.
Threatening to murder Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib.
April 18, 2019: The FBI arrested John Joseph Kless of
Tamarac, Florida, for calling the Washington offices of three prominent
Democrats and threatening to kill each of them. At his home, authorities
found a loaded handgun in a backpack, an AR-15 rifle and hundreds of
rounds of ammunition. In later pleading guilty
to one charge of transmitting threats over state lines, Kless admitted
that in a threatening voicemail targeting Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.,
he stated: “You won’t f—ing tell Americans what to say, and you
definitely don’t tell our president, Donald Trump, what to say.” Tlaib, a
vocal critic of Trump, was scheduled to speak in Florida four days
later. Kless was awaiting sentencing. In a letter to the federal judge,
he said he “made a very big mistake,” never meant to hurt anyone, and
“was way out of line with my language and attitude.”
Threatening to murder a college professor and how all Democrats must be eradicated.
April 24, 2019: The FBI arrested 30-year-old
Matthew Haviland of North Kingstown, Rhode Island, for allegedly
sending a series of violent and threatening emails to a college
professor in Massachusetts who publicly expressed support for abortion
rights and strongly criticized Trump. In one of 28 emails sent to the
professor on March 10, 2019, Haviland allegedly called the professor
“pure evil” and said “all Democrats must be eradicated,” insisting the
country now has “a president who’s taking our country in a place of more
freedom rather than less.” In another email the same day, Haviland
allegedly wrote the professor: “I will rip every limb from your body and
… I will kill every member of your family.” According to court
documents, Haviland’s longtime friend later told the FBI that “within
the last year, Haviland’s views regarding abortion and politics have
become more extreme … at least in part because of the way the news media
portrays President Trump.” Haviland has been charged with cyberstalking
and transmitting a threat in interstate commerce. His trial is pending.
Calling US Capiton over 2,000 times threatening to murder Democratic lawmakers.
June 5, 2019: The FBI arrested a Utah man for allegedly
calling the U.S. Capitol more than 2,000 times over several months and
threatening to kill Democratic lawmakers, whom he said were “trying to
destroy Trump’s presidency.” “I am going to take up my second amendment
right, and shoot you liberals in the head,” 54-year-old Scott Brian
Haven allegedly stated in one of the calls on Oct. 18, 2018, according
to charging documents. When an FBI agent later interviewed Haven, he
“explained the phone calls were made during periods of frustration with
the way Democrats were treating President Trump,” the charging documents
said. The FBI visit, however, didn’t stop Haven from making more
threats, including: On March 21, 2019, he called an unidentified U.S.
senator’s office to say that if Democrats refer to Trump as Hitler again
he will shoot them, and two days later he called an unidentified
congressman’s office to say he “was going to take [the congressman] out …
because he is trying to remove a duly elected President.” A federal
grand jury has since charged Haven with one count of transmitting a
threat over state lines. Haven pleaded not guilty and was awaiting trial.
Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg should be charged with 22 counts of being accessories to first degree murder and 24 counts of being accessories to attempted first degree murder.
Aug. 3, 2019: A gunman opened fire
at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, killing 22 people and injuring 24
others. The FBI labeled the massacre an act of “domestic terrorism,” and
police determined that the alleged shooter, 21-year-old Patrick
Crusius, posted a lengthy anti-immigrant diatribe online before the
attack. “We attribute that manifesto directly to him,” according to El
Paso police chief Greg Allen. Describing the coming assault as “a
response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas,” the screed’s writer said
“the media” would “blame Trump’s rhetoric” for the attack but insisted
his anti-immigrant views “predate Trump” — an apparent acknowledgement
that at least some of his views align with some of Trump’s public
statements. The writer began his online essay by stating that he
generally “support[s]” the previous writings of the man who killed 51
Muslim worshippers in New Zealand earlier this year. In that case, the
shooter in New Zealand said he absolutely did not support Trump as “a
policy maker and leader” — but “[a]s a symbol of renewed white identity
and common purpose? Sure.” Crusius has been charged with capital murder
by the state of Texas.
NOW MARK ZUCKERBERG AND SHERYL SANDBERG YOU WANT US ATHEISTS AND LGBT USERS PUT TO DEATH? THEN THE SAME SHALL BE DONE UNTO YOU.
AS CHRISTOTALIBAN AND MUZZIETALIBAN HAVE SOWN AGAINST US ATHEISTS AND THOSE WHO ARE LGBT? THEN THE SAME SHALL BE DONE UNTO THEM.TIME FOR ATHEISTS TO GIVE BACK TO CHRISTOFASCISTS AND MUZZIEFASCISTS WHAT THEY BEEN DOING UNTO US ATHEISTS FOR FAR TOO LONG, AND LET THEM ALL REAP WHAT THEY HAVE SOWN AGAINST US.
YES MARK ZUCKERBERG AND SHERYL SANDBERG, AS YOU HAVE SOWN? SO SHALL YOU FUCKING REAP.
Yes Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, you and your board of directors and others of Fascistbook promote true hate, bigotry, misogyny and evil on Fascistbook by ChristoTaliban and MuzzieTaliban against atheist, lgbt, Pagan and other users of Fascistbook.
Because you money grubbing Fascist pig fucking pieces of shit allow ChristoFascists and MuzzieFascists to attack and threaten and throw hate speech against lgbts on Fascistbook? 238 transpeople have been murdered worldwide in the last year. Here are a few examples of your handiwork.
Example One: 238 Trans People Murdered Worldwide In The Past Year
The company recently announced a policy allowing Trump to lie to millions while paying Facebook for the privilege.
Gay Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes has blasted the company’s
co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg for allowing President Donald Trump
to run campaign ads with outright lies in them.
Nevertheless, Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren
criticized the policy, and Hughes retweeted her criticism with some
choice words of his own.
Warren’s tweets criticizing Facebook’s policy mentioned that other TV
news networks have refused to run some of Trump’s campaign ads because
of their deliberate lies. In severaltweets she also stated:
“Facebook already helped elect Donald Trump once because
they were asleep at the wheel while Russia attacked our democracy. In
fact, this time they’re going further by taking deliberate steps to help
one candidate intentionally mislead the American people, while painting
the candidacy of others (specifically: mine) as an ‘existential’
threat.”
Warren has since purchased Facebook ads
that falsely state that Zuckerberg has endorsed Trump for president.
The ads then accurately state that Facebook allows such lies in
candidates’ political ads.
Facebook already helped elect Donald Trump once. Now, they’re deliberately allowing a candidate to intentionally lie to the American people.
This is a serious threat to our democracy. We need transparency and accountability from Facebook. https://t.co/anu0pWSqS5
After that meeting, Facebook quietly changed its policies on “misinformation” in ads, allowing politicians to run ads that have already been debunked by independent, non-partisan fact-checkers. Put another way, Facebook is now okay with running political ads with known lies.
“I have a feeling that many people in tech will see Warren’s thread implying FB empowers Trump over Warren as unfair. But Mark, by deciding to allow outright lies in political ads to travel on Facebook, is embracing the philosophy behind Trumpism and thereby tipping the scales.”
In a separate tweet,
Hughes wrote, “There is a higher calling — to be a platform that won’t
allow political lies to spread. Employees should demand that kind of
policy. It isn’t partisan — it’s the right thing to do.”
In May of this year, Hughes wrote an op-ed saying that Facebook should be broken up and monitored by the U.S. government to address user privacy concerns. In recently leaked audio
from a company meeting, Zuckerberg said he worried that Warren would
try to break up the company if elected president, and pledged to sue if
her administration tried such a thing.
When recently announcing the company’s policy allowing politicians to
lie in their political ads, Facebook’s Vice President of Global Affairs
and Communications Nick Clegg said,
“We have a responsibility to protect the platform from outside
interference, and to make sure that when people pay us for political ads
we make it as transparent as possible. But it is not our role to
intervene when politicians speak.”
His name was Menocchio. He lived in a small town in Italy in the 16th
century. A husband, a father, a miller, and a well-liked member of his
community, he was also a non-believer. He publicly declared that it was
impossible for Jesus to have been born of a virgin mother, that Jesus
was not divine, that much of the Gospel stories were fabrications, that
immortality was impossible, and that God may be no more than a figment
of human imagination. He was tried for heresy, convicted as an atheist,
and burned at the stake.
Another Italian from the 16th century, Giulio Casare Vanini, denied
the immortality of the soul, believed that humans evolved from apes, and
insisted that religious teachings are false. He had his tongue cut out, was strangled, and then burned to death.
In the 17th century, Casimir Liszinksi of Poland, was harshly
critical of priests, argued that the Bible was false, and wrote a
treatise called The Nonexistence of God. As a result of his
atheism, he had his tongue and mouth burned with hot irons, his hands
burned over a slow fire, and finally his whole body was torched.
Also in the 17th century, Thomas Aikenhead, a 20-year old student in
Edinburgh, Scotland, was executed because he “maintained…that theology
was a rhapsody of ill-invented nonsense…that the Holy Scriptures were
stuffed with such madness, nonsense, and contradictions” and that Christ
was an “imposter,” etc. For such utterances, this first-time offender
with no criminal record, was hanged.
These men are just a random few heretics from centuries past who were killed for nothing more than their lack of belief
in God. They never harmed anyone. They just had the courage to doubt
theological claims. And for that, they were tortured and killed.
Countless others met a similar piously pernicious fate.
Today, atheist blood continues to flow.
In Bangladesh, on Feb. 15, 2013, Ahmed Rajib Haider, an atheist
blogger, was attacked by religious henchmen just outside of his home;
his body was so badly mutilated that his friends could not recognize his
corpse. On Feb. 26, 2015, Avijit Roy, another secular blogger, was
hacked to death my machete-wielding assailants in the streets of Dhaka.
On Match 30, 2015, Oyasiqur Rhaman, another secular blogger, was
butchered by religious assailants using meat cleavers. On May 12, 2015,
atheist blogger and science promoter Ananta Bijoy Das was hacked to
death in Sylhet. On August 7, 2015, Niloy Chatterjee — a leader of the
Science and Rationalist Association of Bangladesh — was killed in his
home by a group of men armed with machetes. On October 31, 2015, Faisal
Arefin Dipan – a publisher of atheist literature — was stabbed and
chopped to death in his office. On April 23, 2016, Professor Rezaul
Karim Siddique was killed by men with machetes. And on and on. To be
sure, it isn’t just the secular who are being cut down, but Hindus and
Christians, as well. And yet it is atheists that are being targeted most
aggressively.
And it isn’t just Islamic fundamentalist gangs in the streets of
Bangladesh that atheists must be wary of. In many countries around the
world – all of them being Muslim majority nations, as it were – atheism
is illegal. Indeed, our dear ally Saudi Arabia officially classifies
atheism as terrorism, and those found guilty of this crime
can face lengthy imprisonment, state-sanctioned and state-enforced
torture, and even execution. Along with Saudia Arabai, twelve other
nations today – including Iran, Malaysia, Pakistan, Qatar, and Nigeria –
legislate that atheism warrants the death penalty. Can you imagine:
killing some because they don’t believe in God? Insane. It was insane in
Italy back in the 16thh century, insane in Scotland back in the 17th
century, and it is insane in Nigeria and Iran today.
Why were atheists persecuted throughout much of the Christian world
for so many centuries? Why are atheists persecuted throughout much of
the Muslim world today?
All such persecution – be it of Muslims who are currently persecuted
in Myanmar, along with the Karen, or Baha’is in Iran and Pakistan, or
the Hazara in Afghanistan, or Palestinians in Occupied Palestine, or
Indigenous peoples in Brazil, or African Americans in Missouri, or
Latinos in Trumpland, or gays and lesbians throughout the world — all
of it is rooted in irrational fear on the part of the persecutors. Fear of difference, fear of losing power, fear of differing worldviews and values.
In the specific case of atheists, the strongly religious fear our
capacity for moral reasoning that does not require a magical, invisible
deity. They fear our ability to be ethical without the threat of hell or
the reward of heaven. They fear that our allegiance is not to this or
that country, or this or that prophet, or this or that guru, but to
humanity as a whole. They fear our emphasis on empiricism and evidence.
They fear our skepticism and persistent questioning and doubt, for they
can lead to ambiguity, uncertainty, debate, wonder, responsibility, and
humility.
At the heart of atheism is an acceptance of the reality that we are
here on this planet, alone together, and no magic will save us: no gods,
no avatars, no angels, no mantras, no prayers, no prophets, no deities.
Just us. We can and will save ourselves. This fact is so terrifying to
some, that they wield machetes to try and murder it.
Fortunately, for most of humanity, the promise of atheism does not breed fear and terror, but hope and optimism. And as the world continues to secularize, the forces of violent religion will fade.
If I have faith in anything, then I suppose it is that.
Example Six: Atheist Murdered in Coimbatore Because of Spreading Rationalism
Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu): Farook was a scrap dealer
and a member of the Dravidar Viduthalai Kazhagam (DVK), a political
party dedicated to social reform based on activist and Dravidian leader
Periyar EV Ramaswamy’s ideology. Periyar was an Indian social activist
and politician who spent over fifty years giving speeches, propagating
the realization that everyone is an equal citizen and the differences on
basis of caste and creeds were man-made to keep the innocent and
ignorant as underdogs in the society. Periyar viewed reasoning as a
special tool. According to him, all were blessed with this tool, but
very few used it and that is obviously the truth.
In a Facebook post on March 13, Farook had said: “I am an enemy of
god, enemy of religion and enemy of caste. But I am not an enemy of
humans who believe in humanity.” His open atheism and the promotion of
the same have led to his death.
According to the police, four people waylaid him and hacked him to
death on March 16. He was stabbed 18 times at Ukkadam, Coimbatore. On
Friday, one day after Faook’s murder, six people surrendered before a
local court in connection with the crime – Anshanth, Saddam Hussein,
Shamsudeen, Abdul Munaf, Akram Jinda and Jaffar. They all were friends
and neighbors to Farook for nearly 15 years. Farook is survived by his
parents Hameed and Nafisa, his wife Rasheeda, brother-in-law Shahjahan,
11-year-old son Afrid, and six-year-old daughter Anafa.
Farook was an atheist and rationalist. He was also the administrator
of a WhatsApp group called ‘Allah Murdad,’ meaning ‘There is no God’.
“This murder could be a warning to those who are against religion,” said
a senior official investigating the case on the condition of anonymity.
“Farook had refused to exit from this WhatsApp group. The murder could
be a warning to other Muslims who are part of that group. In this group,
Farook had even posted a picture of his daughter holding up a placard
that reads ‘There is no God’,” he said.
After his son Farook was murdered, Hameed decided to join Dravidar
Viduthalai Kazhagam, a splinter group of Dravidar Kazhagam founded by
Periyar to propagate rational ideas. According to Indiatimes, DVK
members expressed concern about Hameed’s safety. “For now, our concern
is to educate the two children of Farook. One of them wants to be an
advocate. So we are not very keen on involving Hameed in ideological
activities,” said Nehrudass, district president of DVK. “If my son had
agreed to follow diktats of his murderers to give up his ideology, he
would have lived. But he stood up for his principles. I feel proud of my
son,” says Hameed.
Example Seven: Lies and Hate Fascistbook allows Faux Nitwit Newsless to spread against atheists on Fascistbook. This was allowed on Fascistbook and not deemed hate speech against atheists.
There’s no polite way to say it. Atheists today are the most arrogant, ignorant and dangerous people on earth.
We’ve
all seen how these pompous prigs get offended by the slightest bit of
religious imagery in public and mortified if even a whisper of “Merry
Christmas” escapes the lips of some well-meaning but naïve department
store clerk during the “holiday season.”
To cite a few recent
examples: Last December, the group American Atheists launched its annual
billboard campaign with the slogan: “Just Skip Church — It’s All Fake
News.” In February, the American Humanist Association became furious
when President Trump had the gall to mention Christianity and Jesus
Christ without also mentioning atheists—at the National Prayer
Breakfast! (How dare he!) And just this month, the Freedom From Religion
Foundation raised holy hell because the Reverend Billy Graham was laid
out in state in the Capitol Rotunda before his burial.
Yes, these atheists are loud, nasty, unapologetic and in-your-face.
But
while their arrogance is annoying, it’s nothing compared to their
ignorance. Atheists believe that the vast majority of human beings from
all periods of time and all places on the Earth have been wrong about
the thing most important to them. They basically dismiss this vast
majority as being either moronic or profoundly naïve. What they don’t
seem to know – or won’t admit – is that the greatest contributions to
civilization have been made, not by atheists, but by believers.
Too
many Christian authors have tried to be kind and amiable in an effort
to demonstrate that believers don’t have to sink into the mud in order
to defend the faith. That tact is very charitable, but unfortunately, it
just doesn’t work with bullies.
Aristotle, Francis
Bacon, Leonardo Da Vinci, and Isaac Newton all believed in God.
Nobel-prize winner Wilhelm Rontgen, the discoverer of X-rays; Antoine
Lavoisier, the father of modern chemistry; William Keen, the pioneer of
brain surgery; rocket scientist Wernher von Braun; and Ernest Walton,
the first person to artificially split the atom—all believed in God.
And
speaking of pioneers of science, who do you think coined the term
“scientist” in the first place? William Whewell, an Anglican priest and
theologian! He also came up with words “physicist,” “cathode”, “anode”
and many other commonly used scientific terms. Essentially, the very
language used by scientists today comes from the brain of a believer.
Even
the Big Bang Theory itself – which atheists mistakenly think bolsters
their arguments against God – was proposed by Fr. George Lemaitre, a
Belgian astronomer and Roman Catholic priest! And the father of
genetics—which provides the basis for the whole theory of evolution—was
Gregor Mendel, an Augustinian monk!
Yes, the new atheists have an ignorance of history bordering on madness.
But are they really dangerous, too?
You
bet they are. The truth is, the atheist position is incapable of
supporting any coherent system of morality other than ruthless social
Darwinism. That’s why it has caused more deaths, murders and bloodshed
than any other belief system in the history of the world.
Atheists,
of course, are always claiming hysterically that Christianity has been
responsible for most of the world’s wars, but that’s just another
example of atheistic ignorance. The main reasons for war have always
been economic gain, territorial gain, civil and revolutionary
conflicts. According to Philip Axelrod’s monumental “Encyclopedia of
Wars,” only 6.98 percent or all wars from 8000 BC to present were
religious in nature. If you subtract Islamic wars from the equation,
only 3.2 percent of wars were due to specifically Christian causes.
That means that over 96 percent of all the wars on this planet were due
to worldly reasons.
Indeed, in the last 100 years alone, upwards
of 360 million people were killed by governments—and close to half of
those people were killed by atheist governments!
Yes, there is a
profound and frightening connection between atheism and death. Atheist
leaders like Stalin, Mao Zedong, Hideki To ̄jo ̄, Pol Pot and many
others bear the blame for the overwhelming majority of deaths caused by
war and mass murder in history. And while many atheists make the
preposterous claim that Adolf Hitler was a Christian, his private
diaries, first published in 1953 by Farrar, Straus and Young, reveal
clearly that the Fuhrer was a rabid atheist: “The heaviest blow that
ever struck humanity,” Hitler stated, “was the coming of Christianity.
Bolshevism is Christianity’s illegitimate child. Both are inventions of
the Jew… Our epoch will certainly see the end of the disease of
Christianity.”
The facts are incontrovertible. Between the
years 1900 and 2017, approximately 150 million people were killed by
atheistic political regimes. 150 million!
And it makes
perfect sense, doesn’t it? Atheists don’t believe in God, so they don’t
believe in any transcendent, objective moral law. Nor do they believe
that human beings are made in the image of God, and so they don’t
believe humans possess infinite value and dignity. When you put these
two beliefs together, you have a deadly recipe that makes killing
“problematic” human beings quite easy and defensible.
One has only
to look at the growing numbers of abortions, suicides, homicides, and
cases of state-sponsored euthanasia, and infanticide, to see the
atheist-death connection. As a thoroughly secular and functionally
atheistic culture, we are fast becoming accustomed to “killing” our
problems rather than dealing with them in a compassionate, loving, and
sacrificial way.
So yes, the modern breed of atheist is arrogant,
ignorant and dangerous. Too many books written in response to these
pseudo-intellectual hatemongers have been altogether too nice. Too many
Christian authors have tried to be kind and amiable in an effort to
demonstrate that believers don’t have to sink into the mud in order to
defend the faith. That tact is very charitable, but unfortunately, it
just doesn’t work with bullies.
And that’s exactly what modern-day
atheists are—bullies; bullies who are doing their best to intimidate
the rest of us into silence.
Well, we can’t allow that to happen. As I say in my book, “Inside the Atheist Mind: Unmasking the Religion of Those Who Say There is No God,”
there is only one way to deal with bullies, even in this politically
correct world—and that is to stand up to them and fight them; to fight
them in a bold, aggressive, and fearless way, and to fight them now.
Time for Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg and all the Management and Board of Directors of Facebook be brought to justice for allowing hate and bigotry to be spewed on Fascistbook by ChristoFascists, MuzzieFascists and TrumpFascists and be executed for their Crimes Against Humanity so they can put some money in their pockets and get rich off of all the hate, death and murder they pedal on Fascistbook.
Management
Mark Zuckerberg Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Mark Zuckerberg is the founder, chairman and CEO of Facebook, which
he founded in 2004. Mark is responsible for setting the overall
direction and product strategy for the company. He leads the design of
Facebook’s service and development of its core technology and
infrastructure. Mark studied computer science at Harvard University
before moving the company to Palo Alto, California.
Sheryl Sandberg Chief Operating Officer
Sheryl Sandberg is chief operating officer at Facebook, overseeing
the firm’s business operations. Prior to Facebook, Sheryl was vice
president of Global Online Sales and Operations at Google, chief of
staff for the United States Treasury Department under President Clinton,
a management consultant with McKinsey & Company, and an economist
with the World Bank.
Sheryl received a BA summa cum laude from Harvard University and an MBA with highest distinction from Harvard Business School.
Sheryl is the co-author of Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy with Wharton professor and bestselling author Adam Grant. She is also the author of the bestsellers Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead and Lean In for Graduates.
She is the founder of the Sheryl Sandberg & Dave Goldberg Family
Foundation, a nonprofit organization that works to build a more equal
and resilient world through two key initiatives, LeanIn.Org and
OptionB.Org. Sheryl serves on the boards of Facebook, Women for Women
International, ONE, and SurveyMonkey.
Sheryl lives in Menlo Park, California, with her son and daughter.
Dave Wehner Chief Financial Officer
Dave
Wehner is chief financial officer of Facebook, where he leads the
finance, facilities and information technology teams. Prior to becoming
CFO in June 2014, Dave served as Facebook’s vice president of Corporate
Finance and Business Planning. From 2010 through 2012, Dave served as
Chief Financial Officer of Zynga Inc. Before Zynga, Dave was a Managing
Director at Allen & Company, an investment bank focused on media and
technology, which he joined in 2001.
Dave holds a B.S. in Chemistry from Georgetown University, and a M.S. in Applied Physics from Stanford University.
Mike Schroepfer Chief Technology Officer
Mike Schroepfer is chief technology officer at Facebook. In that
role, he leads the development of the technology strategies and teams
that will enable Facebook to connect billions of people around the world
and make significant breakthroughs in fields like artificial
intelligence and virtual reality. Before Facebook, Mike was vice
president of engineering at Mozilla Corporation, where he led the global
and open product development process behind Firefox. Mike was formerly a
distinguished engineer at Sun Microsystems, which acquired his company,
CenterRun. He began his career working at various startups, including a
digital effects software startup where he developed software that has
been used in several major motion pictures. Mike holds a bachelor’s
degree and a master’s degree in computer science from Stanford
University and has filed two US patents.
Board of Directors
Mark Zuckerberg Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Mark Zuckerberg is the founder, chairman and CEO of Facebook, which he founded in 2004. Mark is responsible for setting the overall direction and product strategy for the company. He leads the design of Facebook’s service and development of its core technology and infrastructure. Mark studied computer science at Harvard University before moving the company to Palo Alto, California.
Sheryl Sandberg Chief Operating Officer
Sheryl Sandberg is chief operating officer at Facebook, overseeing the firm’s business operations.
Prior to Facebook, Sheryl was vice president of Global Online Sales
and Operations at Google, chief of staff for the United States Treasury
Department under President Clinton, a management consultant with
McKinsey & Company, and an economist with the World Bank.
Sheryl received a BA summa cum laude from Harvard University and an MBA with highest distinction from Harvard Business School.
Sheryl is the co-author of Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy with Wharton professor and bestselling author Adam Grant. She is also the author of the bestsellers Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead
and founder of the Sheryl Sandberg & Dave Goldberg Family
Foundation, a nonprofit organization that works to build a more equal
and resilient world through two key initiatives, LeanIn.Org and
OptionB.Org. Sheryl serves on the boards of Facebook, Women for Women
International, ONE, and SurveyMonkey.
Sheryl lives in Menlo Park, California, with her son and daughter.
Peggy Alford
Peggy
Alford has served as a member of our board of directors since May 2019.
Ms. Alford has served as Senior Vice President, Core Markets of PayPal
Holdings, Inc., a digital payments company, since March 2019. From
September 2017 to February 2019, Ms. Alford served as Chief Financial
Officer and Head of Operations for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a
philanthropic organization. Ms. Alford previously held a variety of
senior positions at PayPal from May 2011 to August 2017, including Vice
President, Chief Financial Officer of Americas, Global Customer and
Global Credit, and Senior Vice President of Human Resources, People
Operations and Global Head of Cross Border Trade. From 2007 to 2011, Ms.
Alford served as President and General Manager of Rent.com, an eBay
Inc. company, and also served as its Chief Financial Officer from
October 2005 to March 2009. From 2002 to 2005, Ms. Alford served as
Marketplace Controller and Director of Accounting Policy at eBay. Ms.
Alford has served on the board of directors of the Macerich Company, a
real estate investment trust, since June 2018. Ms. Alford holds a B.S.
in accounting and business administration from the University of Dayton.
Marc Andreessen
Marc
L. Andreessen has served as a member of our board of directors since
June 2008. Mr. Andreessen is a co-founder and has been a General Partner
of Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capital firm, since July 2009.
Previously, Mr. Andreessen co-founded and served as the Chairman of the
board of directors of Opsware, Inc. (formerly known as Loudcloud Inc.), a
software company. He also served as Chief Technology Officer of America
Online, Inc., an Internet services company. Mr. Andreessen was a
co-founder of Netscape Communications Corporation, a software company,
serving in various positions, including Chief Technology Officer and
Executive Vice President of Products. In addition to serving on our
board of directors, Mr. Andreessen currently serves as a member of the
boards of directors of several private companies. Mr. Andreessen
previously served as a member of the boards of directors of eBay Inc.
from September 2008 to October 2014, Hewlett-Packard Company from
September 2009 to October 2015, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company
from November 2015 to April 2018. Mr. Andreessen holds a B.S. in
computer science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Kenneth I. Chenault has served as a member of our board of directors
since February 2018. Mr. Chenault is Chairman and a Managing Director at
General Catalyst, a venture capital firm. Prior to joining General
Catalyst, Mr. Chenault was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of
American Express Company, a position he held from 2001 to 2018. He
joined American Express in 1981 as Director of Strategic Planning and
served subsequently in a number of increasingly senior positions,
including Vice Chairman and President and Chief Operating Officer, until
his appointment as CEO. Mr. Chenault also serves on the boards of
directors of Airbnb, IBM, The Procter & Gamble Company, the Harvard
Corporation and numerous nonprofit organizations, including the
Smithsonian Institution’s Advisory Council for the National Museum of
African American History and Culture, the National September 11 Memorial
& Museum, and Bloomberg Philanthropies. He also serves on the
board of trustees for NYU Langone Health. Mr. Chenault holds a J.D. from
Harvard Law School and a B.A. in history from Bowdoin College. He also
has received honorary degrees from several universities, and awards from
a wide variety of civic, social service, and community organizations.
Susan
D. Desmond-Hellmann has served as a member of our board of directors
since March 2013. Dr. Desmond-Hellmann is the Chief Executive Officer of
The Gates Foundation. Prior to joining The Gates Foundation in May
2014, she was the Chancellor at University of California, San Francisco
(UCSF) from 2009 to 2014. From 2004 through 2009, Dr. Desmond-Hellmann
served as President of Product Development at Genentech, where she was
responsible for pre-clinical and clinical development, business
development, and product portfolio management. She joined Genentech in
1995. Prior to joining Genentech, Dr. Desmond-Hellmann was associate
director of clinical cancer research at Bristol-Myers Squibb
Pharmaceutical Research Institute. In addition to serving on our board
of directors, Dr. Desmond-Hellmann previously served as a member of the
board of directors of The Procter & Gamble Company from 2010 to
2016. Dr. Desmond-Hellmann holds a B.S. in Pre-Med and an M.D. from the
University of Nevada, Reno, and an M.P.H. from the University of
California, Berkeley.
Peter
A. Thiel has served as a member of our board of directors since April
2005. Mr. Thiel has served as President of Thiel Capital, an investment
firm, since 2011 and a Partner of Founders Fund, a venture capital firm,
since 2005. In 1998, Mr. Thiel co-founded PayPal, Inc., an online
payment company, where he served as Chief Executive Officer, President
and Chairman of its board of directors from 2000 until its acquisition
by eBay in 2002. Mr. Thiel holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Stanford
University and a J.D. from Stanford Law School.
Jeffrey
D. Zients has served as a member of our board of directors since May
2018. Mr. Zients currently serves as the CEO of the Cranemere Group
Limited, a diversified holding company. Mr. Zients served in the Obama
Administration from 2009 to 2017, including as Director of the National
Economic Council for President Obama and Acting Director of the Office
of Management and Budget. He also founded and managed Portfolio Logic
LLC, an investment firm, from 2003 to 2009. From 1992 to 2004, Mr.
Zients served in various roles at the Advisory Board Company, a research
and consulting firm, including as Chairman from 2001 to 2004 and Chief
Executive Officer from 1998 to 2000. He also served as Chairman of the
Corporate Executive Board, a business research firm, from 2000 to 2001.
Mr. Zients holds a B.A. in political science from Duke University.
Atheist Militants Rising 
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