Some people must have personally experienced or witnessed some of my recent blunt comments on social media, either on Facebook or WhatsApp. I am very blunt to call on people who express implicit hatred towards a particular religion, especially Islam. I do not have many Muslim friends in my friend list and whoever is there does not post any communal posts, at least I never saw anything implicitly or explicitly hateful posts directed towards Hinduism or any other religion from them. If I see anything from their side I will be equally confrontational and blunt towards them as well, there is no doubt about that. But I see many such posts targetting Muslims in general from some of my Hindu friends, this is also a statistical phenomenon, many of these posts are factually wrong and are specially designed to target Indian Muslims.
Posting comments or posts targeting any particular religion is not new on social media. This has been going on since social media-originated. However, the frequency and vitriol of this post have definitely increased in recent years. I do not normally react to such posts. But if they become regular in WhatsApp groups where I belong or I see such comments on my own posts from my Facebook friends, sometimes, it's hard to ignore. I directly confront such commentators and ask them to explain their comments. If they can't provide any logical explanation, I ask them openly if they hate that religion or have some bias against people following that religion, and can they explain it to me. I would definitely appreciate their honesty in accepting that they dislike some religions rather than posting implicitly hateful comments targeting people of a particular religion relentlessly. It's very simple, if you dislike something, have the guts to say it openly. Many of these people show symptoms of xenophobia. Many become very defensive and try to explain that they don't hate or dislike any religion, however, they fail to provide any justification for their hateful comments. I ask very simple questions. Why do their posts consistently target only one religion for things that are common in most religions including their own? Why do they justify or defend when it is pointed out that people from their own religion are engaged in the same acts? Why do they target people of that religion rather than those practices or rituals? Many such people become mute when even one of these questions is posed. Some resort to personal attacks and try to call me names by using whatever superlative terms they can. I have unfollowed many such people if their behavior doesn't change and they keep on spreading communal hatred on my Facebook wall, I don't miss their posts as I don't need a daily dose of communal venom. They are still free to comment, but I don't see their posts on my wall, and I am very blunt in replying to biased comments as I know from where they are coming.
The feeling of communal hatred is so deep-rooted. For example, when I pointed out to one person that "all" his posts targeting Indian Muslims were factually incorrect. He didn't feel bad for posting lies, rather, he asked me why such posts are there only about a particular religion on social media. I was amazed by his ignorance. Actually, such posts are available about every religion on the internet, and people get regular feeds about the posts in which they are interested. There are silos on social media where people constantly share and consume content only related to topics of their likening. This is a disturbing trend, but it's growing day by day and it seems there is very little one can do to stop this. I know that my attitude may not be able to curb any such type of behavior in general, but it has definitely reduced such content significantly on my Facebook wall and in WhatsApp groups, people are more cautious when posting such things as they know that they will be exposed. People know that there is at least one person who might challenge or confront them. This is not a solution, but I don't see any other way as I have tried discussing with these people a lot and I have realized that it's not my job or even in my capacity to change their mind. There is a cost associated with this, some people are bound to get hurt and feel bad, and this is unavoidable. If I can reduce their opportunities to spread such hatred then I think I have done my bit to curb this nonsense.
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