Campaign Against Antisemitism Facebook filter

Campaign Against Antisemitism

Group behind Facebook filters supporting shooting victims draws criticism for anti-Islam language

The filter was shared after a mass shooting at a synagogue.

 

Alexis Tatum

Layer 8

Posted on Oct 29, 2018   Updated on May 21, 2021, 2:57 am CDT

In solidarity with the Jewish community in the wake of a mass shooting, some people have updated their Facebook profile pictures with filters created by the Campaign Against Antisemitism. Some people on social media are now accusing the group of anti-Islam rhetoric.

Show Jews that we all stand #TogetherAgainstAntisemitism with this profile photo frame from TogetherAgainstAntisemitism.com!

Posted by Campaign Against Antisemitism on Sunday, August 26, 2018

Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) is “a volunteer-led charity dedicated to exposing and countering antisemitism” based in the U.K., according to its website. The organization started a Facebook campaign in response to the attack on Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh on Saturday. Authorities reported that 46-year-old Robert Bowers shot and killed 11 people and injured four others. According to the New York Times, it is one of the most deadly attacks on the Jewish community in the U.S.

The CAA released a statement on Saturday condemning the Pittsburgh attack and other forms of Anti-semitism. “All over the world, far-right, far-left and Islamist extremists are stoking the flames of Jew-hatred, with too little done to stop them,” the post reads. “Antisemitism is an age-old disease which begins with hatred and violence towards Jews and ends with the unraveling of society.”

CAA reacts to the attack on the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh: “All over the world, far-right, far-left and…

Posted by Campaign Against Antisemitism on Saturday, October 27, 2018

Some Facebook users took issue with the language of the statement, claiming that it unnecessarily directed blame toward Islam. “This act was done by a white supremacist, please clarify/update your language. Islam had nothing to do with this,” one user, Stefanie Brendler, commented.

Others online expressed concern over anti-Islam rhetoric resulting from the Pittsburgh attack.

https://twitter.com/MissCongress/status/1056702074875011072

Brendler told the Daily Dot that the post failed to mention that the shooter was a white supremacist. “The post from CAA does not identify that the act was done by a white supremacist terrorist at all,” Brendler said. “We cannot make space for Islamophobic rhetoric in a Jewish response to crisis; such rhetoric actually upholds white supremacy.”

Prior to the shooting, Bowers posted anti-Semitic content and conspiracy theories to far-right social media platform Gab. According to the Times, he once wrote that Jews were the “enemy of white people.”

https://twitter.com/Blk_Hermione/status/1056242143193231360

The Campaign Against Antisemitism did not immediately respond to the Daily Dot’s request for comment.

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*First Published: Oct 29, 2018, 6:28 pm CDT