Message for Muslim Americans from Muslim Allies Goes Viral
Last December, a post that went viral on social media caught my attention, in large part because it clogged my Facebook newsfeed for days. The original post was created by a second degree connection and thus was shared by several members in my Facebook community. The post eventually reached 55,000 shares and was commented on by thousands of people. It even piqued the interest of the news media, and the creator of the post discussed the impetus for the post in an MSNBC news story.
Given that the post was actually quite simple — it was merely an image with one line of text — I remember asking myself, “Why have so many people felt compelled to share this?” I realized that the image — that of multiple hands that belonged to people of various racial and ethnical backgrounds, joined together — was a powerful one that resonated with many Americans’ notion of what the United States stands for. The image reflected the beauty of the United States as a diverse melting pot of ethnicities and races, with the united hands symbolizing the principles of tolerance and inclusiveness that this country was founded upon. Similarly, the message “Standing with American Muslims,” resonated with so many non-Muslims who wanted to show solidarity with Muslim Americans in the wake of all of the hateful anti-Muslim rhetoric that was meant to increase Islamophobia and hysteria and that was spewed by several politicians following the Paris attacks.
In particular, at the time of the post, U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump had gone as far to make statements about how he would like to ban all Muslims from traveling to — let alone immigrating to — the United States. Trump, who was increasing in popularity at the time and continues to be the frontrunner candidate for the Republic Party today, had also stated he would consider requiring all Muslim-Americans to register with a government database or even carry a special identification card that notes that they are Muslim. This identification process was reminiscent of the laws that the Nazis imposed on the Jews prior to the Holocaust.[1] Hence, in light of this historical context, the post’s seemingly simple message was able to express the rather complex emotions of numerous Americans, and evoked their sense of patriotism.
Being able to share such a post through social media (and, to include a status message or insert a comment if they so desired), empowered people to make a simple statement and affirm their belief that the United States is a place that embraces diversity and supports religious tolerance, and to put forward this stance with those in their network in a relatively easy and efficient manner. Sharing this post allowed each person to build their social currency, and seeing others in their network like, comment, or share the post was self-affirming. One can only hope that such signs of support will also make Muslim Americans feel welcome and accepted in their own country, and remind them of the unshakeable commitment to religious freedom that many, including our current U.S. President, Barack Obama, have continued to espouse, “The principle that people of all faiths are welcome in this country, and will not be treated differently by their government, is essential to who we are.”[2]
This post is part of a blog series for a Social Media Management course that I am taking at MIT Sloan School of Management. For this blog, we were asked to analyze a post we shared or viewed on social media that went on to go viral.
[1] Dean Obeidallah, “Donald Trump’s horrifying words about Muslims,” CNN, last updated November 21, 2015, accessed December 15, 2015, http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/20/opinions/obeidallah-trump-anti-muslim/
[2] Sheryl Gay Stolberg, “Obama Strongly Backs Islam Center Near 9/11 Site,” New York Times, August 13, 2010, accessed December 21, 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/14/us/politics/14obama.html?_r=0
