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Muslim Advocates Condemns WhatsApp-Enabled Violence Against Palestinians
WASHINGTON
On Wednesday, Sheera Frenkel of the New York Times reported that WhatsApp groups with names like "Death to the Arabs" were being used to foment mob violence against Palestinians. Last fall, Muslim Advocates and the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism released a report documenting the ways that Facebook and its subsidiary WhatsApp have been used to enable this same kind of mob violence against Muslims around the world. The following is a statement from Muslim Advocates Senior Policy Counsel Madihha Ahussain:
"Seven months ago, we handed Facebook a 40-page report detailing how their platforms, including WhatsApp, were being used to incite hate and mob violence against Muslims all around the world. New reporting about mob violence against Palestinians organized via WhatsApp shows that Facebook has willfully ignored our warning.
According to the New York Times, violent mobs used WhatsApp to plan attacks, choose Arab businesses to target and share instructions on how to make bombs and Molotov cocktails. This violence and hate is shocking but it is not a new phenomenon. As our report documented, Facebook and WhatsApp have similarly been used to target Muslims in India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and other countries.
Anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian hate existed long before Facebook and WhatsApp were created but these social media platforms have accelerated this hate to enable real-word violence in never-before-seen ways. Facebook's failure to prevent violence against Palestinians after being given ample warning about how its platform is used to target vulnerable groups shows that the company's policies against hate and violence have failed--as they have failed before. Ex post facto action and more empty promises are not enough. Facebook needs a permanent, accountable, internal force that understands hate targeting Muslims, Arabs and other vulnerable communities to ensure that the company's platforms are never again used to enable violence like this. That's why we're reiterating our call for the company to create a senior staff working group tasked with stopping hate on the platform and for Facebook to actually enforce their community standards, without regard to political or economic implications, so that their platforms are not being used to advocate or call for violence."
Muslim Advocates is a national civil rights organization working in the courts, in the halls of power and in communities to halt bigotry in its tracks. We ensure that American Muslims have a seat at the table with expert representation so that all Americans may live free from hate and discrimination.
(202) 897-2622LATEST NEWS
'Stop This Lawless War,' Advocates Say as Trump Warns of Coming Power Plant, Bridge Attacks in Iran
"Trump is being driven insane by his inability to defeat Iran," said a UK journalist. "This is a threat to commit unspeakable war crimes."
Apr 05, 2026
Following President Donald Trump's Sunday morning Truth Social post detailing his intent to further break international law by bombing Iran's power plants and civilian infrastructure, the message sent by numerous critics to White House officials, the US Congress, and US allies was the same: "Act now to stop this lawless war."
That demand was made by Just Security editor and Rutgers University law professor Adil Haque of the international community after Trump announced on social media that this coming Tuesday "will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran."
"There will be nothing like it!!!" the missive continued. "Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP."
The threat was one of Trump's most blatant yet regarding his plans to bomb Iran's power plants and other civilian infrastructure in retaliation for Iran's de facto blockade on the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping route for global oil and other imports. Iran announced a deal with Iraq on Saturday to allow its shipments through the waterway and was in talks with Oman on Sunday, but about 3,000 vessels carrying shipments have been stranded in the strait since the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Iran began imposing heavy restrictions in retaliation for the US-Israeli invasion of the country.
Attacking power plants "could amount to a war crime," Amnesty International said late last month as Trump ramped up threats against the critical facilities, because they are "essential for meeting the basic needs and livelihoods of tens of millions of civilians."
“When power plants collapse, horrific consequences cascade instantly," said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s senior director of research, advocacy, policy, and campaigns last month. "Water pumping stations would stop functioning, clean water would become scarce, and preventable diseases would spread. Hospitals would lose electricity and fuel, forcing surgeries to be canceled and life-support machines to shut down. Food production and distribution networks would collapse, deepening hunger and causing widespread food scarcity. Many businesses would also shut down with devastating economic consequences including mass unemployment."
On Sunday, Amnesty Secretary General Agnes Callamard said she was "running out of language to denounce and condemn" Trump's escalating threats and called the Truth Social post a "revolting statement."
"Iranian civilians will be the first to suffer from the destruction of power plants and bridges," she said. "No heat, no electricity, no water, no capacity to move or to flee, and all that it means for their right to life."
Trump has also threatened Iran's water desalination plants, which could lead the country to retaliate with similar attacks across the region, impacting the water supply of millions of people across Gulf Arab states. On Saturday, Kuwait blamed Iran for an airstrike that hit a power and desalination plant, while Iranian officials blamed Israel for the attack.
Political analyst Omar Baddar warned that "Iranian civilians will pay the biggest and most immediate price of his madness, but the ripple effect will not spare much of the world." He was among those who commented that Trump's latest remarks on the war sounded "exceedingly desperate" as news reports pointed to mounting evidence that the US is not succeeding at Trump's goal of defeating Iran's military—despite the president and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's persistent claims that "we are punching them while they're down."
As The New York Times reported Friday, US intelligence has found that Iran is swiftly returning its missile bunkers to operation following US and Israeli bombings. The country's exact capability is unclear because the IRGC "is deploying significant numbers of decoys, and the United States is not sure how many of the apparent launchers it has destroyed were real," the Times reported. Iran is also reportedly using a new air defense system.
"Trump is being driven insane by his inability to defeat Iran," said UK journalist Owen Jones of Trump's Sunday post. "This is a threat to commit unspeakable war crimes."
On Saturday, The Wall Street Journal reported that top White House aides and officials, including Hegseth, have been advising Trump that "Iran’s power-generating facilities and bridges are legitimate military targets because destroying them could cripple the country’s missile and nuclear program."
"There are no 'legitimate military targets,'" said Charles Idelson, former communications director of National Nurses United. "Just war crimes, in an illegitimate war started without justification, following deliberate lies about the state of negotiations, and [that] has featured multiple attacks on civilians beginning with blowing up a girls' elementary school."
Trump threatened to escalate attacks against power plants a day after Israel attacked Iran's largest petrochemical hub in Mahshahr—an assault that had previously been reported to have injured five people. Late on Saturday, The New York Times reported that five people had been killed and 170 had been injured in the attack on the sprawling complex, which helps provide electricity to 500,000 people and produces materials including chemicals and polymers.
Reports have pointed to people in the Mahshahr area suffering from the impact of the strike as "chemical pollution from the petrochemical explosions has spread through the city in such a way that breathing is impossible," as one person with family in the city said.
The US also struck the B1 bridge, a major bridge in the city of Karaj, on Saturday, killing eight people and injuring nearly 100.
As Trump warned of further assaults on critical infrastructure, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) called on the US Congress to end its spring recess in order "to reconvene and to reassert their authority over matters of war and peace and to ensure that no president can unilaterally drag our nation into war."
"Congress must not remain on vacation while the president openly promises to commit war crimes that could trigger even more regional and global conflict," said the group, which also condemned Trump's "deranged mocking of Islam."
In his latest conflicting statement on the state of the war, Trump told Fox News Sunday that a deal could be reached with Iran on Monday but warned that he was “considering blowing everything up” if an agreement was not reached.
US Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) urged top White House officials to take action by spending Easter Sunday "calling constitutional lawyers about the 25th Amendment," which empowers a presidential Cabinet to declare that a president is unable to perform their duties.
"This is completely, utterly unhinged," said Murphy. "He's already killed thousands. He's going to kill thousands more."
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) repeated CAIR's demand, saying Trump's remarks were "the ravings of a dangerous and mentally unbalanced individual."
"Congress has got to act NOW," said Sanders. "End this war."
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On Conspiracy Theorist Laura Loomer's Orders, Rubio Announces Arrest of 2 Women for Supporting Iran
The State Department said the women were related to the assassinated Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani, but Iranian media said they had no connection to him.
Apr 04, 2026
With a majority of Americans including President Donald Trump's own base demanding a swift end to the war in Iran—and Iran's military capabilities proving difficult to overpower—observers suggested on Saturday that the White House was looking elsewhere to score "victories," as Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that federal agents had arrested relatives of the late Major General Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian military commander who the US assassinated in 2020 during President Donald Trump's first term.
Rubio accused Soleimani's niece, Hamideh Soleimani Afshar, of promoting "regime propaganda" and voicing support for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and said she had been living a "lavish lifestyle" in the US. Afshar's husband has been barred from entering the US and the lawful permanent resident status she and her daughter had has been terminated, said the State Department.
"Are we losing so badly we need to arrest the distant relatives of long-since-dead Iranian commanders?" asked Ryan Grim of Drop Site News.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council noted that the administration had used the same legal authority to arrest Soleimani's reported family members as it did to detain former Columbia University student organizer Mahmoud Khalil and Tufts University scholar Rümeysa Öztürk for speaking out against US support for Israel—a tactic which is being challenged in court as unconstitutional.
Far-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, who has wielded influence in the White House during the second Trump administration, claimed credit for the arrest of the two women, saying that in communications with the State Department, she had "exposed the fact that Qasem Soleimani’s Niece Hamideh Soleimani Afshar has been living in the United States (Los Angeles, California) where she posts pro-Iranian regime and pro-IRGC content on her social media while she lives a life of luxury."
"She has been arrested and will be deported back to Iran!" she added. "Over the last few months, I have quietly been documenting all of Hamideh Soleimani Afshar’s social media activity. I uploaded it all to a secure file and shared it with [the Department of Homeland Security] and Department of State, and now she has been arrested and she will be deported from our country."
In Iran on Saturday, media outlets were reporting that the two women arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement were not related to Soleimani—who had no nieces, according to journalist Kourosh Ziabari.
Soleimani's daughter told the news outlet Jamaran that "none" of her extended family has ever lived in the US.
Regardless of the women's relation to Soleimani or lack thereof, journalist Ryan Grim said the arbitrary arrest "actively puts innocent Americans around the world at risk."
Rubio's explanation for the detention and his move to revoke the women's green cards is the latest evidence that "the US is now deporting people for thought crimes," said historian Zachary Foster.
Journalist Sana Saeed said the case shows that constitutional protections for due process and free speech, which are supposed to apply to green card holders, "no longer mean anything."
"People cannot lose their green card status simply because of familial relationships, so the justification shifts here to their alleged support for the Iranian government," said Saeed. "But supporting a foreign government is not a criminal offense. And if you begin to treat it as one—as the US government effectively is in this case—then expect a lot more of this."
"It will not stop here, and it will not remain limited to Iranians," she said. "The logic does not contain itself, it expands."
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As Search for US Airman Continues, Trump Issues Latest 'Countdown to Massive War Crimes'
The president demanded once again that Iran open the Strait of Hormuz and said that "all Hell will reign down" on the country if officials don't "make a deal."
Apr 04, 2026
As the US military's frantic search continued Saturday for an airman who was aboard an F-15E fighter jet when it was downed by Iranian forces a day earlier, and analysts and Iranian media alike suggested the Trump administration has lost control of its war against Iran, President Donald Trump issued his latest threat against the country—once again appearing to threaten tens of millions of Iranians with war crimes.
Renewing his demand that Iran "MAKE A DEAL or OPEN UP THE HORMUZ STRAIT," the president said he was giving the Iranian government "48 hours before all Hell will reign down on them," appearing to confuse the word "reign" with "rain."
"Time is running out," said Trump in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social.
In his post, Trump did not directly address the ongoing search for the airman, who was one of two who ejected from the fighter jet when Iran reportedly used new air defense systems to shoot down the plane. One crew member was found and rescued on Friday.
Iranian officials were also looking for the missing airman on Saturday, raising concerns that the service member could be taken as a hostage and used as leverage.
The president has said little about the ongoing search, but spoke briefly to The Independent in a phone call Saturday about the possibility that Iran could find the service member first.
"We hope that’s not going to happen,” he said.
Trump's comments on social media, meanwhile, appeared to signal "a countdown to massive war crimes," said New York University law professor Ryan Goodman.
The president has also previously warned Iran with an ultimatum, only to delay the threatened action. He said on March 22 that the US would "hit and obliterate their various POWER PLANTS, STARTING WITH THE BIGGEST ONE FIRST!" if officials did not reopen the strait—prompting critics to condemn him as a "maniacal tyrant."
The March 22 threat was likely a reference to Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, the vicinity of which was struck by a projectile on Saturday, prompting condemnation from the International Atomic Energy Agency. Human rights experts have repeated warnings in recent weeks that striking power plants would constitute war crimes.
At least five people were killed and 170 were injured in airstrikes on a petrochemical hub in Iran's Khuzestan province on Saturday morning, in addition to the Bushehr attack.
After his initial threat, Trump later said direct strikes on energy infrastructure would not be launched until April 6, and demanded that Iran open the key waterway before then.
Despite Trump's increasingly belligerent threats of "hell" and destruction of civilian infrastructure, a number of media critics noted on Saturday that mainstream Western news outlets including The New York Times, The Economist, and Bloomberg described Iran's use of air defense systems to shoot down US war planes involved in the invasion as an "escalation from Iran's leadership."
"Does Iran have a right to defend itself? Does Palestine? Does Lebanon?" asked commentator Hasan Piker, noting that the US and Israel have claimed they launched the invasion of Iran to "defend" themselves against an imminent attack, contrary to US intelligence analysis. "Or is it just Israel and America who get to claim self-defense as they engage in wars of conquest?"
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