February 7, 2005 - (HOSTSEARCH.COM OP/ED) - At first glance, Supporters of Shareeah looks like that of any charitable or religious organization. Having read on CNN that this is an Al-Qaeda website I was a bit disappointed even that there was nothing really controversial. I'd read far more scathing attacks on the invasion of Iraq and president Bush in the British press.
That is until I got to the pictures of the bodies of men and children torn apart by bombs in Iraq. The pictures are utterly graphic and horrifying. Most of them come from Al-Jazeera, the independent Muslim news network.
The site goes on to call the US invasion of Iraq a crusade against Muslims and calls for jihad or holy war against the US in answer to this crusade.
Rackforce hosts over 80,000 websites and was unaware of the site and has said they are researching the site as they do not allow hate based sites.
It raises an interesting question over web hosts' responsibility for the sites they host.
After viewing the pictures of those bloody bodies and looking into the eyes of those children it is easy to understand the point of view of Muslims who are angry with the West over it's Middle East policies.
In the West we pride ourselves on freedom of speech and in such a light Rackforce should be commended for hosting the site, however, when the site calls for jihad its sad that they don't realize they are really calling for more of the same kind of suffering they show in their pictures. To call for others to suffer so horribly certainly must categorize www.shareeah.org as a hate based site.
On the other hand, couldn't the argument be made that any website promoting or supporting the war in Iraq is also a hate based web site from the perspective of the parents of one of those mutilated children?
Logic dictates that if we allow one we should allow both. Rather than sweeping this site under the rug and allowing them to pop up somewhere else why not throw a spotlight on this site and examine exactly what it is they are saying and expose the truths and the lies and the gray areas inbetween.
Its through discussion and education that we can overcome hate. Turning our head away and pretending it doesn't exist will only cause the problem to fester. So if Rackforce hosts the site then so be it. Let's just hope they stand up and back their decision rather than taking the easy way out and pulling the plug like The Planet did with the legitimate Iranian Student News Agency site.
