Calls for Tolerance, Social Media Examined Following Attacks on Place of Worship

Members of local Jewish groups are honoring the victims of this weekend’s shooting at a California Synagogue that left one dead and several wounded while calling on people of all faiths to rally to end violence against houses of worship.

Social media is being looked at as possibly fueling certain ideologies and targeting young people as more houses of worship become targets.  Another example that has come up again recently for discussion is the case of four young people in Western New York who are accused of plotting an attack on the Islamberg Muslim Community near Hancock in Delaware County.  The arrests in January came after the one 19-year-old suspect used social media accounts to try to organize the attack before comments in school resulted in authorities breaking apart the plot.

Google and Facebook executives recently talked to the House Judiciary Committee about social media’s role in perpetuating hate crime and white nationalism.

Last night, gatherings and vigils were held in Vestal, Syracuse and elsewhere for the victims of the latest attack on a house of worship.  The calls for the end of violence also follows the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka and the attack on the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh six months ago.