Even before the revelation of findings of Saudi Arabia’s committee tasked with investigating the Mina tragedy, social media users have been active in debating the issue among themselves.
Some of them posted outdated video footage, and images of victims and incidents which happened a long time ago, or even elsewhere in the world — claiming they were images of the current Mina incident.
This has alarmed and promoted local scholars to issue a strong fatwa or advisory to refrain from publishing photographs of the bodies of deceased victims without their relatives’ consent. It is clearly an un-Islamic act and violates the very rights of these victims.
Unfortunately a numbers of social media users have no ethics and they share almost everything they see with others without a simple cross-check of the origin of the post, especially if that image or footage attracts the attention of others, said an IT expert.
There was a Facebook connection disruption on Tuesday for a few minutes that prompted some to blame the online hate debate between KSA sympathizers and those who are posting Iran’s propaganda that aims to mislead worldwide public opinion, and the Muslim world in particular.
Many users have posted fabricated images and video footage on their accounts including a photo of bodies of the Mina tragedy with a caption in Arabic that reads “they have been killed by chemical poison.”
This debate has brought about a political agenda using such incidents to mislead the world, one commenter said.
But with all these attempts, most social media users are fully convinced and believe in what Saudi Arabia has been doing in the service of its guests and pilgrims in its massive improvements to the Two Holy Mosques and the holy sites.
“We have witnessed the hospitality and best management by this organization for their guests from various countries of the world,” said Dr. Ali B. Panda who was among the guests of Muslim World League this year.
