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In his June 21, 2024 Friday sermon at the Islamic Center of Brushy Creek, Texas, Imam Jawad Rasul called on Muslims to stop using Whatsapp messenger, because it supposedly supplies information on users to the Israeli Defense Force (IDF). He claimed that an IDF artificial intelligence tool called Lavender identifies participants in whatsapp groups with known terrorists as targets for drone strikes. He suggested that Muslims start using alternative messaging apps that are not controlled by Meta. The sermon was streamed live on the mosque’s YouTube channel.
Jawad Rasul: "There is an artificial intelligence tool that has been developed by the IDF called Lavender. IDF is the Israeli army, and this tool is called Lavender. And Lavender is a military tool. And what does this tool do? It identifies targets that should be struck by bombs through drones and should be killed wherever they are. And we've all seen videos of people walking, ambulances being bombed, you know, just ruthless killing once the tool identifies that this person is a target. And this tool, of course, is feeding on our data, right?
"So, one of the apps which is feeding this tool is actually WhatsApp. And the way that it's doing it is that they have told this tool that 'Look, if you look at all of the data that's coming to us from WhatsApp, and if you see that there is a known terrorist that we have already identified... if this known terrorist is in a group on WhatsApp, and that group has 40 people, all those 39 other people are also targets because they are potential terrorists because they are in a group with this guy.' So then, this tool starts to put out targets which is then taken by the other branches and they say: 'Okay, we need to target this guy, we need to target this guy, we need to target this guy...'
"So, think about what that means. You know, how many of us...we are in groups with people whom we have no idea. Right, 1,000 people, 2,000 people, in groups that we are in. Some guy lives on the other side of the world, but we are in the same group with them. So there is a problem of how they're using it, there's also a problem of: Why is WhatsApp giving them this data, when it promises us that 'we are giving you end-to-end encryption and privacy?'
"So, one of the things that I have spoken to many Muslim leaders and scholars in our area, outside of our area, and everybody feels that there is no good reason for the Muslims to be continuing to use WhatsApp. So, I want everyone to think about other apps, other alternatives. There is Signal. There is Telegram. There are other Messengers out there, which are not owned by the same platform, Meta. And I want us to start sending messages to our friends and family and tell them: 'Hey, I made a new group on this app, join me over there.' And eventually, we want to, we should be thinking about leaving this platform. We don't necessarily have to delete it today. But we need to start making the hijra. We need to start making the hijra."
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