Muslims have attacked an internet group of more than 300,000 Christians on the popular social networking website, Facebook, prompting thousands to leave the group.
Islamic hackers altered the group’s name from “Christians on Facebook” to “La ilaha illallahu Muhammadur Rasulullah”, which means “There is no god but Allah; Muhammad is the messenger of Allah,” reports TG Daily, a technology news website.
The group’s name changed several times throughout the day but ended by displaying in English “There is No God but ALLAH; Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.”
The photo that identifies the group was also changed to “Shahadah”, Islam’s declaration of faith.
A snapshot taken via Google showed the original image as a cross and the description of the group invited Christians from all denominations and welcomed non-Christians “with open arms”.
However following the hack, applications to post messages were shut down and sections were replaced with core beliefs of Islam.
The administrator names were also deleted and replaced by a user going by the name of “Sarah Ha”.
This is reportedly a reference to Sarah and Hagar of the Bible. Genesis records the birth of Isaac to Sarah and Ishmael to Hagar. Judaism and Christianity descended from Isaac whereas Islam is associated with Ishmael.
Facebook is a social networking website where users can share information, messages, pictures, and links with friends.
Users can also join any of the thousands of groups which can be created by any user for any purpose. Groups can range from representing particular interests to affiliations and causes.
The site claims to have 175 million members worldwide, making it the world’s most popular site of its kind.