Why do all my conservative friends have the Arabic letter "n" as their profile picture?

[Recursion]

Does anybody know what that is?

[Electric Monk]

1. Google found this

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/news/how-the-arabic-letter-n-went-from-symbol-of-terror-to-sign-of-solidarity-via-social-media/story-fngr8gwi-1227014148856?nk=260ae45c0ff7b104f8b4c83038d34dfb

How the Arabic letter “N” went from symbol of terror to sign of solidarity via social media



ASSYRIAN  people in Fairfield and across the globe have changed their profile picture on social media to the Arabic letter “N” in a show of support for people being persecuted by Islamic State terrorists in northern Iraq.

[JI7]

2. i looked it up and seems to be about persected christians

[pinboy3niner]

3. Euronews: How an Arabic letter was reclaimed to support Iraq’s persecuted Christians

...

Online, frustration over the world’s inaction have led to a social media campaign to raise awareness about the fate of Mosul’s Christians. Users, for the most part Christians and Catholics, are changing their profile pictures on Facebook and Twitter to a pictures of the letter ن​, the very letter infamously branding their Iraqi co-religionists, and turning it into a symbol of support.

http://www.euronews.com/2014/07/22/how-an-arabic-letter-was-reclaimed-to-support-iraqs-persecuted-christians-n/

[Joanie Baloney]

4. First article I found...

Not sure of the source but it sounds plausible:

FACEBOOK and Twitter users have been left wondering why their friends and followers have changed their profile picture to an Arabic symbol.

Thousands have uploaded the Arabic letter 'N' to their social media profiles over recent days.

Short for 'Nasrani' - the Arabic word for Christian - the online campaign has sprung up as a show of solidarity with Christians in war-torn Iraq.

Islamist insurgents are believed to have given the dwindling population of Christians in the northern city of Mosul a threatening ultimatum - either convert to Islam, pay a £50,000 religious tax called a 'jizya', or face death.

The al-Qaeda-inspired Isis group (The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) have spray-painted the Arabic letter on the homes of thousands of Iraqi Christians over the weekend to identify them.

By sharing the symbol online, fellow Christians across Iraq and other parts of the world are hoping to raise awareness about the fate of Mosul's Christian population.

-JB



http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/491391/Online-symbol-of-solidarity-after-ISIS-tell-Iraqi-Christians-to-convert-pay-or-face-death

[Codeine]

5. The assholes in ISIS spraypainted the letter

on property to be seized from Christians. N is for "Nasrani", Arabic for Christian. There's a social media campaign to support the Christian community in Iraq by using that as an avatar

[regnaD kciN]

6. It's not just conservatives…

I know a lot of progressive Christians who have adopted it for their FB avatars.

[Prophet 451]

7. Showing solidarity with persecuted Iraqi Christians n/t

[Recursion]

8. Well, as causes they've embraced go, that one's pretty good

Thanks, all.

[Prophet 451]

9. Yeah, I thought that too

After all the stupid or offensive causes that political Christians have embraced, it's kind of jarring when they turn out to be in the right on this one.

[bluestateguy]

10. And THEY really are persecuted

Iraqi Christians face the real Christian persecution.

Not some fundementalist wacko high school kid in Alabama who is nicely asked to not bully the gay kids.

[Prophet 451]

11. Well, yeah

I'm as sick of American Christians screaming persecution over every little thing as you are. But the Iraqi Christians really are persecuted and, as a liberal and man of faith, I support them wholeheartedly.

[Union Scribe]

12. I didn't know either. Thanks everyone for explaining. nt

[Rozlee]

13. Well, hell, they shouldn't have been so fired up to get rid of SoDamnInsane and maybe

those Christians wouldn't be so persecuted right now. The law of unintended consequences seems to really bite conservatives in the ass a lot. Christians lived in Iraq for nearly 2,000 years as a tolerated minority, but thanks to the Bush Evil Empire, they're being ethnically cleansed now. Saddam's Deputy Prime Minister was even a Christian. Saddam was the devil we knew. As a Gulf War vet, I think we really screwed the pooch on that one. The blowback's been a bitch.

[GiveEmEnoughRope]

14. Correct GOP Policies Created the Christian Persecution

and current US Policies are creating more terrorists and have been for over 50 years

And so it goes

[AbdulWahid Hamid]

15. Thats True.....

The campaign is started to support the people died or killed in Iraq.The campaign is started on social media and is providing support for various people of different religions in Iraq.If someone could not understand the arabic alphabets,they should try learning some basic alphabets from some book or online.