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2010-02-09

2010-01-19

Agriculture

Lifestyles

Friday, November 13, 2009 10:52 PM

Untrue Muslim e-mails show fear, terror winning

Faulty forward

The emotion pirates have struck again.

These are the people who use the Internet and e-mail to hijack the emotions of others affected by tragedy and the fear or uncertainty it can create.

In the wake of a tragedy, as in the recent murders at Fort Hood, Texas, e-mails suddenly appear spreading fear, doubt and even hate.

One such message recently appeared in e-mail at The Ottawa Herald. Two local residents independently forwarded the anonymously created message that had come to them on the Internet.

It purported to be a message from Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. The upshot was that he had told Muslims in Australia to either give up their culture and beliefs or leave.

Here’s a quote: “Muslims who want to live under Islamic Sharia law were told on Wednesday to get out of Australia.”

The senders then dared American politicians to show similar backbone. Each message also had been sent to the entire Kansas Congressional delegation.

In reality, Kevin Rudd never said any such thing. In fact, this e-mail was a copy of one from years ago that had attributed the same statement to former Australian Prime Minister John Howard. Howard also did not say this.

The folks at snopes.com and hoaxslayer.com traced most of the words to a local newspaper column in Georgia.

The original senders who wanted to stir up the fears of others to their own hateful ends (hence the hijack) simply replaced the photo of Howard with one of Rudd.

In fact, the e-mails that came to The Herald even made the mistake of leaving a reference to Howard in the body of the e-mail that claimed to be quoting Rudd.

The only backbone needed in this country is the backbone to stand up to such nonsense as this.

This is a nation that not only tolerates, but thrives, because of its diversity.

It is as wrong to give a blanket of blame for terrorism to Muslims as it is to blame child rape, racism and terrorism on Christians because some have done so, they claimed, in the name of God.

Our nation, and our national common sense, overcame similar periods of fear-driven hijacks in the 1950s when people’s careers and livelihoods were ruined by red-baiting and anti-communist hysteria. We look back on that time with shame today.

Meanwhile, all of us need to practice some common sense.

Don’t spread the anonymous messages that come your way in e-mail.

It only displays your fearful side and your prejudices, and that means the terrorists are winning.

— Gordon Billingsley

Herald content director