A warning about deliberately provocative propaganda
I have just been cruising around different sites, stopping here and there, reading a bit of this and a bit of that and somewhere along the line I found myself being drawn into an anti Islamic video. This video apparently ‘proved’ statistically that once the number of practising Muslims rose above a certain percentage per population within any given State, that State would automatically suffer Islamic driven violence and loss of democratic freedoms. I didn’t take it too seriously; there is a whole lot of politically motivated propaganda out there and some of it ‘leaks’ in here.
AND THEN……………..as I was getting rather bored with the whole thing and about to click away, I saw a series of photos someone had posted in the comments. This set of photos apparently showed an 8 year old boy who had been caught stealing bread from a market in Iran, he was being held down so that a truck could run over his arm as a punishment for stealing. They were pretty realistic pictures and the agony on the boys face looked real.
BUT; well I’ve been caught out before so I thought I’d check it out on the ‘urban myths’ pages. Sure enough there were the photos and the explanation. The images were apparently ‘real’ in so much as they had not been digitally edited or altered, they were first published in 2005 but the young boy whose arm was run over was not being punished for a crime. He was part of a "Maareke giry" or street magic act and allegedly performed the stunt for money.
At the bottom of the story in the urban myths pages was this poll;
Poll: Did you find it plausible, at first glance, that these photos depict an example of 'Islamic justice'? 1) Yes 2) No 3) I wasn't sure
For me, the poll proved more worrying than any thing else, because I couldn’t be 100% sure I could answer ‘’NO’’, I would like to think I was immune to this type of propaganda, but I am?? In honesty I don’t know. What a horrible truth to realise about yourself.
PS...............Big thank you to Eddie who taught me to ALWAYS check it out on the urban myths site.
ReplyDeleteThis is extremely disturbing Frankly I don't care who or why these people are doing this and sort of hope it is fake for the child's sake.
ReplyDeleteSimply inexcusable.
some wise info here..thanks for sharing
ReplyDeleteBut afterwards, how does that change or hide the fact that muslims do have evil and archaic tortures as punishment ?
ReplyDeleteMuslim Women who are raped, yep raped, are often brutalized for being a victim .
And what about the practice of 'honor' killings ? Those Islamofacists not only do it regularly in their home countries, but many have come here to the U.S. and have done the same .
It doesn't, people from all parts of the world and of all faiths have done horrible things to each other for as far back as history will take us......................
ReplyDeletethe point is, this particular lie has been seen for what it is, an incitement to hatred and a deliberate attempt to distort the truth with the aim of inciting hatred against a particular section of society.
Yes thanks for this Loretta. I dropped some contacts from 360 last year because they were into that stuff, believing it and their guestbooks were full of anti-Muslim sentiment, largely based on videos. Since I didn't comment on those posts and cartoons, I was talked about behind my back, Americans talk and spell funny, etc.
ReplyDeleteDeliberately provocative propaganda is an awful thing to do to the image of an entire group of people, based solely on generalization of some fanatic practices. I have my own preferences, like we all do, and I do try hard not to judge, but bigots and liars are at the top of my list of prejudices. I wouldn't like it if all Italian-Americans were identified with the Godfather. :-}
Every religion, every country, every part of society has done horrible things and many still do. It is the intentional defamation through a contrived means that I have the problem with. As an American I can think of many things that we have done that we should be ashamed of, but I would strike out at deliberately provocative propaganda to convey those things to the world. I would hope that it would be told truthfully.
Thank you Frank, I'm so glad you understand what I am saying here.
ReplyDeleteHi.
ReplyDeleteI think I have seen that video (What Islam is Not.). I posted it and it was a hot topic for discussion for months on my site and garnered something like 502 comments. Within that conversation I posted that same series of photos believing it to be true. Later I discovered the same thing that you did..that it was a street show. (I left the whole discussion...photos and all...on the post as a warning to others who might fall into that lie elsewhere.) I discovered from a Muslim acquaintance that there are some there who put this type of show on to get money from the tourists and passers by. I agreed that it's original presentation was indeed a fraud but added in closing that anyone who would put a child in danger that way should be horse whipped. It may have been a fraud but I believe that the terror on that child's face was probably very real...but...even if the child was an Oscar quality actor...child abuse is child abuse.
(Just checked the visitors on my site. It was MY site that you got that from. LOL. Well...I'm glad that you brought it up. People do need to be cautioned. I was suckered into those photos myself. It can happen to anyone.)
thanks for post Loretta.... a very good one.... In this digital age of instant information, there is much we cannot take as given truth....
ReplyDeleteSadly mis-information is a reality and unfortunatley we do absorb some thing even when unintended. Keep the guard up /:-)
ReplyDeleteExcellent post. I have also seen, posted on other sites, misleading or false images and "facts". Sometimes I can check them out, one way or the other. But the point is that they are being used to disparage a certain group by those who feel they are more righteous. At a time when we need to be trying to build bridges, this sort of propaganda divides us. For all of us, if we wish to look at wrongs to be righted, we need not look farther than our own backyards.
ReplyDeleteActually, in many/majority of the cases in muslim controlled countries, the woman is put to death for adultery for being raped.
ReplyDeleteI do find the barbaric methods of punishment prevalent in SOME countries to reinforce rather strongly the prejudice against them (muslims).
Stereo typing many will say is wrong. But you know what... I don't go strapping bombs around my chest and walk into innocent crowds of people and blow myself up. Offhand I can't think of any religion except ONE that uses that method of murder. Till that stops, ALL muslims in my book are terrorists. Better to throw the baby out with the bath water than have the little beast explode and kill me or a loved one.
Also, be damned glad i'm not in control of the United States. I'd nuke the middle east and end that problem once and for all and to hell with what anyone says about it (and yes.. i'd start with isreal and walk the bombs eastward till I took out the entire region).
Very astute call there, Loretta. Makes us all think and question just what it is we are looking at. I think it does take 'filters' even to watch current affairs shows sometimes, as the media like beating-up, or hypeing, about issues and articles when they can get an emotional reaction out of something.
ReplyDeleteIt's not a horrible truth to realize about yourself in my opinion, other than the fact that we are all part of the human race, but rather horrible to realize how much lying and distortion there is.
ReplyDeleteI especially agree with bennett1 and veryfrank.
I regret the elements of hate expressed by another commenter. Getting rid of all the "bad guys" is not a solution--more appear; it maintains the never-ending cycle of revenge. Should we kill everyone who has ever done anything wrong? Whereas we can go to extremes in the other direction, extremes of love, peacemaking, and eventually change human nature for good.
I haven't seen these particular comments and photos on the group CT of which I'm a member, but I try to be open-minded and not too gullible. This sounds like something you'd find posted there. I doubt that I'd believe the explanation of that photo, and, like you, would further research it to be sure. There is so much information on the internet as we all know and quite a lot of it is false like those forwards warning us of computer viruses, which fool everybody at least once. I can remember plastering these hoaxes all over the staff room years ago. Now I recommend that the sender check it out on Snopes. And for those of you who don't know what CT stands for, it's Conspiracy Theories.
ReplyDeleteIndiscriminately blowing people up, using child terrorists and horrific acts of torture may in your experience be a Muslim prerogative, in my experience it's not. In my life I have been aware of more Christian led acts of terrorism than of Muslim led acts of terrorism. This is because I remember the days before the Good Friday agreement in Northern Ireland, (which In really don't want to talk about because we now have peace I I don't want to rake up old hatreds) apart from to say these acts were either led by Catholic Christian groups or Protestant Christian led groups. So please, don't any one try to tell me that all terrorists are Muslims, because for most of history in most of the world THIS IS NOT TRUE.
ReplyDeleteThank you...........but to realise you are not immune from the effects of hate campaigns is not a bad thing. I also agree with your comment that getting rid of the the 'bad guys' is not the solution. for a start I wouldn't know who to determine as bad and who as good. Also to achieve peace all parties need to start wanting peace more than they want to win, that is the only Way it works
ReplyDeleteAnd I believe you when you say that. . .you probably can't tell the difference between good and bad . .. .especially after reading all this diversionary stuff on your blog .
ReplyDeletePS...............would you have 'nuked' Northern Ireland too?? and of course its financial backers. How about some of the African states that have seem more terrorism than most of us ever will, would you 'nuke' them?? the list of places affected by different groups of terrorism is endless..........do you want to 'nuke' them all??
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's just because some people are better at some things than others, and vice versa .
ReplyDeleteHave you ever heard of a guy called John Stuart Mill, (1806 - 1873), he was one of the great philosophers of his time. He advocated, amongst other things freedom of thought, speech and association. He believed that any one should be allowed to express any opinion how ever bad it may seem because the way to effectively fight against 'wrong' ideas was not to suppress them but to get them out there in the public domain and discuss them. He believed that once every one was exposed to these 'bad' ideas and also exposed to the 'good' arguments against them, people would be able to see the truth and dismiss the 'bad' ideas and recognise them as lies and distortions,. this is of course a much simplified version of his thoughts.
ReplyDeleteThe reason I am telling you this is to make sure you understand why I will NOT delete any thing you say. I want your thoughts out there so that people can see them and recognise them, and recognise you for what you are.
Sorry...............I really don't understand what you mean?? who is better at what??
ReplyDeleteWhat in the world are you referring to. . . . previous to agreeing with you I had only posted one other comment and that one was actually a question .
ReplyDeletemy mistake, I aplogise,I have obviously fused your comments and someone elses comments together.
ReplyDeleteStill makes me want to throw up!
ReplyDeleteCould you please consider posting a disclaimer before such content???
I would never have scrolled down, fake or not, I am upset from it. Children are my everything and regardless so many unimaginable things are happening to them over there.
Snopes.com is a great site.
To add to the comments... I know Muslims who are some of most amazing people I know. You can't judge a religion by its fanatics; Christianity would show mass murders, raping of little boys, and a million other things, but there are many good Christians too, but The Arian Nation, Hitler, etc all called themselves Christian, though I most can see those people as not staying to be true to the root of the religion, hence fanatics.
It's one of the reasons I can't call myself religious; I can't be put in a box, especially one that puts everyone together and does not realize the word ALL does not apply to the masses of such things and horrors.
Still I must reiterate a disclaimer suggestion in the future. My stomach is still turning at the what ifs, since this could have happened somewhere, even by accident, had my foot partially run over as child, but that image is wrong on many levels. ~Meg
Yes I would and yes... in fact I do. Unlike most people, I seriously and honestly believe the human race is crap and needs to be removed from the face of the planet. I see very few true redeeming qualities in humanity. Earth would be a better place without us.
ReplyDeleteThat is such a sad thing to say, I hope you don't genuinly believe it
ReplyDeleteThis makes you sound like a pretty horrible person...............however i've just been to your site and read a quote from ''H.H. The 14th Dalai Lama''................I therefore conclude that you can't be that bad after all, any one who quotes the Dalai Lama MUST have some redeeming qualities...........:-))
ReplyDeleteI don't really believe it but i'm not far from that point. i'm becoming more and more disgusted with the human race almost daily and am not to far off from truly believing to the depths of my being that humanity has gone past the point of being able to redeem itself and grow up. I 'hope' we will but I seriously doubt we are capable of doing it w/o a major and massive global gestalt change.
ReplyDeleteWe are running that risk. So close that the Creator spoke directly to a man in Arès, France, in 1974 and 1977, calling on us to change. If He has hope, why not us? Next step, change ourselves and invite others to do likewise.
ReplyDelete