Rumor Control
May 7th 2007 15:40
Wow, I've just acted the part of Mr. Cyber Bully and am hogging the front page (not cool, Ahmed!).
Today was a great day, it was a day that concluded lots of questions I was asking myself recently. Well not asking so much so looking for confirmation of the answers I had.
I was asking myself 'what if I'm wrong? what if global climate change isn't real and were perfectly safe?'. I completely deluded myself until the point I was convinced it was true. It felt weird, I felt happy, like, theres no problem with the world. But then I started thinking about all the facts, not just the ones 'disproving' global climate change, then I realized that those who think actions doesn't have consequences are living in a self induced delusion.
An illusion created by people who didn't want to believe it because it annoyed them too much, they couldn't handle the truth. They lied to themselves to be happy, like how parents lie to their kids about the tooth fairy.
I wish the tooth fairy was real, I'd be stoked, but the tooth fairy is anything but.
The other thing that crossed my mind was proving to myself conclusively that I was right and that I was not simply trying to hide away from the truth or going stubborn during 'debates'. youranter pretty much led me to the answer I was looking and hoping for, I know I'm being open minded and not being stubborn because I am giving facts and am being met with insults and other propaganda devices.
Finally, to that end, rumors. This is kind of scary but only yesterday I was thinking about a story, about a man who was made prisoner of the Roman army (yes he was Muslim). They tried very hard to break this man and make him go against his religion by offering him worldly things or threatening and torturing him. Since this man was meant to be the best Muslim, cracking him would be invaluable propaganda for the Romans.
One thing they did to him was put him in prison with just pork and wine. Muslims can't drink alcohol or eat the meat of an Animal that exhibits a certain level of intelligence (such as pigs or cats). However exceptions are made, for instance when starving to death a Muslim is perfectly allowed to eat pork.
Yet he didn't, for three days, nearing death yet he didn't eat from it, and why didn't he? He said even though it was allowed in Islam for him to eat the pork given his circumstances he didn't because he knew that as word spread it would be falsified.
The story may start with him just eating pork to survive but by the time it reaches the other end of the world its about him joining in on an orgy. He was carrying the weight of Islams reputation as a religion on his back, and he was doing it voluntarily.
Along comes Farfur the Mouse, the Muslim mouse. A victim of lies and rumors that got so bad lies were spread about specific parts of the show that never existed! Parts that had actual names, which didn't exist!
Whats scary is how far off the mark the rumors were, whats even more scary is what all these rumors were based on, an image of Farfur making a pointing gesture with added text implying Farfur was pretending to be holding an AK-47.
When I first read about it on The Politcal Brief my first reaction was shock that such a show is made and allowed to tar Islam. However I realized the name of the show was completely missing from the article, in fact there were no sources or anything in the article which led me to believe it was all made up or at best extremely warped truths.
Doing a little research of my own I found out the 'Muslim Mouse' was called Farfur who featured in a children's show, whats more I learned that all claims that Farfur was terrorist propaganda was coming from Islam hate groups the world over. I looked at several major news outlets none of which even had a mention of 'Farfur'.
Unlike hate groups if major news outlets publish or broadcast inaccurate news stories they will be severely rebuked, no doubt the story of 'Farfur the Terrorist Mouse' would have caught some journalists eyes eager for front page news and likewise disappointed them when they found out it was all just rumor with an image backing it up - no editor would approve of such a thing, it would taint the image of the news outlet due to incompetent journalism.
It's amazing, but the most important lesson of the day for me was that even the slightest of gestures can and will be used as ammo against you, yet those who don't blindly hate won't fall for the same trap and actually believe the story without proof.
Which makes you realize, how few and far in between hate groups are, yet how loud and misleading they can be.
Thank god.
Today was a great day, it was a day that concluded lots of questions I was asking myself recently. Well not asking so much so looking for confirmation of the answers I had.
I was asking myself 'what if I'm wrong? what if global climate change isn't real and were perfectly safe?'. I completely deluded myself until the point I was convinced it was true. It felt weird, I felt happy, like, theres no problem with the world. But then I started thinking about all the facts, not just the ones 'disproving' global climate change, then I realized that those who think actions doesn't have consequences are living in a self induced delusion.
An illusion created by people who didn't want to believe it because it annoyed them too much, they couldn't handle the truth. They lied to themselves to be happy, like how parents lie to their kids about the tooth fairy.
I wish the tooth fairy was real, I'd be stoked, but the tooth fairy is anything but.
The other thing that crossed my mind was proving to myself conclusively that I was right and that I was not simply trying to hide away from the truth or going stubborn during 'debates'. youranter pretty much led me to the answer I was looking and hoping for, I know I'm being open minded and not being stubborn because I am giving facts and am being met with insults and other propaganda devices.
Finally, to that end, rumors. This is kind of scary but only yesterday I was thinking about a story, about a man who was made prisoner of the Roman army (yes he was Muslim). They tried very hard to break this man and make him go against his religion by offering him worldly things or threatening and torturing him. Since this man was meant to be the best Muslim, cracking him would be invaluable propaganda for the Romans.
One thing they did to him was put him in prison with just pork and wine. Muslims can't drink alcohol or eat the meat of an Animal that exhibits a certain level of intelligence (such as pigs or cats). However exceptions are made, for instance when starving to death a Muslim is perfectly allowed to eat pork.
Yet he didn't, for three days, nearing death yet he didn't eat from it, and why didn't he? He said even though it was allowed in Islam for him to eat the pork given his circumstances he didn't because he knew that as word spread it would be falsified.
The story may start with him just eating pork to survive but by the time it reaches the other end of the world its about him joining in on an orgy. He was carrying the weight of Islams reputation as a religion on his back, and he was doing it voluntarily.
Along comes Farfur the Mouse, the Muslim mouse. A victim of lies and rumors that got so bad lies were spread about specific parts of the show that never existed! Parts that had actual names, which didn't exist!
Whats scary is how far off the mark the rumors were, whats even more scary is what all these rumors were based on, an image of Farfur making a pointing gesture with added text implying Farfur was pretending to be holding an AK-47.
When I first read about it on The Politcal Brief my first reaction was shock that such a show is made and allowed to tar Islam. However I realized the name of the show was completely missing from the article, in fact there were no sources or anything in the article which led me to believe it was all made up or at best extremely warped truths.
Doing a little research of my own I found out the 'Muslim Mouse' was called Farfur who featured in a children's show, whats more I learned that all claims that Farfur was terrorist propaganda was coming from Islam hate groups the world over. I looked at several major news outlets none of which even had a mention of 'Farfur'.
Unlike hate groups if major news outlets publish or broadcast inaccurate news stories they will be severely rebuked, no doubt the story of 'Farfur the Terrorist Mouse' would have caught some journalists eyes eager for front page news and likewise disappointed them when they found out it was all just rumor with an image backing it up - no editor would approve of such a thing, it would taint the image of the news outlet due to incompetent journalism.
It's amazing, but the most important lesson of the day for me was that even the slightest of gestures can and will be used as ammo against you, yet those who don't blindly hate won't fall for the same trap and actually believe the story without proof.
Which makes you realize, how few and far in between hate groups are, yet how loud and misleading they can be.
Thank god.
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Comment by D. Armenta
The Florida Keys and Everglades
The Black Sheep Chronicles
What constitutes bad manners?
The male mystique
Debate Fan
L.A.M.P.
I just resigned from a paid writers' site because they overlooked a satire of a news piece and posted it on google newsgroups as news.
That satire (and it was very obviously a satire to anyone who bothered to read it) was picked up as news by FOX (now there's a surprise) and caused a real clusterfuck.
The writers' site reacted by banning the writer of the satire. Their decision to do so was based on wild rumors circulating around the site that he was: raking in money from the article, had purposely submitted the article as news to cause trouble/make money from page views, and was actually another writer under an assumed name.
Not one of those rumors were true. Not one.
By the way, I did not know this:
"Muslims can't drink alcohol or eat the meat of an Animal that exhibits a certain level of intelligence (such as pigs or cats)"
I had been under the impression that Muslims didn't eat pork because they considered it filthy.
Thank you for that info.
D. Armenta
Comment by Ahmed
Video Gamer Kids
Little Green Foosballs
PolyKicks
I don't think there was a specific reason for why we shouldn't eat such animals besides the aforementioned fact. The system works as follows: We don't do it because god said so, we don't do it because of the reasons god gave us, finally we don't do it because of the reasons we might have thought of.
The only reason I think is given in concrete is the fact the animals are self aware and thus will be afraid of death, I don't know about pigs being filthy, that seems tofall in the final category of 'because we said so' rather than the first or second.
There are a lot of things like this, for instance the crescent moon is the de-facto logo for Islam, though it isn't something religious, another is how men and women are separated in mosque's by a wall or placed in separate rooms, theres nothing in Islam that says it has to be this way. The reason these things stay is because they don't hinder anyones faith since there is nothing in Islam for or against these types of actions, so we just leave it be.
Comment by D. Armenta
The Florida Keys and Everglades
The Black Sheep Chronicles
What constitutes bad manners?
The male mystique
Debate Fan
L.A.M.P.
Now, see that? All this time, the generalizations I've read about Muslims have been many and varied.
I find the premise of animals being self-aware and therefore taboo rather charming. Pigs *have* been tested to have the same intelligence level as a normal 3-year-old human child, as have some breeds of cats.
Yet I have seen self-proclaimed Muslims' posts that claim all kinds of outlandish things, for instance: "pork is filthy, if you pour coca-cola on a piece of ham it will erupt in maggots" (completely false)
If you get the time, could you post more about Muslim customs and beliefs? I think it would go a long way toward better understanding right now if someone wrote intelligent pieces about just regular everyday Muslim ways, not political harangues or incendiary articles.
If you get time..I'd be really interested. Education is power.
D.
Comment by Ahmed
Video Gamer Kids
Little Green Foosballs
PolyKicks
So I think thats why in generel you don't get Muslims who have not had their views warped by politics or backwards culture writing about Islam, theya ctually identify these responsibilities and dislike the idea.
But I guess I should try, it's amazing how stupid some Muslims are. Well it isn't that they're stupid it's more that they have the wrong ideas in many ways. They, for instance, think it is justified to outright lie to further a point home, so yes, eating Pork is Haram however saying lies like 'if you poor coke on pork it bursts into maggots' is wrong, in fact thats Haram to (to a lesser degree mind you).
There was this 'scholar' who made some pretty out there claims, one was that Naruto teaches kids to worship the devil, another was that there was this playstation 2 game where you were Muhammed and had 27 wives and something or another, needless to say both claims were blatantly false. However he was saying it not because he thought it was the truth, because he wanted to get parents involved with their kids, rather than leave them alone to do whatever they want.
Though Islamically speaking this type of thing isn't allowed, you can't deem something Halal or Haram just because youf eel like it (and yeah this does bring the whole issue of the fatwa thing being abused like hell).
I'll probably start writing about it when I can think of something to write
Comment by D. Armenta
The Florida Keys and Everglades
The Black Sheep Chronicles
What constitutes bad manners?
The male mystique
Debate Fan
L.A.M.P.
I've already learned from your reponses.
D.