> From: Emin Gun Sirer [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] 

> My terminology is correct, and your message is a simple ad 
> hominem.

No his argument was not an ad hominem. 

An ad hominem argument is an argument of the form 'Osama Bin Laden believes X, 
Osama Bin Laden is a bad person, therefore X is false and/or anyone who argues 
X is a bad person'

That was not the form of argument used.


There is a little acknowledged side condition to the ad hominem fallacy. The ad 
hominem argument is only a fallacy if and only if the truth of the proposition 
X has no bearing on the character of Osama Bin Laden. If proposition X is, say 
'that the hirabah of Al Qaeda is a Jihad' then the argument is not a fallacy of 
necessity it is a fallacy of convention.

"You have not observed the criteria required to gain standing in this forum, 
therefore its not worth listening to you" is a perfectly acceptable rule of 
debate. It is not an acceptable move in rhetoric, but you only get to use 
rhetoric after the preliminaries are completed.



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