In a message dated 30/08/01 13:48:09 GMT Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
writes:
<< Azeem wrote: "there is one howler so obvious it should be easily spottable,
and if nothing else give pause for thought about the others" Could you
please be specific?
If you can't and as you say yourself you don't wish to analyze every
statement
and you're no expert then why make this kind of accusation about the validity
of the entire list of facts without even saying what you're referring to? >>
OK, the claim that Muslims pray with their backs to Jerusalem: the fact is
that they face Mecca when they pray, there is no instruction to face AWAY
from anywhere. And if they are in Aden, for example, they will be facing
both Jerusalem and Mecca. The statement is untrue.
While I'm at it, the other statement that I immediately raised doubts about
the list's supposed impartiality was that the Koran does not mention
Jerusalem once; while this is true, it is highly disingenuous in its
inference. The Koran only mentions Mecca once, yet nobody would dispute that
Mecca is the holiest site in Islam.
If anyone would like an alternative (and very detailed) view of these and the
other statements in list you posted, they could have a look at:
http://64.226.129.19/pmw/snakebite
Just because a lot of lies, half-truths and misconceptions are told about the
Jewish race and the state of Israel (some of them helped on their way through
cyberspace by members of my family, I am sorry to say - I have been disowned
by one cousin for my somewhat heated response to a particularly hateful
antisemitic email he sent me), it does not mean that the dissemination of
similar about Palestinians should be condoned.
If anyone doubts that there are groups of people who can see both sides of
the question, they could do worse than peruse http://www.haaretzdaily.com,
one of many publications that eschews hate-mongering and rigid sectarianism
in favour of constructive debate and looking at lives of ordinary people.
Azeem
