Interfaith 
Email rants: “bearing false witness”?
Email rants: “bearing false witness”?
Written by John McNeil Friday, 15 May 2009 10:50
Vision Network national director Glyn Carpenter says he is concerned at the way email is being used to spread inaccurate information, which usually reflects badly against a particular group, often Muslims.
He says several emails currently going the rounds illustrate the problem. In one case, an Anzac Day PowerPoint claims that the “UK government had removed the Holocaust from the British school curriculum because it offended ‘the Muslim population beliefs’ that the holocaust never took place”.
In response, the chief executive of the UK’s Holocaust Educational Trust re-affirmed that teaching on the Holocaust became part of the National Curriculum for History in 1991. It is statutory for all students in England and Wales to learn about the Holocaust at Key Stage 3 usually in Year 9 History (ages 13 -14).
Another example claims that Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd recently told Muslims to get out of Australia if they were not prepared to adapt to the Australian way of life. This is in fact a bowdlerisation of a column originally written by a correspondent in a small Midwest American newspaper, which was subsequently taken up, changed and attributed to the leaders of many Western countries.
“The relative anonymity of the internet makes rants like these extremely popular,” says Mr Carpenter. “Since getting one of these emails from several different sources (which shows it’s travelled far and wide), I’ve started wondering whether we don’t sometimes fall into a kind of bias which leads us to want to believe this sort of thing is true, which then makes it easier for us to circulate stories which in fact are not true,” he said.
“In the process, do we end up bearing false witness against others?”
While some emails have gone out correcting the holocaust claim, as far as he knows they have not contained an apology for spreading misinformation.
“If Christians pass on such emails, it reveals an attitude and bias which could actually work against the cause we believe in and are working for.
“Muslims are loved by God – exactly like everyone else. When they are maligned unjustly, I believe God’s heart leans more to them and away from their critics.
Generalising statements which may apply to some Muslims as if they apply to all are unjust.”
He says several emails currently going the rounds illustrate the problem. In one case, an Anzac Day PowerPoint claims that the “UK government had removed the Holocaust from the British school curriculum because it offended ‘the Muslim population beliefs’ that the holocaust never took place”.
In response, the chief executive of the UK’s Holocaust Educational Trust re-affirmed that teaching on the Holocaust became part of the National Curriculum for History in 1991. It is statutory for all students in England and Wales to learn about the Holocaust at Key Stage 3 usually in Year 9 History (ages 13 -14).
Another example claims that Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd recently told Muslims to get out of Australia if they were not prepared to adapt to the Australian way of life. This is in fact a bowdlerisation of a column originally written by a correspondent in a small Midwest American newspaper, which was subsequently taken up, changed and attributed to the leaders of many Western countries.
“The relative anonymity of the internet makes rants like these extremely popular,” says Mr Carpenter. “Since getting one of these emails from several different sources (which shows it’s travelled far and wide), I’ve started wondering whether we don’t sometimes fall into a kind of bias which leads us to want to believe this sort of thing is true, which then makes it easier for us to circulate stories which in fact are not true,” he said.
“In the process, do we end up bearing false witness against others?”
While some emails have gone out correcting the holocaust claim, as far as he knows they have not contained an apology for spreading misinformation.
“If Christians pass on such emails, it reveals an attitude and bias which could actually work against the cause we believe in and are working for.
“Muslims are loved by God – exactly like everyone else. When they are maligned unjustly, I believe God’s heart leans more to them and away from their critics.
Generalising statements which may apply to some Muslims as if they apply to all are unjust.”
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