An Anti-Religion Hoax - - University of Kentucky Going to Remove Holocaust Teaching Due to Muslim Population

Beware! Its a Cyber World - - Summary:

Widely spreading protest email claims that the University of Kentucky is about to remove teachings of the Holocaust from its school curriculum because it could offend the Muslim population.

In fact, the claims in the protest message are false. The University of Kentucky has no plans to remove the Holocaust from its school curriculum. The university has categorically denied the claims in the message. In fact, the email is a mutated version of an earlier message that claimed that the UK (United Kingdom) was removing information about the Holocaust from its school curriculum. It seems that somebody mistakenly assumed that the abbreviation "UK" in the original message stood for the University of Kentucky and therefore changed the message accordingly. 

Let's have a look to the mail contents:

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Subject: An Untimely Sad Message

IN MEMORIAM

This week the University of Kentucky removed The Holocaust from its school curriculum because it "offended" the Muslim population, which claims it never occurred. This is a frightening portent of the fear that is gripping the world and how easily each country is giving into it. It is now more than 60 years since the Second World War in Europe ended.

This e-mail is being sent as a memorial chain, in memory of the six million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians and 1,900 Catholic priests who were murdered, massacred, raped, burned, starved and humiliated with the German and Russian peoples looking the other way!

Now more than ever, with Iran among others claiming the Holocaust to be "a myth," it is imperative to make sure the world never forgets. This e-mail is intended to reach 40 million people worldwide!

Join us and be a link in the memorial chain and help us distribute it around the world. Please send this e-mail to 10 people you know and ask them to continue the memorial chain.

Please don't just delete it. It will only take you a minute to pass this along.
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 Beware! It's a Cyber World - - Explanation:

According to this message, which bills itself as a "memorial chain", the University of Kentucky is about to remove references to the Holocaust from its curriculum. According to the message, the University of Kentucky has decided to take this step because mention of the Holocaust offended the Muslim population. It urges recipients to pass on the information in the hope of reaching 40 million people worldwide.

However the claims in the message are untrue. The University of Kentucky has no intention of removing information about the Holocaust from its curriculum. These nonsensical claims about the University of Kentucky apparently began circulating due to a rather bizarre error by a reader of an earlier, almost identical protest email. The earlier message claimed that the UK - as in the United Kingdom - was the entity set to remove mention of the Holocaust from its school curriculum. Thus it seems that somebody may have mistakenly concluded that the abbreviation "UK" in the original message actually stood for "University of Kentucky". One can therefore surmise that he or she then helpfully substituted the full "University of Kentucky" title in place of the original "UK" before sending on the message. Thus, the accusation levelled at the University of Kentucky was based on a misunderstanding and has no factual basis.

The wording of the protest suggests that the supposed change is set to take place "this week" thereby implying that the information is current. In fact, the hoax email first began circulating back in 2007, and has been passed around ever since. In November 2007, the University of Kentucky published a statement debunking the hoax email:

The University of Kentucky would like you to know that it is not afraid to teach students about the Holocaust, no matter what a widely circulated e-mail message claims.

A digital chain letter, which first surfaced earlier this year [2007], castigates the institution for allegedly eliminating the Holocaust from its curriculum in deference to a vocal Muslim community that denied the tragedy ever took place. “This is a frightening portent of the fear that is gripping the world and how easily each country is giving into it,” the messages goes on to say, before asking each recipient to “continue the memorial chain” by forwarding the note to 10 more people.

In fact, though, the university has never even considered jettisoning courses in the Holocaust. Kentucky offers an interdisciplinary minor in Judaic studies, and its history department devotes an entire 300-level course to the Holocaust, campus officials said in a written statement today.

Ironically, even the original United Kingdom version of the protest email which served as a template for the University of Kentucky hoax, was itself highly misleading and inaccurate.

Muslims Prayer on Madison Avenue on Every Friday - - Reality or Anti-Religiion Hoax

Beware! Its a Cyber World -- Summary:

Through mail and different social networks; a widely circulated protest message claims that, every Friday, many Muslims pray on Madison Avenue and other streets of New York, thereby blocking streets and disrupting traffic. The message includes photographs depicting large groups of Muslims praying.

The images and photographs attached to the said message, though genuine, but the description is inaccurate and misleading. The images depict scenes from the annual Muslim Day Parade in New York City. The parade has taken place every year since 1985. The parade only takes place once per year. Muslims do not block New York streets to pray every Friday as claimed in the message.

Let's have a look to the contents of the message; which is spreading a wrong image about Muslims:

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Subject: This is Madison Ave. in New York City

Political Madness – Will History repeat itself in our lifetime? PLEASE, read to the end – and you can make your own decision on how you feel, and send to all friends and acquaintances. At least they wont be able to say – “I didn’t see it coming”. I didn’t take too much notice of this situation when I first heard about it. But now I am concerned. You should be too. People of all faiths should be concerned – that is why you are receiving this.

Be informed, Be Concerned, Be aware, Don’t let Political Correctness silence you.

From an American who is a retired international lawyer in Madrid.

This is an accurate picture of every Friday afternoon in several locations throughout New York City where there are mosques with a large number of Muslims that cannot fit into the mosque - They fill the surrounding streets, facing east for a couple of hours between about 2 & 4 p.m. - Besides this one at 42nd St & Madison Ave, there is another, even larger group, at 94th St & 3rd Ave, etc.,etc. - Also, I presume, you are aware of the dispute over building another "high rise" Mosque a few blocks from "ground zero" - With regard to that one, the "Imam" refuses to disclose where the $110 million dollars to build it is coming from and there is a lawsuit filed to force disclosure of that information - November can't come soon enough.

This scene is in New York City on Madison Avenue, not in France or the Middle East or Yemen or Kenya.

They are claiming America for Allah. If we don't wake up soon, we are going to "politically correct" ourselves right out of our own country!







A Christian Nation cannot put up a Christmas scene of the baby Jesus in a public place, but the Muslims can stop normal traffic every Friday afternoon by worshiping in the streets.... Something is happening in America that is reminiscent of what is happening in Europe. This is Political Correctness gone crazy...

"For evil to flourish, all that is needed is for good people to do nothing." Edmund Burke
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Beware! Its a Cyber World -- Explanation:

According to this widely circulated protest message, every Friday afternoon, large numbers of Muslims block streets in various locations in New York City, including Madison Avenue, in order to pray. The message claims that mosques in New York cannot hold all those wishing to worship, so Muslims take over nearby streets each and every Friday afternoon, thereby disrupting normal traffic flow. The message includes several photographs depicting large groups of Muslims praying on Madison Avenue in New York.

The photographs are genuine and do indeed show large numbers of Muslims praying on Madison Avenue. However, the accompanying description is highly misleading and inaccurate. The photographs show scenes from the annual Muslim Day Parade that takes place every September or October in New York City. The key word here is "annual". The mass prayer sessions depicted in the photographs do not take place every Friday in New York as claimed in the message. Muslim worshippers do not block New York streets every Friday afternoon. Claims that such disruptive, street-based prayer sessions occur every week are simply untrue.

The Muslim Day Parade has taken place in New York City since the mid 1980's, in September or October. A history of the Muslim Day Parade published on the parade's official website notes:

New York City is the capital of the world and center of economic, business, social and cultural activities. When it comes to social and cultural activities, it houses many ethnic groups from around the world such as Irish, Italian, Latin, Afro-American, Catholic, Jewish and Muslim. Up until 1985, all these groups were celebrating their ethic and cultural heritage in one form or the other, which included street activities, festivals and parades with the exception of the Muslims.

So, in 1984, few Muslim brothers got together, thought that when there are so many cultural shows and parades are being held in the City then Muslims should also demonstrate their different cultural beauties along with our Islamic values. Muslim representation in the City and State was zero. So they planned about having a United American Muslim Day Parade in New York City which will provide a platform to the Muslim community in this Tri-State are to get together and join the main stream political arena of this country as we have adopted it as our homeland. We are here for good our children have to carry on our Islamic Values in the future when we will be gone.

The parade history states that the first Muslim Day Parade took place in September 1985 and the event has been held every year since.

The first three photographs in the message depict scenes from the 2008 Muslim Day Parade. The same photographs can be viewed in a post about the parade published on the Atlas Shrugs blog in October 2008. The last photograph in the sequence can be seen on the same blog in a post about the 2009 Muslim Day Parade.

The 2010 parade was held on 26 September. An article about the parade published in the New York Times reports:

The scene seemed surreal, yet oddly poignant: at a silent, deserted intersection in the center of Midtown Manhattan, beneath bland corporate logos and brick office buildings, hundreds of Muslims knelt on a sprawling tarpaulin, faced due east and commenced the midday call to prayer.

The ceremony, held along a blocked-off portion of Madison Avenue, marked the start of the American Muslim Day Parade on Sunday, an annual event, first held in 1985, that brings together Muslims of many ethnicities and nationalities who worship in the New York region.

Like the many other official parades that take place each year in New York City, the Muslim Day Parade is properly planned and organized prior to the event and has the necessary authorization and permits from the New York City authorities. And, to reiterate, the parade and the prayer sessions that are part of the event take place only once per year, not every week as claimed in this protest message.

Finally, it should be noted that the supposed Edmund Burke quote included at the end of the message - "For evil to flourish, all that is needed is for good people to do nothing" - may well be misattributed. Edmund Burke was an 18th century Irish political philosopher and politician who is often thought of as the father of modern conservatism. Information about the supposed quote on Wikiquote notes:

This is probably the most quoted statement attributed to Burke, and an extraordinary number of variants of it exist, but all without any definite original source. These very extensively used "quotations" may be based on a paraphrase of some of Burke's ideas, but he is not known to have ever declared them in such a manner in any of his writings. It may have been adapted from these lines of Burke's in his Thoughts on the Cause of Present Discontents (1770): "When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle."

Burke's alleged quote bears a striking resemblance to the narrated theme of Sergei Bondarchuk's Soviet film adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's book "War and Peace", in which the narrator declares "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing", although since the original is in Russian various translations to English are possible.

Reality of The Mail Showing Story That Claims 450 Gaza Grooms Wed Girls Under Ten in Mass Muslim Marriage Arranged By Hamas in Gaza

Beware! Its a Cyber World - - Summary:

Protest message, supposedly supported by photographs of child brides, claims that 450 girls under ten were forced to marry adult men in a mass Muslim marriage recently held in Gaza.

The story mentioned in the mail is totally false. The text and photographs blatantly misrepresent the true nature of the mass marriage, just to arise a flood of anti-islamic sentiments and hostile debate against Islam and Muslims.

Let's have look on the contents and photographs of mail being circulated via mail and posted on different cyber forums:

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Subject: FW: BIZARRE & SHAMEFUL

HAMAS PLAYS HOST TO PEDOPHILIA

Muhammed married a six year old bride. But Islam has evolved in 1500 years. In Hamas land, in 2009, the brides are almost seven.

Mass Muslim Marriage

450 Grooms Wed GIRLS Under Ten In Gaza

A gala event has occurred in Gaza.

Hamas sponsored a mass wedding for four hundred and fifty couples. Most of the grooms were in their mid to late twenties; most of brides were under ten.

Muslim dignitaries including Mahmud Zahar, a leader of Hamas, were on hand to congratulate the couples who took part in the carefully staged celebration.

"We are saying to the world and to America that you cannot deny us joy and happiness," Zahar told the grooms, all of whom were dressed in identical black suits and hailed from the nearby Jabalia refugee camp.

Each groom received a gift of 500 dollars from Hamas.

The pre-pubescent girls, dressed in white gowns and adorned with garish make-up, received bridal bouquets.

"We are presenting this wedding as a gift to our people who stood firm in the face of the siege and the war," local Hamas strongman Ibrahim Salaf said in a speech.

The wedding photos tell the rest of the sordid tale.





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Beware! Its a Cyber World - - Explanation:

Messages like the example included above are currently circulating via email and have also been posted to a great many blogs, online forums and social networks around the world, where they have generated a flood of often vitriolic anti-Islamic sentiment and very heated debate. The messages claim that hundreds of pre-pubescent girls were forced to marry adult grooms in a recent mass wedding ceremony in Gaza organized by Palestinian Islamic organization, Hamas. According to the messages, 450 brides, most of whom were under ten years old, were married to 450 grooms most of whom were in their mid to late twenties. The messages accuse Hamas of actively and willfully promoting pedophilia and condemn the act as "bizarre & shameful".

Support for these claims is centered around several photographs supposedly showing tiny "brides" dressed all in white and holding the hands of their much taller, grown-up "grooms". However, while a mass wedding did indeed take place in Gaza in July 2009, the claim that the photographed children were actually the brides in the ceremony is untrue. These photographs represent virtually the entire "body of evidence" that supports the claims in these indignant protest messages. However, this supposed photographic "evidence" is in fact meaningless because they do not actually depict child brides at all. Instead, they show young family members of either the bride or the groom. At such Muslim wedding ceremonies, it is a tradition for young girls to dress up and play a role in the celebrations in a way similar to how flower girls are used in Western wedding ceremonies. Although these young girls do look like little brides, they are certainly not the ones getting married.

Hamas has vehemently denied that any children were married at the event. In fact, a Hamas official told WorldNetDaily that the youngest girl married at the ceremony was 16 years old while most were over 18 years of age.

These scurrilous and inflammatory reports began circulating soon after the Hamas sponsored mass-wedding took place. A 30 July 2009 AFP news article notes:

Nearly a thousand Palestinians celebrated marriage on Thursday night in a ceremony organized by Hamas in the north of the Gaza Strip.

Hamas dignitaries including Mahmud Zahar, one of the militant group's top leaders, were on hand to congratulate 450 grooms who took part in the carefully stage-managed event.

"We are saying to the world and to America that you cannot deny us joy and happiness," Zahar told the men, all of whom were dressed in identical black suits and hailed from the nearby Jabalia refugee camp.

Each groom received a present of $500 from Hamas, which said its workers had also contributed five per cent of their monthly salaries to add to the wedding gift.

Much has been made of the fact that no photographs of the real brides have made it into news reports about the event. This seeming omission has been seized upon by many commentators as more evidence that the children in the photographs really are the brides in spite of denials by Hamas and others. However, the absence of the brides is in fact just a reflection of how Muslim public ceremonies are conducted. News reports indicate that "the 450 brides shared none of the glamour, taking seats among the audience" while their grooms actively participated in event ceremonies. And a SkyNews video report about the mass wedding notes in reference to the brides that "The women are elsewhere". Tim Marshall, the journalist who presented the SkyNews video, was actually there at the mass wedding ceremony. In a blog post about his attendance, Marshall reiterates that the brides were elsewhere, noting that some of them were among the guests. He also writes:

The men and women are sitting, Most ignore the speeches, some even ignore the prayers. Then the fireworks explode, the cheering begins, and in march the Hamas scouts, bashing drums, looking every inch the future Hamas fighters many will be. Then the grooms, aged about 18 to about 28. They are holding hands with their young nieces and cousins, little girls aged from about 3 to 8, made up to the nines, wearing white wedding dresses.

Up they all go to the stage, the cheering and music grows ever louder. The girls were having the time of their lives, but, getting a little bored after a while, came down off the stage to dance with each other and play games.

Our report on this put it into context saying that it took place just a mile from the Israeli border and was a message from Hamas about its strength confidence and future fighters. Oh and that the brides were elsewhere. Pretty straightforward. It never struck me for a moment that the little girls might later be described in the bloggersphere as the brides! How naive I am.

Moreover, the 2009 mass-wedding is not at all unprecedented. An October 2008 New York Times article reporting on a Hamas sponsored mass wedding held in that year, notes that it was the tenth such event held in Gaza. The article also mirrors reports about the 2009 event, noting:

The 300 grooms were dressed in black pants, white shirts and colorful ties but no jackets, because of recent budget cuts. The brides, sitting separately among the women, wore head scarves and black robes over their evening dresses but were easily spotted by their heavy makeup. The couples had all signed marriage contracts before the event.

Ironically, reports about the 2008 event also featured photographs of young girls clad in white bride-like dresses. The New York Times article shows such youngsters dancing in front of the grooms. Apparently, the poison-pen denizens of the blogosphere saw no reason to conclude that the children in photographs of the 2008 mass wedding were actually the brides, so one wonders why they have so rabidly done so in 2009.

Perhaps the 2009 images are a little more compelling and it is, I suppose, at least possible that whoever first perpetrated these inflammatory falsehoods did so out of genuine misunderstanding. What is less forgivable - "bizarre & shameful" even - is that many hundreds of bloggers have gleefully perpetrated such errant nonsense in their publications without taking the few minutes required to check the veracity of its claims. While free speech is (or should be) a fundamental human right, perhaps even home-based citizen journalists should take at least some responsibility in ensuring that the information they publish is factual and accurate.

Australian Flag Lapel Pin Story - Response to Muslim Woman's Checkout Criticism

Be Ware! It's a Cyber World - - Brief Summary:

Protest email tells the story of how a Muslim woman in a supermarket checkout line was firmly put in her place after she made critical remarks about the cashier's Australian flag lapel pin and Australia's involvement in the Iraq war.

It's actually a recycled version of an unsubstantiated US story that has circulated for several years.

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Subject: FW: The Australian Flag

If this is true, I would have loved to have been there!

I am led to believe,an incident occurred in a supermarket Recently, when the following was witnessed:

A Muslim woman dressed in a Burkha (A black gown & face mask) was Standing with her shopping in a queue at the checkout.

When it was her turn to be served, and as she reached the cashier, She made a loud remark about the Australian Flag lapel pin, which the Female cashier was wearing on her blouse.

The cashier reached up and touched the pin and said, 'Yes, I always Wear it proudly. My son serves abroad with the forces and I wear it for Him.

The Muslim woman then asked the cashier when she was going to stop Bombing and killing her countrymen explaining that she was Iraqi.

At that point, an elderly Gentleman standing in the queue stepped Forward, and interrupted with a calm and gentle voice, and said to the Iraqi woman:

'Excuse me, but hundreds of thousands of Australian men and women, Just like this ladies son have fought and sacrificed their lives so that People just like YOU can stand here, in Australia, which is MY country and Allow you to blatantly accuse an innocent check-out cashier of bombing YOUR Countrymen.

'It is my belief that if you were allowed to be as outspoken as That in Iraq, which you claim to be YOUR country, then we wouldn't need to be Fighting there today'. .'However - now that you have learned how to speak Out and criticise the Australian people who have afforded you the protection Of MY country, I will gladly pay the cost of a ticket to help you pay your Way back to Iraq '.

'When you get there, and if you manage to survive for being as Outspoken as what you are here in Australia, then you should be able to help Straighten out the mess which YOUR Iraqi countrymen have got you into in The first place, which appears to be the reason that you have come to MY Country to avoid.'

Apparently the queue cheered and applauded. ...IF YOU AGREE...

Pass this on to all of your proud Australian & other Worldly Friends..

I just did............!!!

It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice. It's also nice to be AUSTRALIAN.

Note: Email includes several Australian flag graphics and a koala image as decoration.
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Be Ware! It's a Cyber World - - Explanation:

This email forward tells the supposedly true story of an Australian supermarket incident in which an Iraqi woman in a Burkha made critical and inflammatory comments to a cashier who was proudly wearing an Australian Flag lapel pin in honour of her son who was serving overseas. According to the story, an elderly Australian man waiting in the checkout line, took the Muslim woman to task for her comments, pointedly reminding her that it is due to the sacrifice of many Australian soldiers that she enjoyed the freedom to make such critical comments in public, and urging her to return to her own country if she was dissatisfied with the Australian way of life. The message calls on the recipient to send the story on to other proud Australians.

However, while some recipients may find the story entertaining, it is highly unlikely that such an incident actually took place as described, at least in Australia. In fact, the same story, with minor changes to reflect the targeted location, has circulated in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. The following American based version is virtually identical the the Australian version above:

A Muslim woman dressed in a Burkha (A black gown & face mask) was standing with her shopping in a queue at the checkout.

When it was her turn to be served, and as she reached the cashier, she made a loud remark about the American Flag lapel pin, which the female cashier was wearing on her blouse.

The cashier reached up and touched the pin and said, “Yes, I always wear it proudly. My son serves abroad with the forces and I wear it for him”.

The Muslim woman then asked the cashier when she was going to stop bombing and killing her countrymen, explaining that she was Iraqi.

At that point, a Gentleman standing in the queue stepped forward, and interrupted with a calm and gentle voice, and said to the Iraqi woman:

“Excuse me, but hundreds of thousands of men and women, just like this ladies son have fought and sacrificed their lives so that people just like YOU can stand here, in America, which is MY country and allow you to blatantly accuse an innocent check-out cashier of bombing YOUR countrymen”.

“It is my belief that if you were allowed to be as outspoken as that in Iraq, which you claim to be YOUR country, then we wouldn’t need to be fighting there today”.

“However – now that you have learned how to speak out and criticise the American people who have afforded you the protection of MY country, I will gladly pay the cost of a ticket to help you pay your way back to Iraq”.

“When you get there, and if you manage to survive for being as outspoken as you are here in America, then you should be able to help straighten out the mess which YOUR Iraqi countrymen have got you into in the first place, which appears to be the reason that you have come to MY country to avoid.”

Apparently the queue cheered and applauded.

The above US version is in turn derived from an earlier US based version of the story that first appeared in early 2003. So is this original US version true? Given that no variant of the message has ever provided any verifiable details, and no credible witnesses to the alleged incident have ever come forward, it is difficult to say if such an incident actually occurred or if the story is simply a work of fiction.

However, even if the original US version was based on fact, it is clear that the above Australian version does not describe a real incident. Obviously, some prankster with an axe to grind has "Australinized" the story by substituting "Australia" for "America", added a few appropriate graphics such as images of the Australian flag and a cute koala and then launched the piece anew.