Linda Heard was kind enough to respond to my posting, "Pot Meet Kettle, The Hypocrisy of Islamic Journalism," which analyzed her article, "America's Growing Culture of Hate" published in Arab News Daily. I will post a response to her response tomorrow.
From: Linda Heard
Sent: Thursday, July 08, 2004 12:45 AM
To: Publius
It may have escaped your notice but the article I wrote was specifically confined to trends in the "democratic" and "free" U.S. which wants to share its "values" with the rest of the planet, so why would I include the Arab world?
You see the Arab nations don't purport to be other than they are, but I must point out, in any case, that Islam is extremely tolerant of other religions. Indeed, it considers the believers in Islam, Judaism and Christianity as all 'peoples of the book'.
There are so many well-documented stories coming out of the U.S. right now that to many of us on the outside this is beginning to sound like mass paranoia.
Have you heard about the poor Nepalese man, recently written about in the NYT, who was jailed for three months for just taking photographs of a well-known landmark building, which just happened to house an FBI office? He was on his way back home and merely wanted snaps to show his family in Nepal. When the FBI man who initially arrested ran checks, he realised his mistake but it was too late. The man was already in the unforgiving and unrelenting system. Still the Nepali was deported.
Have you heard about the four Indian Catholic nuns with valid green cards who were recently offloaded off an aeroplane by the captain ( just because of the colour of their skin ) who later made up a story that they had been asking awkward questions of the crew when they hadn't even communicated with the crew?
Have you heard about the American convert, mother of three children formerly married to an Iranian, who suddenly found her house running with FBI and IRS. They held a gun to the head of her 10 year old son, ransacked the place and took away her Qu'ran and prayer books, saying they were investigating her taxes!!!
And just recently I read a story in the Guardian about a British journalist married to an American who travelled to the U.S. as she had done tens of times before. This time was different however. All of a sudden when she was asked what she did for a living and honestly answered 'journalist' she was taken off, put in a cell, and left without food. She asked for a cup of tea and was told this wasn't allowed. The people she encountered during this detention were rude and threatening. Many hours later she was deported back to England. Her crime? Not obtaining a media visa, which had never been required of her before.
Did you hear about the Syrian-born Canadian, who when transiting through the U.S., was interrogated and sent to Syria where he was persona non grata and ended up in jail?
I don't know what is going on in your country, but whatever it is, it doesn't sound like the America I once knew and loved. Sorry!
Linda Heard
"The America I once knew and loved"
It is abundently clear, Ms. Heard no longer knows or loves America.
I googled Ms. Heard at the weekend and read that she is Canadian. If so, it is reasonable to assume that she never knew or loved America.
Posted by: Publius at July 19, 2004 10:24 AMhooh hooh USA, USA, lets jsut put down every mother flower that says anything we don't want to hear. That really makes the world love us even more. You people are a bunch of idiots. listen to Linda, she makes sense. Jane and Publius sound like angry and paranoid hate mongers. If you can not have an intelligent dialog with a Canadian Christian Caucasian, then how the hell can you understand 1/4 of this planets population that just happens to be muslim.
Posted by: mike at August 10, 2004 05:13 PMThank you for your comments Mike. I am sorry for the delay in my response. I have been upgrading the software on this website and doing so has left me short of time.
A first year logic student would recognize in your writing the logical genetic fallacy known as argumentum ad hominem, which my old college text book ("Logic, The Essentials" by Manicas Kruger) describes as an attack against "... a person's character rather than the person's argument." On the one hand, you call Jane and me "idiots" who "sound like angry and paranoid hate mongers" but you fail to cite a single example from our writing to substantiate the insult. On the other hand, you characterize Linda Heard as making sense, but again neglect to cite a single example from her writing to buttress the compliment. Finally, you imply that I am incapable of having, "... an intelligent dialog with a Canadian Christian Caucasian" and from this you conclude that I am incapable of understanding the Muslim population in general.
I will not address the first or second of your assertions because you have not grounded them in anything other than vitriol. On your final assertion, I will note that I have no knowledge of Linda Heard's race or religious convictions, but that my line of reasoning would not have wavered had I such knowledge. You can access the remainder of my exchange with Ms. Heard here:
If you read what I wrote, I trust you will at least conclude that I have taken time to gain some knowledge of Islam and Islamic practices, and that I am quite capable of intelligent dialogue.
Posted by: Publius at August 11, 2004 10:05 PM