News Journal: Unmasking the truth behind ugly Internet rumors

Uh-oh. It’s him again.
I’m opening my emails. And there he is – the once-upon-a-time friend I haven’t seen in many years who regularly forwards to me, and another 200 people, some off-the-wall piece of Internet garbage.
It’s a habit I bet I share with millions of others. Even though my old buddy usually infuriates or depresses me, I open his stuff because it gives me some understanding of what’s going on in the Internet netherworld.
I checked just the last couple of months, and in that time period he has told me, among other things, the following flat-out lies:
• President Obama took the oath of office on a Quran. He has issued an executive order allowing the federal government to take over all communications media.
• Members of Congress can retire on a full pension after one term in office. Children of members of Congress don’t have to repay student loans.
• Great Britain has instituted Sharia law.
I used to call him on the stuff he sent out. So did a couple of other old friends who also got it. “This is simply not true,” one of them once wrote back, citing an impeccable source. The answer he got still startles both of us: “But it could be.” That kind of ended any hope we had that we could ever again have a rational discussion with the sender. How can you argue with someone who doesn’t care what the facts are?
This morning I opened another one. Immediately, I recognized it as a particularly ugly chain email that started circulating back in 2009. In fact, I’m sure I got it back then from the same guy. Yet this morning he presented it as a fresh, shocking revelation.
“READ CAREFULLY,” it began, and “feel free to share this with others.” It went on to say that a shop “run by Muslims” in Houston’s Texas Harwin Central Mall had a sign posted on its door saying, “We will be closed on Friday, September 11, to commemorate the martyrdom of Inman Ali.”
The next paragraph: “Inman Ali flew one of the planes into the twin towers. Nice, huh? Try telling me we’re not in a religious war! THIS HAS NOT BEEN AROUND…SO MAKE SURE IT DOES!”
Back on July 9, 2010, the Houston Chronicle reported on the death threats and loss of business Sajid Master, the store owner, had suffered for nearly a year, all because “he posted a sign during Ramadan explaining the store would be closed September 11 to remember the death of Inman Ali, a sacred Muslim figure. Master failed, however, to explain that Ali, who is remembered on a different date each year during Ramadan, died in 661 AD and was in no way related to the 2001 terror attacks.”
The Chronicle went on to report that the obscene and threatening phone calls, not only to the store and its employees but also to the management of the mall, continued long after the email had been thoroughly and repeatedly debunked.
Just a few lives ruined, and the senseless, unjust stoking of anti-Muslim hysteria. If you ever thought you can’t make this stuff up, I’ve got lots of evidence that of course you can. And people do, knowingly. Why? Because the old adage – “if you throw enough mud at the wall, some of it will stick” – is truer than ever in an age of anonymously sourced emails and impressionable people, or ideologically committed cynics, who pass them on.
This morning’s email ended by asking: “How many years will it be before the attack on the World Trade Center NEVER HAPPENED because it offends some Muslims? Do not delete this message; it will take only a minute to pass this along. FREEDOM ISN’T FREE…SOMEONE HAS TO PAY FOR IT.”
The Houston mall and the store owner, along with innocent American Muslims everywhere, have already paid, of course. They have paid the price of the freedom our democracy gives to people who spread the worst kind of fact-free hatred and now have a medium – the Internet – that is perfectly designed to help them.
I’ve often quoted the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who famously said back in the 1970s, “everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but they are not entitled to their own facts.” That’s a good dictum to remember the next time you get some shocking revelation via email. Check it out before you pass it on and add to the sewer of Internet misinformation that is hurting innocent people and poisoning our political process.
Read all of former U.S. Sen. Ted Kaufman’s columns at tedkaufman.com.