Over at the Investigative Project on Terrorism (via RaymondIbrahim.com) I respond to the latest “hoax” charges against one of my articles:
I recently wrote an article based on Arabic reports that Muslim Brotherhood supporters had crucified Morsi’s opponents. Because it was picked up by several websites and disseminated far and wide, as usual, Islam’s apologists and others claimed “hoax.”
Readers sent me a couple of these articles which, upon further investigation, seem to be based on a National Post article titled “Egypt’s ‘crucifixion’ hoax becomes an instant Internet myth” by one Jonathan Kay. He characterizes the crucifixion account as “a story worth dissecting””not because it’s true (it isn’t), but because it is a textbook example of how the Internet, once thought to be the perfect medium of truth-seeking, has been co-opted by culture warriors as a weapon to fire up the naïve masses with lies and urban legends.”
Alternatively, dissecting Kay’s claims is useful as it is a textbook example of how the Western mindset tries to rationalize away whatever does not fit its intellectual boundaries.
First, after mentioning the several websites that carried or quoted my article, Kay wondered how none of the “sources supply the original Sky reporting that purportedly outlines the facts.” Then, he offers the following sentence as its own paragraph, apparently as something of an eye-opening revelation:
“That’s because there is no Sky report on the subject.”
Actually, this big “aha” moment was made earlier and by someone else””me, in my original article. After posting the names of several Arabic websites that carried the same verbatim quote from Sky News, I pointed out that Sky removed its original report. I did not have to make this point, or mention Sky News at all, since other reports””including El Balad, a much higher trafficked Arabic website which I also quoted””independently mentions the crucifixions in original language and further adds that two people died. And that report, as of now, is still up….