An Appeal To Those Who Shared This Photo

Caption: Thamsanqa Kitso Ndlovu's Photos Christians burnt alive by Sunni Muslims in NIGERIA...(Posted by Jillian Becker in Africa, Arab States, Christianity, Christians burnt alive by Sunni Muslims, Islam, Muslims, jihad).....PLEASE SHARE IT OR JUST UPLOAD YOUR OWN...BUT SOMEHOW SPREAD IT IF YOU'RE EVEN 1% CHRISTIAN — It is still not over yet!

The picture is not what it claims to be.

The propensity of people sharing links in various social media platforms has been quite a problem these past few days. It seems that with the advent of the social media era, we forget the power that we hold with just a single click—the ability to share and proclaim information as though they are the Bible truths.



A few days ago, a certain number of people posted a link of a ridiculously named "Angry Birds Bill" which has sparked incense of hatred among everyone. We have been victim of the DPWH’s photoshopping fiasco and we certainly do not want another incident to put us into the international spotlight of shame. Then there’s another incident where a blog posted news about DPWH suing Adobe for the misfortunes it gave on the department because of the aforementioned Photoshopping incident.

We can look at this from both sides of the equation. The authors of these said parodies/satirical articles are partly to blame since some of them do not label their posts as such. Granted that the objective of these articles is to dupe the reader into thinking that the facts are real (as they are made to sound and are presented as such), but there are times that jokes and comedic devices have gone too far. This is a grave incident if there are no disclaimers whatsoever on the site and we have no information on the author or the nature of the website itself. And so we have naive netizens reading this information, processing every tidbit and passing them on to other people as if they were real. Whether we like it or not, bloggers and online authors can be considered ‘journalists’ and as with all who share the title, we have to uphold certain ethics when it comes to writing.

Now it is not alright to say that the blame is for the online authors alone. As consumers of online information, we have the responsibility to check the truthfulness of a claim before we let others know about it. Just like on what we should do on verbal communication, we have to check the validity of what we say, from whom or where we got it before passing it on to others as though they are real.

A rumor can go a long way. A lie can even go further. If one false information can damage a single person’s reputation, imagine the damage it can do if it's about a group of people or a public institution. The damage will be exponential.

Which brings me to my main point for today. A picture around Facebook has been circulating for the past couple of days. The picture is the one shown above.

At first glance, the picture is very disturbing, horrifying even, as it shows piles and piles of charred bodies lying on the ground. It breaks my heart to even look at it. But what caught my interest is the caption attached to it and along with the picture above, it has been circulating among many Facebook accounts.

Let me just put it out there that I am neither a Christian nor a Muslim and so we can cross out religious bias from what I am going to say. When I read or hear about people taking lives of others in the name of religion, it really ticks me off. It doesn't make sense to me why there is a need to silence those who believe on a different faith. And what I don’t like about the particular caption is how it is used along with the picture above to put Sunni Muslims in Nigeria in a bad light. Well, not just in bad light but in an awful inhuman light.

Had we done a little bit of online research, we will see that although the above picture is 100% authentic and is not photoshopped in any way, it is for an entirely different event—an accident. The above tragedy is from a tanker explosion on July 3rd, in the town of Sange, South Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) which has resulted in 235 deaths. It was not done by Nigerian Muslims nor are we absolutely certain that the charred bodies are persecuted Christians. The above picture was from a freak accident. And to attach the name of a certain minority and make it look as though they are the perpetrators of a heinous crime, is not acceptable. It is beyond disrespectful. It is inhuman.

The above picture has been circulating around the net for quite some time and has been used in black propaganda by Christian fundamentalists and political naysayers. Although we cannot deny the fact that there are reported cases of persecution among Christians in strict and conservative Muslim societies, especially in war-torn Africa (source: http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/2011/s11040132.htm), Christians are not a hundred percent absolved of hate crimes either (source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/23/AR2006022300647.html).

The rift between the faithful is long and deep and it continues to divide people of different beliefs. Now this is not going to be a game of pointing fingers as who is evil and who is not. Both faiths have had some share of blood among uttering their respective prayers. I share the universal desire that these senseless killings need to stop as the price of one human life is far too precious to be killed in the name of a supreme being we don’t even see.

I implore the people who have shared this photo to take it down or inform the people to whom they share this information with that the caption alongside the picture is inaccurate with the picture to where it is associated. It does a great disservice not just to Sunni Muslims who are perpetrated as barbaric people who practice manslaughter but also to Christian followers who foster an atmosphere of hate mongering and far-from-truth propaganda. It does not help either faiths, in fact it creates an even greater rift between the two.

In this day and age where it doesn’t take more than five seconds to share information through a single touch of a mouse, we should not only be careful of what he read, we have to be vigilant of what we share among our circles. If what you’re going to share is doubtful, then check first. It doesn't take you more than five minutes to check if something is true online. And if it is in fact truthful, ask what benefits you or others are going to take away from what you are sharing. Always think before you click. Always.

Violence stems from hatred. Hatred starts from even the tiniest lies.

Lies start from pictures like the one above.

TO THOSE WHO SHARED THIS PICTURE TAKE DOWN THE PICTURE OR REVISE YOUR CAPTIONS!!!

Thank you.



Sources:
The original article from where the picture was taken is written in French. If you’d like to view its content go to this link: http://www.afrik.com/article20308.html (then Use Google translate if you want to: http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.afrik.com%2Farticle20308.html)

The incident is also reported by reuters.com in this link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/07/03/us-congo-democratic-explosion-idUSTRE6620H220100703

Additional information: http://www.loonwatch.com/2011/04/pamela-geller-watch-ties-gas-tanker-explosion-in-congo-to-electoral-violence-in-nigeria/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+loonwatch+%28loonwatch.com%29