wayne on July 1, 2008
I was recently sent an email message from someone on a social site I frequent. It's one of those posts that are sent to you without any concern of whether you wanted it or not. A 'here's a joke for you' message as it were, regardless of it you wanted it or not. I found it hateful, what do you think?
Personally, I don't believe in spreading around jokes or chain emails. If I need a joke, I'll find one. Occasionally receiving one is ok, but if someone continually sends jokes, doesn't know me personally, and has never even attempted to make contact with me, what are they really doing? Do they really have nothing better to do than to email people they don't even know? They may think they are spreading sunshine and a laugh, but all they are really doing is flooding your inbox on the social site to the point that makes the messaging system useless because all you ever find there are emails of junk. It doesn't make it any better when it contains a message of hate masked as a joke.
Sigh...I'm pretty pissy right now, and I know that it's translating into this post, but I need to get this off my chest. I felt this joke was of bad taste, and should have not been forwarded by anyone.
Here is what I received:
MARK YOUR CALENDAR FOR NEXT SATURDAY!
As you may already know, it is a sin for a Muslim male to see any woman other than his wife naked. He must commit suicide if he does. So next Saturday at 4 PM Eastern Time, all American women are asked to walk out of their house completely naked to help weed out any neighborhood terrorists. Circling your block for one hour is recommended for this anti-terrorist effort.
All patriotic men are to position themselves in lawn chairs in front of their house to prove they are not Muslims, and to demonstrate they think its okay to see nude women other than their wife, and to show support for all American women. Since Islam also does not approve of alcohol, a cold 6-pack at your side is further proof of your anti-Muslim sentiment.
The American government appreciates your efforts to root out terrorists and applauds your participation in this anti-terrorist activity. God bless America !
It is your patriotic duty to pass this on.
When I gave her a response to this, it was rather harsh, and for that, I apologized. This just really chapped my hide though, and I acted out of anger when I should have taken a step back and approached this differently.
Having gone through this has really pointed a few things out to me. Some people don't bother to read what they are sending around. If she had read this email, I think she would have found the following a bit against her religion perhaps, unless her religion promotes hate. I always thought religion should promote peace, love and acceptance of differences, but that isn't always the case these days.
All patriotic men are to position themselves in lawn chairs in front of their house to prove they are not Muslims, and to demonstrate they think its okay to see nude women other than their wife, and to show support for all American women. Since Islam also does not approve of alcohol, a cold 6-pack at your side is further proof of your anti-Muslim sentiment.
She went on to mention that pastors and reverends received this email and found nothing wrong, or at least have not responded negatively. Apparently I was the only one that found it offensive, or the only person that actually read it.
With stuff like this, it's no wonder the worlds opinions of Americans has diminished. Not all of us are that arrogant and into world domination, and I'm tired of being classified as such.
So, I leave this open for the people of the Internet to judge. Was the joke funny? Was it promoting hate? Was it appropriate to be sent? Am I just being overly-sensitive, or is there a legitimate reason to be offended by this?
You know my opinion, share with the world what you think about this 'joke'.
