I just received an email from a friend who forwarded rather disturbing images of a eight year old boy whose hand was to be run over by a lorry or truck, whatever, as a form of punishment for stealing bread. The mail included an emotional protest which goes.. "his arm would be crushed and will lose its use permanently. A religion of peace and love, they say?"

An unsuspecting reader is going to echo the protests of this seemingly inhumane act and again, cast a gloomy and prejudicial perception to an already stereotypical standpoint towards the Islamic religion. But just as much as I brought forth my views in my previous post, I hope that we read mails coming from unknown sources with a pinch of salt. As I attempted to bring out the discerning reader in me, I confirmed my suspicion(:

I took this from urbanlegends.about.com..

"The preceding images are apparently authentic -- they were published as such in 2005 on the Iranian news Web sitePeyke Iran, at any rate -- but the accompanying caption doesn't jibe with the original report and was clearly fabricated after the fact.

According to a Peyke Iran spokesperson who corrected the record last November in a note posted on Little Green Footballs, the young boy whose arm was run over was not being punished for a crime. He was part of a "Maareke giry" or street magic act and allegedly performed the stunt for money (note the gentleman speaking into a microphone in image #1). The seventh and eighth pictures in the series, which appear to show the child shaken but otherwise unharmed after the ordeal, were omitted from the email flier but can still be viewed on Peykeiran.com (where all the images are attributed to photographer Siamak Yari)."

www.hoax-slayer.com (HAHA how apt the name) reaffirmed the above..

A seventh image, showing the boy after the stunt, is generally left out of the protest message

"Thus, it seems that this long running diatribe against Islam is simply the result of a misinterpretation of the event depicted in the photographs. 

Of course, even without the erroneous religious interpretation that has been placed on it, many would consider it reprehensible to use a young child in what appears to be a dangerous, painful and frightening stunt, even if the child was paid for his participation. However, forwarding the email in its present form will do nothing to help this child or others like him.

The obvious excesses and human rights violations perpetrated by such groups as the Taliban under the umbrella of Sharia Law quite rightly generate intense debate and condemnation from many commentators. But, muddying the waters with misinformation such as that contained in this email forward is decidedly counter-productive and will serve only to widen divisions and foster even more hatred and misunderstanding in our already strife-torn world. "

Now now..you may simply argue that on the flip side of the same coin, these two websites might have bogus sources as well, and how reliable can they be? For all you know, that boy probably really stole the bread and was accepting his punishment on that fateful day. Technically speaking, that's true. If u are fighting a case in court, that is. Fact was, I saw the captions and the whole report didnt sound plausible at all. If the punishment was part of the legislation for an islamic country, the whole sentence would definitely not be carried out in the dusty streets with a trusty lorry and driver. More like a film set in the medieval times. Worse. You have this man with a micro-phone to remind the people on the streets that you cannot escape the long arms of the law. (hahahahaha sorry sorry self-entertainment. hehe!) now seriously, all I wanted was to find a source that was in line with my suspicion, and that was more than enough to assuage any guilt that this report could vaguely be real.

and NOW! its time for..Bogus Mails 101: How To Tell??

While it is impossible to be completely sure, this is merely to serve as a rough guide to discern fact from fiction. Because there are so many people out there who were taken for a ride and were left exploited for their emotional vulnerability.

Rule 1: Begin to twitch ur eye brows in doubt when they use emotive punctuation. like.. " look at this !!!" or.. "how can they do this..??!?" 

Rule 2: It starts getting really shady when they use text tools to emphasize a point. big fonts..   wah!! coloured fonts..  wah!! bold and big fonts and everything together.. wahhh!!

Rule 3: If it sounds ridiculous to you, it probably is. 

Congratulations! U are now a discerning reader. let's not allow racist mails from cloud our senses and accentuate prejudicial racism(: yayy!