What would Jesus do about the Middle East?
As a Palestinian Orthodox Christian, and as a Christian, I find
the views of Wallid Shoebat, who spoke at UCLA this week,
particularly offensive (“Former terrorist speaks,”
News, May 26). Shoebat claims to be a Christian, but his views are
completely incompatible with the teaching of Jesus Christ. Would
Jesus support a country that kills Palestinian children in the Gaza
and the West Bank under the cover of fighting terrorism? I wonder
if Jesus would have supported a country that advocates the
wholesale demolition of hundreds of homes in the Rafah refugee
camp. Shoebat should learn a thing or two about the compassion and
love that his proclaimed religion teaches.
Jiries Mogannam United Arab Society, al-Awda School of
Dentistry
Column distorts truth more than Moore does
Garin Hovannisian’s recent column “Lauded filmmaker
spreads lies, deceit” (Viewpoint, May 26) is an unfair
critique of liberal America. Moore loves the United States more
than any flag-waiving patriot. He is trying to make our country
more free by reaching the masses.
Hovannisian’s second offense is belittling Moore’s
empathy with the children of Iraq and America. He says “Moore
forgot to mention the children who have been murdered in Russian
gulags, killed in mass graves in Indochina, and starved to death in
Cuba ““ by socialists like himself.” The very notion
that one would compare American socialism ““ which stands for
universal health care, human rights, and no death penalty ““
with oppressive totalitarian regimes is offensive and
deceitful.
Moore is also accused of misleading in the case of Disney
blocking the distribution of his new film. Though Disney did
express this fact a year ago, it was still after the film had
already been made. Moore simply waited until it was closer to being
released to make this information public. Yes, it was most likely a
publicity stunt to bring this to light now, but it is hardly a
lie.
Lastly, in probably his most deceitful tactic, Hovannisian
mentions doing a Yahoo! search for “Michael Moore” and
“lies” and coming up with “over a quarter million
Web sites that deal with the lies contained in his books and
films.” Internet searches are not only terrible evidence,
they’re also very misleading. Using the same tactic, I could
tell you the first search only came up with about a quarter of a
million Web sites, but when I typed in “Michael Moore”
and “truth” I got well over half a million. Twice as
much.
I do not think Michael Moore is a saint. It is just worthy
noting that journalists are just as capable of misleading their
readership as filmmakers are their audiences.
Jed Levine Second-year, international development
studies