Something's fishy on the Interweb...

Reading the intersphere this morning something caught my attention, and I immediately got suspicious. A friend posted a story about the mayor of Dorval, a suburb of Montreal, who wrote a letter in response to a Muslim women's demand that pork products be removed from local school cafeterias. He refused. Here's the letter:

“They must understand that they have to integrate and learn to live in Quebec.
“They must understand that it is for them to change their lifestyle, not the Canadians who so generously welcomed them.
“They must understand that Canadians are neither racist nor xenophobic, they accepted many immigrants before Muslims (whereas the reverse is not true, in that Muslim states do not accept non-Muslim immigrants). “That no more than other nations, Canadians are not willing to give up their identity, their culture. “And if Canada is a land of welcome, it's not the Mayor of Dorval who welcomes foreigners, but the Canadian-Quebecois people as a whole. “Finally, they must understand that in Canada (Quebec) with its Judeo-Christian roots, Christmas trees, churches and religious festivals, religion must remain in the private domain. The municipality of Dorval was right to refuse any concessions to Islam and Sharia. “For Muslims who disagree with secularism and do not feel comfortable in Canada, there are 57 beautiful Muslim countries in the world, most of them under-populated and ready to receive them with open halal arms in accordance with Shariah.
“If you left your country for Canada, and not for other Muslim countries, it is because you have considered that life is better in Canada than elsewhere. “Ask yourself the question, just once, “Why is it better here in Canada than where you come from?” < “A canteen with pork is part of the answer."


Nicely written. But one little problem. This also happened in the Belgian town of Ath. Here's his letter:


“Muslims must understand that they have to adapt to Belgium, its customs, its traditions, its way of life, because that's where they chose to immigrate. They must understand that they have to integrate and learn to live in Belgium.
They must understand that it is for them to change their lifestyle, not the Belgians who so generously welcomed them. They must understand that the Athois are neither racist nor xenophobic, they accepted many immigrants before Muslims (whereas the reverse is not true that Muslims do not accept non-Muslim foreigners on their soil).
That no more than other nations, the Belgians are not willing to give up their identity, their culture.
And if Belgium is a land of welcome, it's not Marc Duvivier that welcomes foreigners, but the Belgian people as a whole.
Finally, they must understand that in Belgium with its Judeo-Christian roots, Christmas trees, churches and religious festivals, religion must remain in the private domain. The municipality of Ath was right to refuse any concessions to Islam and Sharia. For Muslims that disagree with secularism and do not feel comfortable in Belgium, there are 57 beautiful Muslim countries in the world, most of them under-populated and ready to receive them with open halal arms in accordance with Shariah.
If you left your country for Belgium, and not for other Muslim countries, it is because you have considered that life is better in Belgium than elsewhere.
Ask yourself the question, just once, "Why is it better here in Belgium than where you come from?" 
A canteen with pork is part of the answer.


I smell rotten eggs.

This website claims the Belgian letter is a hoax. I, as well as many other people, saw the letter from Dorval weeks ago. At the time I read it I thought it was poorly written and harsh, but the meaning was well intentioned. The mayor was defending the rights of Canadian born Christians by not giving into demands of other religions. 

Now I think it was a hoax as well. The internet’s full of them now. The old saying goes (and we fell for it) “I read it on the internet so it must be true”. We’ve been duped. Makes you wonder what the hell is wrong with people? Are the people who purported this crap that angry at the muslim world that they will create a hoax just to stir the pot? It certainly looks that way. Now the mayor of Ath (the real one) came out and exposed it for what it was, but there has been no such comments from the mayor of Dorval. Not at least that I could find. So maybe he did indeed write the letter? 

Either way it’s a shitty situation that someone is inciting hatred this way. It’s propaganda aimed at the masses. It’s a clear indicator that we can’t believe, nor should we believe everything we read. Whoever wrote this would have made Joseph Goebbels proud. Maybe they think they’re helping? 

Maybe they’re just idiots. Read credible sources. Read to inform. Read into the stories, and find the weak links. Wikipedia is NOT credible, most think the same of CNN, Fox, MSNBC and others. It’s up to the reader to make an informed decision. The best option is to read a story from several sources and make up your own mind. I find it amusing to read hoax stories and conspiracy theories. Some people have some very fervent imaginations. 

Cheers.