Experience and governmental lies

Submitted by Ianus (Poland), Nov 6, 2011 at 20:15

BB King wrote :

> I cited Ibn Warraq, the brilliant Muslim apostate and champion of humanism who claims that Lebanon rejects the Muslim law of apostasy and accepts people for changing their faith within its territory. You conveniently ignored this passage and failed to reply to it, something you accuse me of doing to you. So here is the link again for your kind perusal http://www.iheu.org/node/1541. <

Speaking of kind perusals, may I by way of exception quote myself here : "I don't doubt that there are parts of Lebanon where Moslems are in overwhelming minority and where some rudimentary tolerance can be found, but I thought we were talking about Lebanon a whole, weren't we?"( Paper democracy and the justice system of the United Arab Emirates "seven places above the USA" )

You assert that this is something that shows I have ignored ibn Warraq's words, don't you? To me it seems not to be the case and, frankly, I can't believe that in West Beirut or Hezbollah-controlled South Lebanon you will find any apostates alive.

> Furthermore, I think the U.S. govt. knows more than you and the U.S. claims the Lebanese govt. protects religious freedom in practice (http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2010/148830.htm) and there is no evidence of forced religious conversions within Lebanon. Now is the U.S. government with its extensive intelligence networks lying to us? If so, why should I believe you over my own govt.?<

May I congratulate you? You are the first American I come across that believes in the veracity of the statements by its government, who thinks that its officials are not corrupt and lying careerists on the payroll of big business sponsoring their election campaigns, who are not ready to betray and sell any ideal for personal and corporate benefit and enrichment and who really care for the well being and happiness of the common American people !!! If I am not mistaken you're a rare specimen of a true believer in politics in these cynical and dark times of unbelief based on sad experiences of real political life .

As to my personal experience I have heard your (and my) governments lie and cheat so often that whenever I hear something announced by the government(s) I consider it automatically as a lie until it's proven not to be so by other sources. I can give you an example of insolent lie coming from " extensive intelligence network" you seem to praise so much. In February Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told a congressional hearing that "... Muslim Brotherhood is ... a very heterogeneous group, largely secular, which has eschewed violence and has decried al-Qaeda as a perversion of Islam". Well, if you rely on such liars like him, then you may come back and argue in your next post that the Muslim Bortehrhood is "a largely secular group that has eschewed violence and decried al-Qaeda a perversion of Islam" and so there are indications to believe that if the Muslim Brotherhood joins hands with Hezbollah in Lebanon the net result will be a more secular and peaceful Lebanon.

In general almost all the governmental comments on the so called "Arab spring" have been an awkward and primitive lie and I reacted very allergically to it.

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