Illiterate writers are dangerous

I was randomly surfing the internet today and came across a blog on female circumcision and the text left my lazy eyes wide open in horror and astonishment.

The act, no doubt cruel, was rightly comdemned. But I was more surprised at the impact illeterate people could make in the new media. The article was written by someone I can very confidently say, had no clue as to what he/she was writting because the person jotted down his own views or those of random individuals as 'the view of Islam'. The writer said that female circumcision was a religious obligation in Islam though I, being a Muslim, can tell you that it is not. No girl in my (fairly large) family has ever been circumcised.

The practice is purely local tradition in some Arab countries. The reasons are as many as there are mouths to tell them. But the tradition is fast receding into history as more and more people are becoming aware of its dangers and the fact that it was part of their primitive past and not part of their religion.

Coming back to the original blog I am referring to and what I was saying about 'illiterate' people making an impact. That blog was written by someone who clearly knew as much about Islam as he knew about... say... quantum mechanics or strobe-light neutron stars. And his blog had attracted many other people who believed every word he had written. There were at least 30 comments on the blog and all of them had condemned the practice. They also criticised Islam for making female circumcision obligatory.

I was deeply hurt after reading that blog post. Those people had no idea that what they were reading was crap. Female circumcision has got nothing to do with Islam. There were many such condemnable traditions in earlier times and most of them had nothing to do with religion.

As a journalist, I was taught never to write anything that I was not sure of or did not really know about. My gurus always taught me what they said was one of the GOLDEN RULES of journalism: "When in doubt, cut it out!"

An increasing number of people are taking up writing for the New Media (internet blogs) as their fulltime profession because it gives them the satisfaction of reaching out to millions and being able to change people's outlook on life and the world in general. But most of them do not have any training in writing, especially when it comes to topics that affect people's views. Such illiterate people damage the reputations of people, countries and even religions.

I think the world should not take the New Media lightly and children should be taught about it in schools. People should be told what they should believe and when they decide to write, how and what they should write and what to avoid.