Salah Nasrawi and Selective Quoting


Beware of anyone, including me, who offers a very small quote from a work and uses it to promote an earth-shattering world view.

For example, I am going to use a very small quote from an article to prove that the author is mathematically challenged:


They [Shiites] also dominate by sheer number: Shiites account for some 160 million of the Islamic world's population of 1.3 billion people.


Even the Teen Talk Barbie doll who said that math is hard realizes that 160 out of 1300 does not indicate domination.

But let's look at a larger quote of the applicable section:


Adding to the Shiite power base, the sect's faithful share a coherent religious view. Since splitting from their Sunni brethren in the 7th century over who should replace the Prophet Muhammad as Muslim ruler, they have developed distinct concepts of Islamic law and practices.

They also dominate by sheer number: Shiites account for some 160 million of the Islamic world's population of 1.3 billion people. Shiites account about 90 percent of Iran's population, more than 60 percent of Iraq's, and some 50 percent of the people living in the arc of territory from Lebanon to India.



Since the article was talking about issues in the Arab world, the "dominate" term is applicable.

From the Ontario Empoblog (Latest OVVA news here)

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