Ok, so I’ve seen a couple of posts with false information or incredibly misleading so here’s a little update on what to believe or not
(I did this on my own so there are possibly mistakes, don’t hesitate to reblog with corrections / additions + send me a message so I can edit them)
the terrorists weren’t syrians refugees
For now, it’s confirmed that 4 men from France & 1 from Belgium were involved, 2 of the corpses are unidentifiable. (source : (french) Le Monde ; BBC)
french authorities didn’t plant syrian passports
the passport they
found was a fake Syrian passport (as in fake papers that Syrians buy on the black market when they can’t get real papers to get to Europe) (source : Wall Street Journal)Sidenote : this is part of Daesh’s (aka ISIS) strategy : they want people to believe the terrorist threat comes from syrians refugees. They want to divide the world between Middle East & Occident. Syrians fleeing their home country to find refuge in Europe is the exact opposite of what Daesh wants & they try to use islamophobia & xenophobia to prevent Europe & America from helping Syrians. ( source : Shadi Hamid in this CNN article ; or in this video)
france didn’t bomb a syrian city & didn’t kill any civilians
they targeted Daesh’s training camp, recruitment center & arms dump located in Syria. (source : French Ministry of Defence ; France 24)
No muslim man named Zouheir stopped a suicide bomber from entering the Stade de France
he was just a security guard that related what he heard from his colleagues to a journalist (source : BBC)
Sidenote : Instead of Zouheir, you can talk about Safer, a bartender at the Casa Nostra restaurant who pulled two injured women into the basement as gunfire continued on the street outside. (source : BBC)
Please stop spreading misinformation or deformed news making them
sound worse than they are. You’re not helping. You’re creating a panic reaction based on lies
& the truth is scary enough.We can’t have good opinions if we’re
not correctly informed. In time of crisis, the media will sometimes publish unconfirmed news, without fact checking or use misleading headlines or articles. Try to always question what you read until you read it from at least two trustworthy sources.Personally I recommend France 24, an international newsgroup based in Paris but with journalists of various nationalities. They aim for a focus on cultural diversity and contrasting viewpoints via news bulletins, reports, magazines and debates.
Also, always try to remember that media outlets aren’t completely neutral, they always represent a certain point of view. It’s ok to get information from them as long as you always put things in perspective.