- 19 March 2008
- 10 Comments
- Neo-Con Agenda
Wikipedia victory
19 March 2008 Posted By Shadee Malaklou
In a March 19 email to NIAC, Wikipedia promised to “indefinitely halt” all editing on Wikipedia articles, “Trita Parsi” and “The National Iranian American Council.”
In Wikipedia’s own words, “It seems clear that a small group of people, if not possibly a single person posing as several, has been consistently trying to re-add…questionable, poorly sourced information about your organization [NIAC] and its president. In addition to being possibly libelous, it is strongly against the policies of our project.”
Many opponents of dialogue and diplomacy—the same people that Babak references in his post, Disrupting Discourse—have used Wikipedia as a platform for baseless attacks against Trita and NIAC. While these attacks say more about the undemocratic mindset of some factions of the Iranian-American community than they do about NIAC or our work, it is unfortunate that Wikipedia, a well-trusted source of information for so many people, has become the most recent target in their efforts.
We, as the NIAC DC team, are thrilled that Wikipedia recognizes the need to halt public access to the “Trita Parsi” and “National Iranian American Council” articles. We hope this victory helps elevate the discourse in our community beyond ad hominem attacks, to genuine debate about the issues facing Iranian Americans. We thank Wikipedia for helping push the conversation about these issues to a better, more productive level.
10 Responses to “Wikipedia victory”
It is great to see Wikipedia take responsibility for the content posted on their website. This has been a long-winded battle for NIAC, and I am very happy to see our labor finally come to fruition.
This is an oustanding victory! In this era of transparency, individual and organizational reputation can too often be mis-judged by the results of a google search. Wikipedia has become the single source of information for so many information consumers. The defamatory attacks on NIAC and Trita Parsi were disruptive and unwarranted. Its great to see that Wikipedia has completed their investigation and closed access to the defamatory entries. Great work Shadee and the NIAC team!
Fantastic news!
Iranians trying to make Iranians look bad, seriously! Who benefits from this? Childish behavior like this does nothing to make us look better on the world stage already so hostile to us.
Babak and company, can we please find a way to discuss our culture’s intolerance for each other and possible solutions in a seperate blog entry or forum? I know this entry isn’t the right time or place, but this has to be discussed amongst us sooner than later. It is very disheartening to see our culture be so fragmented, not to mention unbelievable!
Shadee – Great job on getting this important victory.
Marsha and Michael – thank you for your kind words and support.
Michael – On the issue of discourse, we of course agree fully. Part of the purpose of this blog is to bring issues such as this into the limelight and discuss them. I think it would be fine to talk about these issues on this thread or others – but the key is to what end? what do we hope to achieve from those talks? Its one thing to notice intolerance in the Iranian (or White, or Black, or any other) community, its another to actually solve these issues in any meaningful way.
Shadee’s work, on behalf of NIAC is of immense importance. It is safe to say that NIAC is the only political voice of the Iranian American across the nation, and we should do all that we could to promote it.
NIAC should stand ready to engage in meaningful debates and respond to critiques without losing the ground. The path to success was never an easy one.
Thanks Shadee and our wonderful young folks in DC.
Great job! It is hard work but it must be realized that this is valuable work. Fighting the falsehood is very important for NIAC. Congratulations!
Thank you, everyone, for your warm words of support!
Indeed, Babak, “to what end?”
I don’t have the answers, nor the solutions. Hopefully one day (if enough people are galvanized) we can discuss the how, what, and why of this issue and do our own part to at least be a minority working towards putting an end to it. I shall remain optimistic.
Beh salomati.
Yet another example of why NIAC is so critical to Iranians everywhere, not just those in the US. Thank you Shadee as well as all the other hard working folks at NIAC. Your efforts and successes are deeply appreciated!
Thanks Shadee, GREAT JOB…I was waiting for that news.
NIAC is a great hope and a voice for many of us here . Thanks again!!