Buy the rumor and sell it as a fact.

Byline: Tariq Al-Maeena

There's an old proverb that says, "What you don't see with your eyes, don't witness with your mouth." But how many of us can resist the temptation to believe rumors?

Rumors are defined as pieces of unverified information and of uncertain origin. In the not so distant past, our mouths were the main conduits for such untruths and our audience was limited to those within our earshot. But as technology gradually took over most of our daily functions, the mobile phone with messaging services today is the predominant source for the dissemination of such unverified information.

Rumors range from the funny to the outlandish, and occasionally to the downright malicious. And the effortlessness with which they gather storm today is alarming, especially if they border on spiteful intent.

Take the case of an SMS that made the rounds recently, not just in Saudi Arabia, but in the region as well. While I had deleted the message as soon as I had read it and cannot reprint the exact wording, the contents went along the following lines:

A McDonald's employee has been discovered as having been afflicted with the H1N1 (swine flu) virus, and patrons are well advised to stay clear of all McDonald's outlets. It implied that McDonald's was concealing such information from the general public. The message also stated the name of the worker.

This name was later found out to be the name of a street in Cairo, on which several fast food outlets carried out their trade, raising doubts about the origin of this particular SMS. The intent of the message was obviously to frighten people and hurt McDonald's.

I would hazard a guess that some people who received the message restrained themselves or their family members from eating out at McDonald's or other fast food outlets. I say this with confidence as that particular message made its way through various e-mails with varying degrees of alert and caution.

Swine flu is very much in the news these days, and one has to welcome the transparency exercised by our Ministry of Health in reporting and dealing with this latest outbreak. Newspapers daily carry items relating to new cases discovered in the Kingdom, and report on plans from the health officials on how to meet this pandemic head on.

Had one of the staff at the McDonald's been indeed a carrier of such a virus, it would have certainly been reported by the ministry and immediately made public. And yet many found it easier to believe the message. Is it human nature to believe just about everything we are told, without taking any effort to verify such claims?

Now I know the folks running the McDonald's enterprise in the western region, and I know for a fact that many of their family members patronize the various outlets. They follow extremely ethical business practices and I believe them when they rubbish such rumors. And no, I'm not getting a free meal, up-sized and all, by making such statements either!

Preying on human naivetA and fears, such nasty and unverified messages invariably hurt honest establishments. Back in the 19th century, the distinguished English novelist Maria Louise RamA wrote, "a cruel story runs on wheels, and every hand oils the wheels as they run."

And so folks, the next time you receive an SMS stating that Britney Spears has converted to Islam, or the shampoo you are using will cause you cancer, or the meat patties in a hamburger are not halal, contact the individual or establishment in question for verification or use Snopes.Com.

Or else, press delete on your mobile phone and move on.

The Holy Qur'an says: "O you who have believed, if there comes to you a disobedient one with information, investigate, lest you harm a people out of ignorance and become, over what you have done, regretful." (Al-Hujurat: 6)

Copyright: Arab News 2009 All rights reserved.

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