Truth as the first media casualty

Sweet terrifying moments, when you explore the depths of your ignorance - and the ignorance of others...

On the theme "media are means of propaganda but do not inform us," the teacher asked us a series of questions to test our knowledge of Iran, today's "enemy", according to TV.

The question on the capital city is easy, anybody watching CNN more than 15 minutes knows that. But at the question, "which race the Iranians claim they are from?", I start sweating... I have no idea! Caucasian seems too banal, although Iran is close from the mountains named Caucase?

In despair I glance to the copy of my neighbor - it's not an exam, just a friendly test to teach us our ignorance.
I freeze at her answer in horror. She wrote that the race of the Iranians is.... Muslim!

Sweetheart, don't you know Muslim is a religion? And by assimilation, if you think "the enemy" is the entire muslim world, then you're in for a life of terror, indeed, because your enemy stretches from Asia to Africa and, honestly, to your neighbors. It's a bit like saying all Christians are white, and vice-versa. Maybe that's how you think about Christians after all? That "we" are "good" and "they" are "evil", to quote your president?

How bad is a lack of information, and yes, a lack of basic education, that assimilate to a single country more than 1,300 years of world history and the second largest religion in the world?

If I can imitate the author of this page about Muslims:

In mass media propaganda, "as in war, truth is often the first casualty."