Correction: Wilders did not say he has Muslim friends who think Fitna is a very good film

On February 14, there was an entry entitled, “Does Wilders really have Muslim friends?” It was based on a misreading of a less than clearly written BBC article copied at VFR on February 12, in which a reader, echoed by me and others, had the impression that the “he” in the following sentence referred to Geert Wilders:

He added: “The film isn’t offensive unless you are a violent Islamist. Most of my Muslim friends think it’s a very good film.”

In fact, as VFR reader Ortelio tried to tell me on February 15 but was unable to get through to me at the time, the “he” who spoke of “my Muslim friends” was Lord Pearson of the British House of Lords, not Geert Wilders. Ortelio’s correction has been added to the original entry. The use of pronouns with ambiguous antecedents is a major problem in the writing of English today.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at March 08, 2009 09:37 AM | Send