Tuesday, December 09, 2008

The Wrong Version

Just yesterday, I noted the oddity that the Muslim holiday if Eid El-Adha celebrates the almost-sacrifice by Abraham of his son...Ishmael. As opposed to the Biblical version.

Today, I'm looking at the front page of the International Herald Tribune which is emblazoned with a large picture, photographed by Lynsey Addario, "for the New York Times", which shows a group of Kabul honor guard members getting ready to pray on the occasion of the above-mentioned holiday which, the caption reads,

"commemorates the story in which God asked the prophet Abraham to sacrifice his son to prove his faith".


His son?

Which son?

Why can't the caption inform the readers that, in the Muslim version, its the other son?

Someone couldn't get mixed up? He can't be informed otherwise?

What's the paper afraid of? That someone might think that's the wrong version?

2 comments:

Soccer Dad said...

I noticed this too. Most of the wire service accounts only write "his son." I did see one or two that mentioned Ishmael.

My suspicion is that the wire services figure that most Western readers are familiar enough with the bible to know that in the Biblical version, it was Yitzchak. Writing the Koranic version would lead too many Westerners to question the Koranic version. This is just a suspicion.

YMedad said...

I'm likewise suspicious.