The Inside Assyria Discussion Forum #5

=> my letter to Wikipedia Adminstration

my letter to Wikipedia Adminstration
Posted by pancho (Moderator) - Tuesday, April 24 2012, 15:59:22 (UTC)
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...still rough draft,

I would like to call your attention to a blatant violation of your rules regarding unsourced material or using Wikipedia as a place for original research and unfounded, self-serving claims. Towards the end of the otherwise accurate article titled “Assyrians”, there is a segue to a completely unsourced, unreferenced and totally unproven assertion that there exist today direct, lineal descendants of the ancient Assyrians. Compounding this gross error is the assertion by the editor there, a person who also believes HE is a descendant of the ancient Assyrians, that the book I used in my refutation of these absurd claims was written by an “amateur” who is “mistaken”, without anything to back that statement up, coming as it did, from one who is the actual amateur here.

The book in question, which your editor said is by an amateur and not to be taken seriously, is written by John Joseph, who graduated with a doctorate from Princeton University , a recently retired professor, Emeritus, at Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, after thirty years teaching modern Middle Eastern History titled, “The Modern Assyrians of the Middle East: Encounters with Western Christian Missions, Archaelogists,& Colonoal Powers.” This book was first published by Princeton University Press in 1961, revised and published in 1999 by Brill Publishers, a publishing house out of the Netherlands which has been in the business for four hundred years. In addition Dr. Joseph was honored recently when a new International Studies building , paid for by a previous student of his , built on the campus of Franklin and Marshall was named after him. That a man so well recognized, qualified and honored by his peers and college should be dismissed as an amateur by your editor is absurd and casts doubt on the professionalism of your fine encyclopedia and, among the knowledgeable, raises questions about the oversight you provide as well as the trustworthiness of other articles and sections.

It is true that this is an esoteric subject little known outside the community who likes to think of itself as descended from heroes of the past, or the few professional historians and scholars familiar with the field. Dr. Joseph's research shows clearly and with reliable sources that these people are mistaken and, because he was born into a family and community which called itself “Chaldean” Dr. Joseph is vilified for having burst this bubble by actually bothering to get an education on the subject.

To help you form your own opinion on this matter I challenge you to find, in any other print encyclopedia, or recognized historical source a single reference to the existence of modern-day Assyrians, as an historical fact, and not simply something they believe. Just one. You will find none. In fact if you check with the Library of Congress you will find two of Dr. Joseph's books on this very subject and not a single one on the other side. There do exist books through the Vanity-Press industry written by self-proclaimed “Assyrian” historians, not a one of them with a degree in history or, in the vast majority of cases, in any other, but you know what those are worth as anyone can have anything printed by paying their fee. I too was born into a family that believed itself to be “Assyrian”, but I grew up, got an education and learned better.

I urge you to insist that the rules you have set are followed, if not by all your contributors then at least by the editors who represent you.

Thank You

Fred Parhad


...I just looked in the Library of Congress Catalogue and there's a "book" about modern assyrians in 2008...but it's PRINTED by Exlibris Press..one of those Vanity Press business where Hitler could get books printed today. I would have thought the Library of Congress wouldn't fall for such crap. By their own standards Wikipedia is failing at this...let's see if we get a response.



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