Open your mind to alternative points of view

However, Eric Bahrt and JC Wilcox raised important questions regarding the media.
My first rule is, read widely, and don’t believe anything you read in one media source alone. Just as one finds out from the foreign media what else is going on in Thailand, one has to go to Russia Today or the American media to discover the stories the European MSM refuse to cover – and vice versa. Since Eric is American, I suggest he look first to Breitbart London for his European news. But ah! I hear the bigots cry, Breitbart is a scurrilous alt-right rag, as unworthy as Fox News! 
Whether one agrees with its opinion pieces or not, Breitbart’s reports are endowed with source links to local media, actual interviews, actual police reports, government statistics and other data, so one can assess the veracity of what one reads in the MSM and make up one’s mind where the truth lies. 
Another source: simply type your topic of interest into a search engine or YouTube to summon up a wealth of alternative media.
I have before me Issue No 15 of the Islamic State magazine “Dabiq”, the cover photo of which depicts a turbanned chap wrenching the cross off the roof of a Christian church. I don’t derive the same entertainment value from Dabiq as I do from Have Your Say, but it does help to understand an alternative point of view. On page 31, in a chapter entitled “Why We Hate You & Why We Fight You”, Dabiq sets out a six-point list, the first of which reads, “We hate you, first and foremost, because you are disbelievers; you reject the oneness of Allah”, a sentiment entirely relevant to the current debate.
The day after my letter was published, the Saudi Embassy in UK issued a travel advisory, warning its citizens visiting London to beware of acid attacks. In May this year, the US Department of State issued a general warning about travel to European cities. Now we have the Third World advising against travel in the First World. Europe is doomed – I rest my case.
Nigel Pike