User:MercZ

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Hello! I'm a Kurd and citizen of the United States of America and currently live in Texas. My interests are ancient Middle-Eastern history, the Ottoman Empire, Romans, Greeks, World War I and II, and the current Middle-Eastern groups, like the Turks, Kurds, Iranians, and Arabs. Religious minorities across the world is also an interesting topic to me.

Contents 1 Background 2 Rant 2.1 Nationalists 2.2 POV? NPOV? Woo? 2.3 Wikipedia's status among schools 3 Why this mess on the front page? It's not myspace/facebook/livejournal?

[edit] Background

I currently live in Texas, I am 18 years old and a senior at my high school. I plan on attending the University of Texas at Dallas after my High School year. I hope to become a good contributor in the near future.

[edit] Rant

[edit] Nationalists

I am proud of my heritage, but as I touched upon earlier I despise the ultra and pan-nationalist movements that have plagued the Middle-East, which have made themselves known to the otherwise innocent wikipedians. While I do feel it is ok to be proud of where you come from, it is not right to come into conflict with other people and claim superiority and the moral high road of your culture. That is simply not right- we are all human in the end. Turks did not invent everything in the Middle-East, Arabs aren't the masters of culture, Persians aren't the only civilized people in the Middle-East, and Kurds do not have to be related to every kingdom in history. We should respect what is common knowledge, and debate other issues with an open mind.

[edit] POV? NPOV? Woo?

The other thing I have an issue with is the consistent challenging of well-known facts. While I can see the debate for recent events (IE, within the last 150 years), certain things have been cemented into fact. Such things include the ethnicity of historical leaders (Ex: Saladin), the Crusades, Roman interaction with pagan tribes, and so on. Users will consistently bring up POV and revisionist conspiracies by modern governments and movements, which I find is a poor argument against these established facts.

[edit] Wikipedia's status among schools

And finally the crackdown some educational institutions have put upon Wikipedia. While I can see their arguments that it can sometimes be unreliable (sometimes thanks in part due to these ultra-nationalists), I feel that it is a useful source and can help point students and curious readers to other sources. Of course it shouldn't be the only source in an educational project, but I do not see an issue with using it.

[edit] Why this mess on the front page? It's not myspace/facebook/livejournal?

It looks weird with nothing on it.