Martin Luther King Jr., the United States Civil Rights iconic figure who was monumental in using non-violent protests in American African civil rights movement was misquoted following the death of Osama Bin Laden. A certain quote posted on Facebook and different social media sites goes viral.
Here is the quote that goes viral
“I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” –Martin Luther King Jr.
The quote that goes viral was wrong, especially the first sentence. Matin Luther had never uttered those words or had written it. Their is one quote that Martin Luther talks about enemies and the quote goes as “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
The remaining words of the misquoted quote by Martin Luther was actually part of his book titled “Strength to Love.” It was also came from a 1957 sermon he given by King on loving enemies.
The speed of dissemination was awesome for it went viral in just days of posting it in Facebook and Twitter. The only thing that goes wrong was it was not the right quotation that was said by Luther.
The person who started it all was a Facebook user named Jessica Dovey, a 24-year old Penn State graduate who teaches English in Japan.
The quote goes viral when it was cut and pasted by one of the more popular Jenn Jillete of Penn and Teller fame. He tweeted it to his 1.6 million Facebook followers. Twenty-four hours later, the quote brought back over 9,000 hits on Google. The rest is history, it goes viral.
