A couple days ago, I received a chain email [...]

The email states, "Muslims who want to live under Islamic Sharia law were told on Wednesday to get out of Australia, as the government targeted radicals in a bid to head off potential terrorist attacks." The email goes on to declare, "[Prime Minister Julia] Gillard angered some Australian Muslims on Wednesday by saying she supported spy agencies monitoring the nation's mosques."

Gillard did not speak or allude to these outrageous sentiments. The email is a hoax. [...]

The problem with this chain email isn't that it is a hoax involving false statements from a prime minister of an ally nation. The problem is that many Americans wholeheartedly believe in and revere the bigoted views toward Muslims expressed in the email.