Fake Anti-Muslim Hate Crimes and Other Lies

This article discusses and lists incidents where Muslims have been caught fabricating anti-Muslim hate crimes, or lying about other issues, such as their views on terrorism.

Lies

Distortion of Islamic Beliefs

Muslims are often mistranslating or misinterpreting Qur'anic verses for apologetic purposes. Many of the articles hosted at WikiIslam deal in addressing these falsehoods, and to list them all here would be an impossible task (to navigate the site, see the Site Map).

Some notable instances of deception include; Arsalan Iftikhar at CNN and his distortion of verse 5:32, Jamal Badawi and Tariq Ramadan who both agree that wife-beating is permitted but claim Muhammad never resorted to striking his wives, and Laleh Bakhtiar in her mistranslation of verse 4:34.

Other Lies and Deceptions

Name of Muslim	Location	Deception	More Information
Carnita Matthews	Australia	A Muslim woman accused a Sydney Police Officer of "racism" and claimed he physically attempted to remove her veil during a routine traffic stop. In an emotional Channel 7 interview, she tearfully described the "fear" she felt when faced with this "angry" and "aggressive" officer who shouted at her. The police officer in question was later cleared of the charge when patrol car video footage proved he never once touched her and was polite throughout the exchange. When asked by Channel 7 to return and explain what the footage showed, she declined the offer. Even after these accusations have been proven false, it is stirring up anger within the Islamic community with text messages describing the police officer as “an enemy of allah” being sent in mass. Amazingly she escaped jail-time for her false accusations by again lying and claiming it was not her in the veil	Conning the World. Veiling the Truth with Bedazzling Burkas - Wendy Larkson, Australian Islamist Monitor, June 11, 2010
Not released (Albanian Pizza shop owners)	Austria	A pizzeria owned by Albanian Muslims in Wörgl, Austria, was badly burned. A nearby building owned by a Turkish association was also set on fire. 'Racist' graffiti in Turkish was left on the scene, complete with swastika symbols. This immediately provoked demonstrations from Turks and Greens protesting against "right-wingers" and "racists". One placard read: "Racism isn't an opinion! Racism is a crime." It was later learned that both fires were set by the Muslims themselves, after two of the perpertrators were injured in their own attack when the fire they were setting produced an explosion.	Austria: Muslims Set Fire to Own Fast-Food Business and Leave 'Racist' Graffiti to Mislead Investigators - Islam versus Europe, February 24, 2013
Ahmad Abu Laban & Ahmed Akkari	Denmark	Following Jyllands-Posten's publication of the infamous Muhammad Cartoons, the Danish Muslim leader Ahmad Abu Laban took it upon himself to spearhead a campaign demanding an apology from Jyllands-Posten. A delegation of Danish Muslim leaders, headed by Laban and Lebanese-born theological student Ahmed Akkari, traveled to the Middle East to publicize and garner opposition to the offending cartoons. However, the number of images taken to the Middle East had risen from twelve to fifteen. These additional images were a lot more offensive than any of the original twelve. According to the BBC, the source of these images (through their own admission) had been traced back to the delegation of Danish Muslim leaders themselves	BBC Admits Fatal Negligence - Paul Belien, The Brussels Journal, February 7, 2006
Not released (representatives of the Muslim community)	Finland	In what appears to be an attempt to further vilify websites critical of Islam, various representatives of the Muslim community reported to the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) that there had been "racist murders, mainly committed by racist groups which publish hate messages on their websites". However, the Finnish authorities expressed surprise and informed the Human Rights Commission that they were "not aware of any murders committed with racist motives," and that "they had never worked on any criminal investigations concerning the death of any Muslims." Päivi Mattila, Secretary General of the Finnish League for Human Rights agreed, stating that she had complete faith in the view of the Finnish authorities. She noted that she had not heard of any claims of 'racially-motivated' killings against Muslims or any other racial minority. "Rather there has been word of other types of hate crimes, which have been met with convictions.”	European watchdog calls for more anti-discrimimation efforts in Finland - Codewit Global Network, July 15, 2013
arrahmah.com & Muslims using SMS, Twitter and Facebook	Indonesia	In response to a suicide bombing of a church, the site falsely claimed a village had been burnt down and that thousands of Muslims remained in mosques in Ambon, seeking refuge from the crusader hordes. In two days some 20,000 people had retweeted the message. The previous month, a deadly riot broke out in Ambon, an island in Maluku in eastern Indonesia. 7 people died and scores of homes and vehicles were damaged after rumors spread by SMS, Twitter and Facebook claimed that a Muslim had been captured and tortured to death by Christians. In fact, he died in a traffic accident. In another hoax spread via SMS and Twitter messages warned of co-ordinated Christian attacks on Muslims. Two Christian men were stabbed in retaliation and more than 1000 people fled to a police school to seek refuge from Christian attacks that never occurred	Indonesia Tweets Fuel Acts of Violence - Journal of Turkish Weekly, October 3, 2011
Adnan Hajj	Lebanon	The photographer at the center of the 2006 Lebanon War photographs controversies, where several media outlets used doctored or misleading photographs and captions which reflected negatively on Israel. Due to the diligence of bloggers who would most likely be labeled as "Islamopobes" by many, Adnan Hajj's photoshopped images were exposed, leading to his and another photo editors dismissal	The Reuters Photo Scandal: A Taxonomy of Fraud - Zombietime
Hazem Bader	Palestinian Authority area	"AFP photo service carried an image by photographer Hazem Bader in which a Palestinian construction worker is said to be screaming in pain after he was run over by a trailer driven by an Israeli soldier... Yet, after checking with both Palestinian and Israeli sources, it seems that the man was not at all injured, and there is no evidence that he was run over."	International Herald Tribune Falls for AFP Fauxtography - Tamar Sternthal, CAMERA, January 28, 2012
Khulood Badawi	Palestinian Authority area	A representative of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Badawi caused a controversy when she posted a picture via Twitter of a bloodied Palestinian girl held in her’s father arms. The caption attached to the image read: “Palestine is bleeding. Another child killed by Israel. Another father carrying a child into a grave in Gaza.” In addition to violating the rule of impartiality, the Twitter message, which was a huge hit, was proven to be a lie. The girl in the picture was actually injured by falling off a swing in 2006. Tragically, this lie may have also been the motivation behind the March 2012 Toulouse massacre of Jews in France. The media reported that Mohammed Merah was motivated by Israel's killing of children in Gaza earlier in the month. However, Israel did not kill any children in Gaza that month, but with lies like Badawi's being widely spread between Muslims, he would have thought otherwise	Top Tweet on Gaza Proven False - Israel Defense Forces, March 12, 2012
Wesley Muahammad	Palestinian Authority area	Posted a photograph that went viral on Facebook, "showing what was claimed to be an Israel Defense Forces soldier pointing a weapon at a young Palestinian girl, prompted anger and cries for clarification across the social network... Soon after the picture began circling the social network, Facebook users began refuting its authenticity. Many posted the photograph again, explaining that the caption claiming the soldier was Israeli had to be false because his uniform was not that of the IDF's, nor does the Israeli army regularly use AK-47s. "Don't believe everything you see on the Internet," wrote blogger Omar Dakhane, who uploaded a wider framed version of the image, showing a crowd surrounding the soldier and the girl. "This picture was taken in Bahrain 2009 during a street theater."... The wider framed shot also shows that the soldier has a home-made Israeli flag patch pinned to his jacket, and the crowd of bystanders watching the scene without any moving toward the soldier or the girl"	Photo of 'IDF soldier' pointing gun at girl prompts Facebook outcry - Haaretz, February 1, 2012
Not released (Muslim woman)	Sweden	In early May 2013, a burqa-clad Muslim woman accused Christer Wikström, a local Swedish Democrat politician, of beating her in a Borlänge supermarket. The SD politician insisted he was innocent, but a police investigation began and he and his family were faced with criticism from the media and internet communities. CCTV footage of the incident showed that, not realizing she was on camera, it was in fact the Muslim women who attacked the politician. After tearing his clothes, she fell to the floor dramatically and started wailing. Wikström was eventually cleared of all suspicion. Whether or not the woman will be prosecuted remains unclear. Wikström thanked God for cameras, saying "Without them, I had a sentence in front of me"	"Burkabråket" blev nedlagt - Jerry Brodin, DT.se, June 13, 2013
Babar Ahmad	United Kingdom	He claimed that four police officers assaulted him and mocked his Islamic faith during his arrest in 2003. London’s Metropolitan Police has already paid out 60,000 pounds ($93,000 dollars) in compensation to Ahmad following civil court action in 2009. However, all four officers were cleared by a jury in 2011 after a listening device which was placed inside Ahmad’s house by British intelligence services ahead of his arrest showed up flaws in his account.	British Police Cleared of Assaulting Terror Suspect - Agence France-Presse, June 3, 2011
Ehtisham Badar	United Kingdom	A Muslim family in Birmingham had a severed pig’s head dumped on their driveway, a brick tossed through a lounge window and paint stripper poured over their car. The attacks were assumed to be anti-Muslim in nature. However, when the culprit was arrested, he turned out to be a fellow Muslim. According to the father whose family were victimized, “It is prohibited for a Muslim to even look at a pig, let alone touch one. It is an unclean beast... What happened was the worst insult... To discover it was carried out by a fellow Muslim makes what happened even more shocking... He has let himself, his family and the Muslim community down.”	Dumped pig's head was the worst insult.... and it came from another Muslim - Birmingham Mail, May 16, 2013
Ericka Tazi	United Kingdom	Christian hoteliers, Benjamin and Sharon Vogelenzang, who were accused of laughing at and insulting a Muslim guest for wearing the hijab and angrily criticizing her religion are cleared. Among other issues, the judge said the Muslim's claim "that she was verbally attacked by the couple for up to an hour had not been borne out by other prosecution witnesses, who suggested that any discussions lasted around seven minutes". Due to these false charges, the innocent couple have suffered financial losses with their hotel, Mrs. Vogelenzang has said that "takings were down by 80 per cent"	Christian hoteliers are CLEARED of insulting Muslim woman as judge slams her evidence - Jonathan Petre, The Daily Mail, December 9, 2009
Fiyaz Mughal	United Kingdom	Following the murder of Lee Rigby by two Islamists in broad daylight, Fiyaz Mughal who runs Tell Mama, a government funded project which monitors anti-Muslim crimes, made many unfounded and exaggerated statements. He said there had been "a wave of attacks, harassment, and hate-filled speech against Muslims ... an unprecedented number of incidents", including "a rise in street harassment of Muslims – unprovoked, opportunistic attacks from strangers as Muslims go about their lives". A "cycle of violence" against Muslims. "The scale of the backlash is astounding ... there has been a massive spike in anti-Muslim prejudice. A sense of endemic fear has gripped Muslim communities." And "I do not see an end to this cycle of violence. There is an underlying Islamophobia in our society and the horrendous events in Woolwich have brought this to the fore." Of its 212 reports, 120 (57%) of them took place online, some of which did not even originate in Britain. 17 (8%) of them involved individuals being physically targeted, 6 people had things thrown at them, and the other 11 were head-coverings being pulled off them. 35 (16%) of the reports had not even been verified. Police said reports of anti-Muslim crime had subsided to previous levels only a week after the attack	The truth about the 'wave of attacks on Muslims’ after Woolwich murder - Andrew Gilligan, The Telegraph, June 1, 2013
Mounia Hamoumi	United Kingdom	Cinnamon Heathcote-Drury was accused of calling a Muslim family who were shopping at a supermarket, "suicide bombers", and telling them, "I'm a British citizen. I don't know where you came from." But a jury took only 15 minutes to acquit her of racially aggravated assault after hearing that the police investigation was a 'shambles'. In reality, Drury only offered to help Mounia with unloading an overflowing cart when Mounia's own husband refused to do so. Instead of being thanked for offering to help a hijabed Muslim women, she was slapped in the face, kicked, then arrested and charged with being racist	Photographer to the stars is cleared of race assault of Muslim woman in supermarket - Mail Online, July 5, 2012
Noor Ramjanally	United Kingdom	A Muslim leader who has fled the country, is sentenced to 2-years jail for making false accusations of being kidnapped from his home by anti-Muslim extremists who drove him into a forest and threatened him at knife-point to stop the Islamic prayer meetings he was holding. The police had spent 1,850 man hours investigating his case at a cost of £9,234. He had also previously claimed an arson attack on his home which lead to CCTV cameras and other security measures being installed by the Council at a cost of £1,300. These measures which were taken for his protection ultimately proved him to be a liar	Noor Ramjanally sentenced to imprisonment at Chelmsford Crown Court - Edmund Tobin, The Guardian, June 11, 2010
Omar Bakri Mohammed	United Kingdom	Following the 2005 7/7 terrorist attacks on London which claimed the lives of 56 people and injured around 700 others, the Muslim cleric publicly stated "I condemn the killing of innocent people." only to be secretly recorded by an undercover reporter for the Sunday Times explaining two days later "Yes I condemn killing any innocent people, but not any kuffar." He even referred to the 7/7 bombers as the "fantastic four". One of his followers, Islamic preacher Anjem Choudary, also explained in a BBC interview "when we [Muslims] say 'innocent people' we mean 'Muslims'. As far as non-Muslims are concerned, they have not accepted Islam. As far as we are concerned, that is a crime against God"	Can Infidels be Innocents? - Daniel Pipes, August 7, 2005
Samantha Lewthwaite	United Kingdom	Converted to Islam at the age of 17 and took the name of "Sherafiyah". She is the widow of 7/7 bomber Germaine (Jamal) Lindsay who detonated the bomb at London’s King’s Cross Tube station killing 26 people. She received media attention (and reported a fee of £30,000) for her ‘exclusive’ interview where she publicly condemned the 7/7 bombings as "Abhorrent" and said she dreaded the day when she would have to tell her own children "what their father did". However, she is now on the run from Kenyan authorities and is believed to be the main financier of a major terrorist cell affiliated to al-Shabaab, an al-Qaida-linked group in Somalia, that planned to mount a series of attacks on the Kenyan coastal resort of Mombasa during Christmas.	Is Samantha 'innocent' widow of 7/7 bomber really an Al Qaeda terrorist? - Paul Bracchi & Rebecca Evans, Mail Online, March 3, 2012
Yasmin & Atoofa	United Kingdom	A bus driver who was accused by two Muslim students of banning them from boarding a bus at Russell Square due to their Islamic dress (one was wearing a hijab and the other a niqab) is cleared of the charge after CCTV footage showed he had actually barred them from the bus for their abusive behavior. If found guilty, the bus driver could have faced the sack, not to mention the social stigma of being an "Islamophobe"	Claim of 'Islamic veil bus ban' thrown out - Ross Lydall, The London Evening Standard, July 28, 2010
Not released (16-year-old Arab-American girl)	United States	A 16-year-old girl who attended the Skyline High School in Ann Arbor claimed she was physically attacked by a mob in an apparent hate crime which included ethnic slurs and her hijab being removed. This prompted a media blitz by the Council on American-Islamic Relations and calls for investigations by state and federal civil rights agencies. Detroit and local news organizations covered the story of a potential hate crime, the director of the state Department of Civil Rights issued a statement calling on the school district to implement conflict resolution and “cultural competency” programs, and CAIR went to the Islamic center in Ann Arbor to talk with congregants who were concerned. However, investigators found evidence that contradicted much of what the 16-year-old had said. She was not “jumped” or assaulted by a “mob”. In reality, no one touched her except one other 16-year-old African-American girl. There were no ethnic slurs or hijabs removed. It was simply a fight between 2 kids. The Arab-American girl was eventually charged and found guilty of disorderly conduct. Like other fabricated hate crimes, CAIR has not updated the information on their website or acknowledged it in any public statement	Hate Crime Rhetoric Not Supported by Facts - Judy McGovern, The Ann Arbor Chronicle, August 15, 2010
Ahmad Saad Nasim	United States	Only days after the 9/11 attacks, the Saudi Arabian-born ASU student "lied to cops about being assaulted and pelted with eggs in a parking lot while assailants screamed "Die, Muslim, die!" Nasim confessed to fabricating the attack when cops interviewed after he attempted a second hate crime hoax-- in which he locked himself in a library restroom with the word "Die" written on his forehead, a plastic bag tied over his head, and a racist note stuffed in his mouth." This Muslims lies received nationwide media coverage with people denouncing these imaginary hate crimes against a Muslim, and he even had the audacity to compare himself to the innocent civilians who died in the 9/11 Islamic terror attacks	The boy who cried 'muslim' - Michelle Malkin, Townhall
Aisha Khan	United States	When 19-year-old college student Aisha Khan was reported missing, her family was insistent that she was abducted by a "drunken stranger." She had left "panicked" text messages about an altercation with the man, and had called leaving a voice mail on her sister's phone about "how scared" she was. Her case attracted the attention of a national foundation run by the parents of a murdered teen, a public Facebook page called "Help Find Aisha Khan" was set up, and Daniel Tutt at the Huffington Post used her case as an example of "the real world human impact of Islamophobia". However, her 5-day disappearance came to an end after police reported she was found safe and had not been abducted or in any danger	Aisha Khan 'Abduction' — Was It a Hoax? - Chelsea Hoffman, Gather, December 24, 2011
Amjad Abunar	United States	The owner of the Al Madinah meat market, who claimed the words "Go Home" were spray-painted twice on a door of his property before being gutted by an arson attack, was arrested by police for setting the fire himself. This revelation came only a week after "the graffiti and fire were cited as evidence by a Washington advocacy group [CAIR] that hate crimes against Muslims were on the rise in Texas."	Hate-Crime Accuser Charged With Arson - The New York Times, September 30, 2004
Aqil Yassom Al-Timimi	United States	"In Nashville, Tenn., Iraqi-American Aqil Yassom Al-Timimi claimed someone set his Chevy truck on fire after the Sept. 11 attacks because he was of Arab descent. Although local TV stations ate up the hate crime angle, one keen reporter remained skeptical...Sources said they suspected Al-Timimi was the perpetrator all along, but more than a year and a half after the fire, the case has languished. Al-Timimi, the supposed victim of hateful wrongdoing, hasn't been heard from since."	More Muslim hate crime myths - Michelle Malkin, Townhall, May 30, 2003
Aziz Poonawalla & Chris Rodda (non-Muslim)	United States	A 10-year-old girl claimed she was sprayed with a substance while at the Islamic Society of Greater Dayton, in Ohio. Through the post written by Chris Rodda and later perpetuated by Aziz Poonawalla, the news of this "Terrorist attack on an Ohio mosque" spread like wildfire on the internet. This was all in spite of the fact that police had stated the mosque was not the victim of a hate crime and that there was "nothing left at the scene or anything that makes us believe this is a biased crime." In fact, there were no chemicals found on the alleged young victim, and a can of pepper spray was oddly found inside the mosque, not outside the mosque where it was allegedly used by "two men"	Dayton mosque attack hoax update: can of pepper spray was found inside the mosque - Robert Spencer, Jihad Watch, October 18, 2008
Kassim Alhimidi (& family?)	United States	An Iraqi woman named Shaima Alawadi was found beaten to death in her dining room, allegedly by Islamophobes (a note was found next to her body calling the family terrorists and telling them to "go back to their own country"). The story received international coverage, sparking an internet campaign against Islamophobia, with a million women posting pictures of themselves wearing hijabs in solidarity. Her family gave tearful interviews to the media in the days following the slaying, and her widow was seen crying over his wife’s casket during her funeral in Iraq, at one point fainting. In an interview a week after the killing, her husband told the Arabic Al Arabiya News: “My wife was a victim of xenophobia.” Many apologists saw this as an opportunity to smear critics of Islam, claiming it was they who had "fueled the hate" that lead to the violence. It later turned out her husband killed her and staged it as a hate crime, and the story was quickly dropped. There was no internet campaign against Muslim honor killing, nor any apologies for blaming critics of a religion	Husband arrested in Iraqi woman’s killing - Kristina Davis & Debbi Baker, U T San Diego, November 9, 2012
Mazhar Tabesh	United States	The co-owner of the Muslim-owned Alpine motel in Heber City, which was thought to have been set alight as a hate crime in response to 9/11, was arrested several months later for setting it alight himself. He had also previously claimed to have been "receiving threatening calls that increased after the Sept. 11 terror attacks." Townhall Columnist, Michelle Malkin, writes "Utah residents organized a benefit concert and raised $1,400 for Tabesh’s family. The national press jumped on the bandwagon: “Immigrant Family Feels Post-9-11 Rage,” blared a Los Angeles Times headline. The accompanying 1,100-word story suggested that “white supremacists and skinheads living in the area” might be to blame."	Owner of Alpine Motel Arrested - The Associated Press, KSL-TV, September 11, 2002
Mirza Akram	United States	The owner of the burnt Continental Spices Cash & Carry, in Everett, Washington, who had claimed “he had been harassed by some customers earlier this summer [and that] the verbal slurs didn’t stop until he threatened to call police,” was arrested a month later for setting fire to his own business and causing an estimated $50,000 in damages. The cautious Muslim had even spray-painted the property with obscenities against Arabs and a white cross before setting it alight	"Islamophobic Prejudice" and CAIR - Daniel Pipes, FrontPageMagazine, August 25, 2004
Mohamed Abdelgany & Hadeer Soliman	United States	Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren's speech at the University of California, Irvine, was systematically interrupted by students who blasted him as a murderer and a war criminal. The Muslim Student Union is a chapter of the Muslim Students Association. Its President Mohamed Abdelgany and its spokeswoman Hadeer Soliman both claimed the disruptions were not put on by the MSU, but rather by students acting on their own. However, "In an e-mail to the Muslim Student Union board dated Feb. 6, union president Mohamed Abdelgany described the union's "game plan" for the Oren speech, including a call for "disruptors." Later in the e-mail, Abdelgany, who was himself arrested during the Oren speech, laid out the plan for the event itself, which he said would involve "disrupting it throughout the whole time" if possible. Abdelgany also allegedly cautioned disruptors to be loud and firm, but not not lose their composure. "Remember," he wrote, "that this is a planned/calculated response." In another e-mail he writes, "So now that we have voted on one method of action, we all go through this together, insha'Allah ta'ala together as one MSU … one Ummah."	MSU Suspended Over Oren Protest - The Investigative Project on Terrorism, June 14, 2010
Muhammad Musri	United States	"A newly surfaced audiotape demonstrates how Imam Muhammad Musri, director of the Islamic Society of Central Florida, deceived the pastor of a charismatic Christian church in Gainesville, Florida, to avert the burning of a Qur'an in September 2010... Imam Musri—who stood beside him on September 9 before the reporters, cameras and microphones gathered in Gainesville—had brokered a deal whereby New York City's $100 million, 13-story Park51 mosque would be relocated from its proposed site within two blocks of Ground Zero. Imam Musri, though, soon denied that any such agreement had been reached, pulling the Muslim prayer rug out from under Dr. Jones... [The tape] clearly shows that Imam Musri first lied to Terry Jones and then lied to the media about having lied to Pastor Jones."	Tape Reveals Florida Imam Hoodwinked Qur'an-Burning Pastor - Alan Kurtz, Allvoices, April 16, 2011
Muhammad Salah	United States	At an Islamic Association for Palestine conference held in Chicago, he introduced himself to a woman as a "Muslim human rights activist" who can "teach you about the oppression and sufferings of Muslims in America and all over the world." He went on to tell her he was a used-car salesman working in Chicago who was arrested and tortured by Israelis on a visit to see his family and friends. Unbeknown to him, the women who he was speaking to was the Iraqi-born Rita Katz, co-founder of the Search for International Terrorist Entities Institute (SITE Institute), and she knew very well that who she was speaking to was not a "Muslim human rights activist", but the leader of the worldwide military wing of Hamas	What is Taqiyya? - An Inquiry Into Islam
Musa Shteiwi & Essa Shteiwi	United States	"Blast at Arab—American Restaurant 'Suspicious'" screamed the CAIR headline as they claimed the explosion at the Steak Thyme Restaurant (which sent the owner and his son to hospital with severe burns) was a hate crime. It was the fourth arson attack on the restaurant within the space of six-weeks, the third resulting from a Molotov cocktail being thrown through the front window. Only hours before the forth attack, the owner vowed he would "never give into pressure to close the store". However, investigators discovered that the explosion was actually set by the owner and his son. "The Shteiwis were standing in a pool of gasoline that they intended to use as an accelerant in setting their store ablaze later that night when Musa Shteiwi took a break and lit up a cigarette, igniting the gasoline prematurely and causing the blast". Father and son both later died from their self-inflicted injuries and another man who was hired by the father and son team to carry out the previous three attacks was sentenced to three years in prison	Kafir-phobia: Americans as Violent Anti-Muslim Bigots - Patrick Poole, American Thinker, August 31, 2006
Naser Jason Abdo	United States	Hailed as a poster-boy for "peaceful, moderate Islam". A US soldier who converted to Islam at age 17, Abdo was granted conscientious objector status because he claimed his Muslim beliefs prevented him from fighting in Afghanistan. Went AWOL after he was charged with possessing child porn. Like Arsalan Iftikhar, in 2009 he publicly denounced the Fort Hood massacre as running "counter to what I believe in as a Muslim," but in 2011 when he was arrested and found with a large quantity of weapons and explosives materials, he admitted planning another similar attack on Fort Hood.	Fort Hood suspect condemned '09 shootings - Jamie Stengle, Associated Press, July 29, 2011
Nezar Maad	United States	The owner of the Frontier Printing Services which was damaged and vandalized with anti-Arab graffiti only days after the 9/11 attacks, was himself eventually arrested as a suspect in the damage case, the amount of which he claimed was $500,000. Although he was later released due to lack of evidence, Federal prosecutors dropped the hate crime investigation and Nezar has since been found guilty of several other cases of fraud	Anchorage's Alleged Hate Crime Hoaxster Mike Maad In Trouble Again - Alaska Pride, September 16, 2006
Omar Shahin, Didmar Faja, Mohamed Said Mitwaly Ibrahim,Marwan Sadeddin, Ahmad al-Shqeirat, & Mahmoud Sulaiman	United States	In what looks like a planned incident to gain publicity for congressional legislation against profiling, 6 imams were removed from a US Airways flight about to take off from the Minneapolis airport. Led by Omar Shahin, they claimed that they were "victims of profiling and discrimination and hate merely because they were Muslims who prayed quietly in the airport terminal". In reality, they were anything but quiet. Their odd behaviour included praying loudly twice when only one prayer was needed according to Islamic laws, and not sitting in their assigned seats, instead they spread out in pairs covering each exit of the plane. It was in fact a Muslim Arabic-speaking passenger who alerted the flight attendant to their strange behavior and of what they were saying to each other in Arabic. According to the Arabic speaker, they were "invoking bin Laden and condemning America for killing Saddam." The Muslim passengers even stood up and applauded once the imams were removed from the plane	Flying imams of Minneapolis - Bogus Hate Crimes, November 20, 2006
Safia Z. Jilani	United States	A Muslim student at Elmhurst College who claimed a masked gunman had pistol-whipped her after writing “Kill the Muslims” in a women's restroom, was arrested after a week-long investigation determined the incident never occurred. She was charged by Elmhurst police with making up the story. According to the Chicago Tribune, initially the United Church of Christ "called the incident a hate crime, hundreds of students rallied to show solidarity with their Muslim peers, who constitute about 25 of the school's 3,300 students. The college beefed up security, including foot and car patrols by Elmhurst police, and campus security offered to escort Muslim students around the campus." Only a week earlier there were anti-Islamic slurs and a swastika scrawled on her locker. In hindsight, the probability of this locker vandalism being the work of an "Islamophobe" is very doubtful	Cops: Student made up campus attack - Russell Working, Chicago Tribune, October 17, 2008
Saleh Nawash & Ahmed Jaffal	United States	Lebanese immigrant and leader at the Islamic Mosque of Cleveland who owned a meat store named Halal Products "pleaded guilty to conspiracy, attempted aggravated arson, and attempted insurance fraud. When Halal Products failed, reports the Cleveland Plain Dealer (not online), Nawash coveted the $100,000 insurance policy on the business and hired an arsonist to do the dirty deed. The prosecutor provided details on how he left kerosene in the building and how, to win sympathy, he plotted to make the fire look like a hate crime. Nawash received a jail sentence of nine years; his side-kick Ahmed Jaffal, 49, got eight years"	More Muslim "Hate Crime" Myths - Daniel Pipes, August 25, 2004
Saleh Nawash & Ahmed Jaffal	United States	Lebanese immigrant and leader at the Islamic Mosque of Cleveland who owned a meat store named Halal Products "pleaded guilty to conspiracy, attempted aggravated arson, and attempted insurance fraud. When Halal Products failed, reports the Cleveland Plain Dealer (not online), Nawash coveted the $100,000 insurance policy on the business and hired an arsonist to do the dirty deed. The prosecutor provided details on how he left kerosene in the building and how, to win sympathy, he plotted to make the fire look like a hate crime. Nawash received a jail sentence of nine years; his side-kick Ahmed Jaffal, 49, got eight years"	More Muslim "Hate Crime" Myths - Daniel Pipes, August 25, 2004
Shaker Elsayed	United States	The Imam of the Dar Al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, Virginia (formerly the Secretary General of the Muslim American Society) claimed in a 2005 interview on National Public Radio, “I believe there is no apology for terrorism. We condemned it; we condemned it on 9/11, I personally signed a paper on behalf of the organization I worked for at that time and sent it everywhere to the press. I spoke with the press.” However, in February 2013, he was caught on camera advocating armed jihad before an Ethiopian Muslim group gathered at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Va. “[Muslims] are last if anything is being distributed, unless it is arms for jihad... We are the first to rush and run to defend our community and defend ourselves. The enemies of Allah are lining up; the question for us is, ‘Are we lining, or are we afraid because, because they may call us terrorists.’” Being called “terrorists” should not matter to Muslims because non-Muslims are being called terrorists anyway, Elsayed said. “You are a terrorist because you are a Muslim. Well give them a run for their money. Make it worth it. Make this title worth it, and be good a Muslim.”	Imam Calls for Armed Jihad in Virginia - John Rossomando, The Algemeiner, March 1, 2013
Tamsir Mendy	United States	Previously thought to have been a hate crime against Muslims, a self-described devout Muslim immigrant is charged with first-degree arson for setting fire to the Masjid Al-Hedaya (Islamic Center of Marietta). The ever hopeful CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper had said before the arrest "Given the recent wave of incidents targeting American mosques, a possible bias motive for this apparent arson attack must be considered." The damage to the building is estimated at $100,000, and according to law enforcement officials, the perpetrator (a native of Gambia) may be in the country illegally	Suspect in mosque arson could be in country illegally - Janel Davis, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, July 8, 2010

"I am embarrassed to be an American today."
(Pictured above) A peace rally at the Elmhurst College campus, protesting against an imaginary anti-Muslim hate crime

Islamophobia on the Rise

According to FBI hate-crime statistics, hate crimes directed against Muslims "remain relatively rare" in the United states, with gays, lesbians and caucasians more frequently a target than the followers of Islam.

Jewish victims of hate crimes also outnumber Muslim victims by a ratio of almost 9 to 1, and anti-Muslim incidents only account for a tiny 1.3% of all hate crimes. Even anti-Christian (Catholic/Protestant) incidents outnumber those perpetrated against Muslims in America. Some of the cases above also put into doubt the truth behind all 105 reported incidents.

Regardless of these facts, many have begun to refer to Muslims as the "new Jews". Such statements can be offensive when you consider that the dwindling number of "old Jews" are still the most persecuted religious minority in the Western world. In fact anti-Semitic incidents around the world have more than doubled in 2009 over the previous year and in Oslo Jews are more than 6 times more likely than Muslims to experience harassment. The growing anti-Semitism around the world, particularly in the West, is coming from the growing number of Muslims.

Additionally, a July 2011 Pew Global Attitudes survey found that a "greater percentage of Western publics now see relations between themselves and Muslims as generally good" whilst, "as in the past, Muslims express more unfavorable opinions about Christians than Americans or Europeans express about Muslims." Such findings lead many to ask, who are the ones suffering from a "phobia"?

This is a very important question. On an international scale, it is the Christians who are the world's most persecuted religious group, and this persecution is mainly from Muslims. Likewise, there are 7 countries in the world where the state can execute you for being atheist. Every single one is officially Islamic.

This page is featured in the core article, Islam and Propaganda which serves as a starting point for anyone wishing to learn more about this topic

See Also

• Lying - A hub page that leads to other articles related to lying
• Hoaxes - A hub page that leads to other articles related to Hoaxes

Translations

• A version of this page is also available in the following languages: Spanish. For additional languages, see the sidebar on the left.

External Links

• Elmhurst student had been target of anti-Muslim graffiti - The Chicago Breaking News Center, the lengthy comments section is well worth the read. Note the abundant self-loathing and how people react when others suggest that the "assault" on Safia Z. Jilani may be fabricated or that people should wait until all the facts are in before labelling it a hate crime

• CAIR's Hate Crimes Nonsense - By Daniel Pipes and Sharon Chadha, this article exposes how CAIR inflate anti-Muslim hate crime statistics

• Fake Hate Crimes: An Islamist Weapon - By Ryan Mauro, Front Page Magazine

• Are Muslims Using Apostasy For Taqiyah - An interesting exchange between Dr. Ali Sina, of Faith Freedom International, and "Christian convert" Ajeenah El-Amin, of United Faith Network

• Grass-roots Media Deception in GAZA - by Jeff Dunetz

• East London Mosque keeps on lying - Andrew Gilligan, The Telegraph, February 26, 2011

• Egyptian newspaper under fire over altered photo - BBC News, Egypt's state-run newspaper altered photograph to suggest President Hosni Mubarak was leading the Middle East peace talks

• Muslim Chaplains Caught Deceiving in Public - YouTube Video

• Media Hype: Anti-Muslim Hate Crimes Are Increasing. Statistics: No They Aren’t - By Alana Goodman, Culture and Media Institute

• The Muslim Elephant in the Room of Tolerance - Daniel Greenfield, Right Side News, January 3, 2011

• Gambian Defrauds Sda Church - Peace FM Online, April 15, 2011

• Egyptian Court Rejects Claims That Christian Woman Converted to Islam - Daniel Blake, Christian Post, July 1, 2011

• Egypt state television admits to making up news over soldiers’ deaths - Manar Ammar, Bikya Masr, October 10, 2011

• AFP: Mosques now bomb targets - Muslim terrorists plan to bomb mosques so they can blame Christians

• Albanians vandalize own mosque to counter negative publicity - MINA, February 2, 2012

• Tarnishing Imran Firasat: How Muslims Lie? - M. A. Khan, Islam-Watch, June 7, 2012

• Bacon Hate Crimes and Islamophobia Witch-Hunts - Daniel Greenfield, Gatestone Institute, August 22, 2012

• The TRUTH about the 'wave of attacks' on Muslims after Woolwich killing: Most of the incidents recorded were offensive messages on Facebook and Twitter - Vanessa Allen, Daily Mail, June 3, 2013

• Muslim hate monitor to lose backing - Andrew Gilligan, The Telegraph, June 9, 2013

• Police confirm man cautioned after bomb alert at Liverpool mosque is Somalian NOT Danish - Liverpool Echo, July 2, 2013 (archived), http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/man-cautioned-following-bomb-security-4803983 

• Reza Aslan Misrepresents His Scholarly Credentials - Matthew J. Franck, First Thoughts, July 29, 2013 (archived), http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2013/07/29/scholarly-misrepresentation/ 

• Antwerp: Sharia Sisters responsible for false charges of sexual abuse - Islam in Europe, July 17, 2013 (archived), http://islamineurope.blogspot.com/2013/07/antwerp-sharia-sisters-responsible-for.html