A Muslim woman who wears a hijab, a student at the University of Louisiana, reported on Wednesday that she had been attacked by two white men, who pulled her hijab off and stole her wallet.
The mainstream media were quick to pounce on this and two other reports of hijab wearers being harassed (both in California) as evidence that Donald Trump is bad.
Police have now concluded, after the Louisiana student confessed as much, that her report was a hoax.
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“She made the entire story up,” Lafayette Police spokesman Officer Karl Ratcliff told NBC News. “More than likely she will be charged with filing a false police report.”
The fact that it was a made-up story — i.e., it didn’t actually happen — hasn’t stopped NBC from concluding that it’s all about the “Islamophobia.”
It was the first full day of America under a President-elect Trump. And it reinforced fears that the Republican’s upset victory would inspire a new wave of Islamophobia nationwide.
Sensible people would still be searching in vain for the old wave of “Islamophobia.” Maybe they’ll find what they’re looking for in the two reports of hijab-stalking in California this week, both on university campuses.
At San Diego State University, a student said she was assaulted by two male suspects who “made comments about Trump,” stole her purse and keys, and may have made off with her vehicle, which was “later reported missing.” This report contains a description of the perps that at least seems credible.
At San Jose State University, a student said she was jerked by the hijab, apparently from behind, by an attacker who didn’t say anything, and who abruptly let go of her hijab so that she fell to the ground. Naturally, she assumed this was about Trump:
University police told Altun they could not treat it as a hate crime, but she believes it was racially motivated.
“It happened a day after Trump was announced as president elect,” Altun said. “If it was for another reason, it’s such a weird coincidence.”
And, hey, NBC is right with her, also assuming it’s about Trump.
If the reported attacks in California really happened, they are appalling, and certainly no one should have to fear such assaults anywhere. There are far more such male-on-female assaults across the country every day, of course, and no one should have to fear them either. Many of them involve car and purse theft, in fact. Hardly any of them involve a hijab.
But given all the many, many times reported “hate crimes” have turned out to be hoaxes — completely fabricated; things that did not happen at all, not even in a misinterpreted manner — we are justified in waiting until the police have sorted these reports out as best they can, before we accept them at face value. Quite a number of those hoaxes have involved claims of “hate crimes” against Muslims (e.g., here and here).
Even if the attacks turn out to be real, however, they say nothing about Trump. About his supporters, exactly one of them may say, at the absolute most, what it says about Hillary, Obama, and the Democrats that their supporters — Trump’s opponents — have physically assaulted a Trump supporter in Chicago, and tagged a Louisiana monument with the slogan “Die whites die.” I.e., at the very outside, it may say that a small handful of those who support either political faction are stupid and vicious.
But it’s not even proven at this point that anything happened as the victims describe it. After so many years of hoaxes and exaggeration about the made-up “Islamophobia” problem, fresh claims of “hate crimes” are not to be awarded automatic credibility by the public.
This isn’t a problem created by the public. It’s a problem created by people like the Louisiana student, who keep lying and claiming they were attacked when they weren’t — in part because they know they’ll be supported and encouraged by the media.
