PropertyValue
?:author
?:datePublished
  • 2016-10-25 (xsd:date)
?:headline
  • British Woman Discovers 12-Year-Old Afghan Foster Child Is 21-Year-Old Jihadi? (en)
?:inLanguage
?:itemReviewed
?:mentions
?:reviewBody
  • On 22 October 2016, the UK tabloid The Sun, published an improbable-sounding story, reporting that a British foster mother took in a refugee she believed to be a 12-year-old child refugee from Afghanistan, only to discover that he was in fact a 21-year-old adult male trained as a jihadist. The Sun did not cite any sources to document the veracity of their story, which also lacked any specific details that would make it possible to independently confirm: The story reported that alarm bells were sounded when the family went swimming and noticed how hairy Jamal was. They also noticed that the man-posing-as-boy was good at putting Rosie's other child in an expert hold and knew how to strip a rifle. Somehow, things escalated from there, and Rosie claimed Jamal threatened her and her other children, although the story doesn't say what brought this about. The Sun used a photograph meant to depict Jamal, with a large black mark covering most of his face — a strange precaution if he were indeed an adult male foreign terrorist who had been arrested for assault, as the story says. It is unclear where the photograph came from. Further, as Vice pointed out, an almost-identical story appeared in the Daily Mail in February 2016. The sole source for the story was conservative MP for Monmouth, David Davies. The story, again, was devoid of details that would enable independent verification. The story is so conveniently vague that it seems to be fiction meant to play on British fears associated with a refugee camp in Calais, a city in northern France across the English Channel from Britain. The camp, which has gained the nickname Jungle, has been a temporary shanty town inhabited by thousands of migrants fleeing violence in countries like Syria. French authorities began the process of clearing it and busing refugees to other parts of Europe, as of 24 October 2016. About 200 children from the camp will be sent to the United Kingdom. The lack of details and the fact that The Sun is a hardly-reliable source of news hasn't stopped other news outlets, including the Daily Mail and even U.S.-based Fox News cable channel from reporting it as fact. The Fox News coverage of the unproven story can be seen here: (en)
?:reviewRating
rdf:type
?:url