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  • 2016-02-09 (xsd:date)
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  • Muslims Demand Prayer Room in Lancashire Craft Shop? (en)
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  • On 30 January 2016, Facebook user Paul Thomas published the above-reproduced photograph along with text reporting that four Muslim men had demanded that a rural retail craft centre on a Lancashire country estate provide them with a prayer room and provoked a near-riot that was averted only when their brusque demand was satisfied: Thomas likely wasn't the author of the account or a first-hand witness to the event described, but his posting of it was one of the first of many iterations of this account (all of which circulated with the same copied and pasted text, suggesting all the posters were shop owners recently bombarded by angry and devout Muslim prayer room-seekers). The earliest appearance of the report we were able to locate appeared on 30 January 2016, but it lacked several specifics with respect to location, time, author, and verification of the image attached to the account described in the text. A reader who asked about the claim after spotting it on Facebook provided us with the location where the attached photograph was taken and information about the craft centre's response: The Heskin Farmers Market & Craft Centre's Facebook page also fielded other inquiries from the public about the report and said the reports were incorrect: When we contacted the Heskin Farmers Market & Craft Centre via Facebook ourselves, we initially received a brief reply from the page's operator who asserted the claim was a complete false statement and pledged to us with provide additional information during business hours. On 10 February 2015, the business replied to our query via e-mail and directed us to a 1 February 2016 Facebook post on their page addressing the rumor. In that post, Heskin Farmers Market & Craft Center confirmed that the men in question had requested (not demanded) a space to pray, that the craft centre had accommodated their request out of a sense of goodwill (while indicating that such accommodation was a one-time deal), that no one involved was bothered, threatened, or otherwise harassed, and a few police incidentally arrived on the scene to help sort things out (not to quell a near-riot): (en)
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