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On 24 July 2017, fake news site AsAmericanAsApplePie.org published a story reporting that a Muslim federal judge named Mahal al Alallaha-Smith had imposed two items of sharia law (which are religious codes governing conduct within Muslim communities) in the United States. The article seems crafted to exploit a conspiracy theory among those who fear practitioners of Islam that sharia law is creeping into U.S. court systems, and that it will soon be forced upon American citizens as the new law of the land. However, the article is made up entirely of falsehoods — including a digitally manipulated image of an actual Los Angeles Superior Court judge with a fake name superimposed over his actual name and, of course, a fabricated quote attributed to him: After a quick inspection of the web site's own About page, the fictional content should be no surprise. It reveals that AsAmericanAsApplePie.org is not a reliable source of information — in fact, if one scrolls down far enough it is finally apparent that the page labels itself as satire: The image the site uses to represent Judge Mahal al Alallaha-Smith is stolen from a CNN report about a real person — Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Halim Dhanidina. Court spokeswoman Mary Hearn pointed out that Dhanidina is not a federal judge, but rather a sitting judge for the Los Angeles Superior Court, which is a trial court for the state of California... California trial courts hear state matters, not federal. Further, the nomenclature used by AsAmericanAsApplePie.org for the Court of Appeals is incorrect, as no 22nd District Court of Appeals exists. The appellate courts are organized into twelve regional circuits and one federal circuit. There is also no systematic infusion clause, whatever that means, to any amendment in the U.S. Constitution. (The 14th Amendment mostly deals with issues relating to citizenship, not religious beliefs.) Finally, laws dictating the legality of marriages between cousins are determined at the state level. We could find no evidence to support the idea that a new legal statute has been implemented in which criminally assaulting a woman would be legally permissible because of her husband's supposed religious beliefs. The article is made up of a series of fabricated claims by a satire site and is not based on any fact whatsoever — the image, name and quotes from the alleged Muslim judge were all falsely presented, and his alleged occupation on the 22nd District Court of Appeals is made up. In fact Dhanidina, the real judge featured by CNN in 2016, specifically said his religious beliefs have no bearing on how he performs his role in the justice system. The writer of the fake article, in keeping with the theme of this satire site, uses the name Flagg Eagleton. Other fake news items authored by Flagg include an article reporting that North Korea's autocratic leader Kim Jong Un was killed in a bomb drop ordered by President Donald Trump and another reporting that a crowd cheered outside a hospital as Trump's 2016 rival Hillary Clinton takes her last breath. The lack of facts has not stopped numerous people from credulously sharing the article and their own anti-Muslim sentiments along with it. One Fox News viewer took to Judge Jeanine Pirro's fan page and wrote with alarm: Commenters on the hoax site’s own Facebook page also seemed unaware of its status as a satire and entertainment site, with vitriolic responses calling for the (nonexistent) judge’s removal from his (fictional) position, and saying — predictably — that Muslim people should not be allowed to serve as judges in the United States. AsAmericanAsApplePie.org gave their readers what they wanted a few days later, when they published an equally false report stating that President Trump had removed Judge Mahal al Alallaha-Smith from his position.
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