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  • 2016-07-21 (xsd:date)
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  • Were Islamic Symbols Added to the White House Fence? (en)
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  • Islamophobic hysteria broke out on the Internet in July 2016 when anti-Muslim bloggers took notice of news photos detailing a recent security upgrade to the White House fence: The security upgrade, which consisted of mounting removable iron spikes atop the existing 6-foot-tall wrought-iron fence, was undertaken in July 2015 by the Secret Service and National Park Service in response to repeated attempts by intruders — some successful — to scale the enclosure: It was in reaction to reports such as the above that unreliable web sites like Fury.news began raising the alarm. An historical property has been tarnished by a muslim [sic] POTUS, opined an article on the site. Will the next president find out about this and make changes immediately? Or will this lslamic fence become part of history? It offered this as proof of Obama's dastardly deed: Someone on the Conservative Tree House web site contributed a supposedly knowledgeable description of the imagery: What these alarmists failed to notice, however (or they did, but just didn't care), is that the renovation consisted only of adding the removable spikes, nothing else. What they further failed to notice is that most of the photos they used to try to make their case had actually been taken before the changes were made. The Islamic elements of the design they were concerned about had been in place for at least 100 years. They're visible, for example, in this photo of the National Women's Party picketing the North Portico of the White House in 1917: And even more clearly visible in this blow-up: So, did our Muslim president Barack Obama really change the White House fence to incorporate Islamic symbols? No, he did not — although someone very clearly wants you to believe he did. (en)
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