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In late May 2016 images of Canadian police cruisers with Arabic lettering on their sides began circulating on Facebook, alongside claims that the photographs were evidence of Sharia police slowily encroaching in Canada. While Americans were among those objecting to the images, Canadians also took umbrage to what was widely perceived as a new and unwelcome addition to police cars in the province of Ontario: Many outraged Facebook users described the photographs as evidence of the beginning or start of something larger and disruptive to Canadian culture: Some viewers suspected the images were altered, noting that the twin cruisers pictured above didn't bear the same markings and that the background vehicle lacked Arabic lettering. But the photograph was legitimate, as news coverage about the social media brouhaha revealed. On 2 June 2016, the CBC reported that viral Facebook posts on the subject had led to a flood of angry calls to police in London, Ontario: As it turns out, the images were authentic but the inferences viewers took from them were largely off-base. Many outraged callers surmised that the Arabic lettering was the result of waves of immigration entering Canada in 2015-16 from countries where that language is spoken, the police cars' modifications long antedated that flood of refugees. Const. Sandasha Bough told the CBC that the addition of other languages to police cruisers began several years ago and wasn't restricted to Arabic: This rumor came on the heels of a similar refugee-related rumor in Canada, holding that the Fort McMurray wildfire was the work of Islamic State (or ISIS) terrorists.
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