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  • 2016-11-15 (xsd:date)
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  • Did 'Offended Muslims' Attack a Christmas Tree? (en)
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  • In mid-November 2016, multiple websites published a video of people climbing on a Christmas tree in a Western-style shopping mall, along with claims that the video depicted Muslims attacking the familiar holiday symbol because it offended them: Most versions didn't specifically say that the video was filmed in the United States (they were tellingly vague about the who, what, when, where, and why aspects of the clip), but some of them referenced Western nations and the purported failure of Muslims to assimilate in Western countries. Advancing the suggestion that the video had been filmed in America was a nearly universally included ancillary (and misleading) claim that Muslims had demanded the cancellation of Christmas holidays in Maryland public schools (back in 2014): Despite an utter lack of contextual information, the clip spread like wildfire on Facebook and Twitter. Previous versions placed the purported Muslim Christmas tree attack in European countries such as Sweden or France: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vvdXJlAz_M Commenters on a now-deleted version of the video published in November 2016 noted that the clip was at least a year old, and added that it did not show anyone attempting to attack the tree. Rather, the commenter stated that the depicted trees were climbable and observed that the angry Muslims were actually revelers who wore Christmas hats, appeared to be in good spirits, and were retrieving gifts placed at the top of the tree for kids to find: Versions from November 2016 claimed that several Muslim men were attempting to tear down the tree, but still shots from the video show women and children climbing it. Furthermore, one man near the top of the tree appears to hold a gift plucked from the tree's apex: A stock photograph of the same tree again placed the scene in Cairo in January 2016, and it didn't appear to depict a controversial or destroyed decoration. Separate images of the tree from December 2015 were shared to Facebook, alongside announcements about Cairo mall celebrations and gift contests: Facebook posts published by the Cairo Festival City Mall in December 2013 documented extensive Christmas celebrations among shoppers (and children). On 29 July 2016, a Romanian Facebook user lamented misrepresentations of the video, saying that the activity depicted was not destruction of the tree, but rather Christmas tree plundering: (en)
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