The right-wing realm of the Internet is all riled up this week over a video they allege shows trick-or-treaters being "tricked" into reciting the Islamic proclamation of faith. But the truth is, the video doesn't tell us anything for sure.
It shows a group of children dressed up in Halloween costumes and repeating the words being spoken by the man filming. He begins by asking what he gave them, to which they reply “bananas." Afterwards, he asks what the celebration is, and they reply “Halloween."
So far, no problem right? But after that it gets tricky. He begins reciting the Islamic proclamation of faith, and they repeat what he says, laughing at the end.
Of course this could all just be a big prank, or perhaps he was teaching them a little about his faith after they arrived at his house trick-or-treating. But Islamophobes don’t seem to think so—they're instead decrying the video as “proof” that Muslims are attempting to indoctrinate unknowing children.
But as social media users have already pointed out, the problem is that we don’t have any more context about the exchange than this video, and it's less than a minute long. The man speaks in German at the beginning, leading many to believe it took place in Germany, but so far no one's been able to confirm that. It was apparently uploaded to Facebook at first but was quickly taken down.
Still, none of the ambiguity stopped critics from rushing to the forefront, accusing the man of forcing “innocent girls” into pledging allegiance to Islam, and holding the clip up as a fear-mongering example of Muslims taking over the world.
Known Islamophobe—and sponsor of a "Draw Muhammad" competition—Pamela Geller wrote on her website: “Who does things like this? Muslim supremacists.” Her thoughts were echoed on a number of right-wing websites following the video's release.
Without a little more background information, the more reasonable side of the Internet can only hold the clip as an example of people jumping to conclusions.
