A story about a security guard at the Stade de France has made for ripe social media fodder this week, but now details are emerging that it is actually mostly false.
The security guard in question is a man named only as Zouheir, and according to the Internet he is a Muslim hero who stopped a suicide bomber entering the 80,000-capacity football stadium.
This is the post that's been making rounds on social media, with users expressing their outrage that the media ignored Zouheir’s heroism.
The entire narrative is essentially a misreading of a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article.
While a suicide bomber was indeed stopped from entering the stadium where French President Francois Hollande was in attendance, the security guard who frisked him at the gate and discovered the explosives was not Zouheir.
Zouheir was stationed elsewhere at the stadium and only relayed his colleague's story to the Wall Street Journal. The article itself was pretty clear, stating that “Zouheir, who was stationed by the players’ tunnel, said he was briefed on the sequence by the security frisking team at the gate.”
But it appears many people misread the phrase, thinking Zouheir himself was the entry gate protagonist and his heroism was ignored because of his faith which, as it turns out, was never actually mentioned, anyway.
Social media carried on nonetheless, making the story into memes and hashtags about media flaws and Islamophobia. But with enough real-world examples of that around already, seems like we don't really need ones that aren't true.
Have a look at some of the responses below.
person who denied the bomber access saved hundreds if not thousands . This person was a Muslim and was ignored . The name is Zouheir.
— Lubna (@lubnaockeh) November 16, 2015Zouheir the security guard was completely ignored and only his first name was reported only handful of times.He is a Muslim. No one cares.
— mhb_ (@mohamedalmubi) November 16, 2015@georgegalloway Why media hasnt recognised #Zouheir the MUSLIM man that potentially saved the French President from assignation + 100s more?
— Sam Piercy (@SamPiercy) November 18, 2015"Zouheir narrowly escaped death after the bomber detonated the device." This wasn't mentioned in mass media pic.twitter.com/PraTE37f1P
— Ashraf Safaah (@ashrafsafaah) November 18, 2015By Kane Hippisley-Gatherum
