Both Garibaldi of LoonWatch and Sheila Musaji at The American Muslim have taken up a disgraceful story, “Australia: Muslim mob severely injures five Jews in an unprovoked anti-Semitic attack”, that was posted by Robert Spencer at Jihad Watch and then crossposted by Pamela Geller at Atlas Shrugs.
Spencer and Geller reproduced an article from the Sydney Morning Herald headlined “Five people hospitalised after brawl in Bondi”, which reported the shocking story of an apparently racist attack on a Jewish family near Sydney’s Bondi Beach.
Robert Spencer commented:
True to form, the mainstream media doesn’t mention the identity of the perpetrators, but that in itself is a clue as to who they were: if the attackers had been neo-Nazis, the Herald would have had no trouble saying that. Only when it comes to Muslims do “brawls” and “bombings” and “violence” just happen by themselves, with no clear perp. Also, the mention of the facts that the attack was “racially motivated” and in a “multicultural area” makes clear the identity of these “youths” (a common mainstream media term for violent young Muslims in any case).
Over at Atlas Shrugs, Geller added: “Wherever Muslim immigration increases, so do attacks on Jews. Everywhere. Islamic antisemitism – it’s in the quran.”
Neither Spencer nor Geller produced any evidence whatsoever to back up the claim that the perpetrators of the attack were Muslims. And, not entirely surprisingly, it soon turned out they weren’t. According to The Australian, “a group of eight mainly Pacific Islander youths” have been arrested in connection with the assault, and the paper reports senior police as saying that “those allegedly involved in the attack had no connection to Islam”.
Spencer and Geller still haven’t withdrawn the story. The most they were prepared to do was add the following clarification: “Amid ongoing and suspicious mystery about the identities of the attackers, this story in Israel Hayom says that they were not Muslims. Apparently media fastidiousness about identifying perpetrators from groups that enjoy politically correct victim status is now extending to other groups as well.”
As Sheila Musaji observes: “This update makes no sense. It is not an apology, it is not even an acknowledgement that they got their facts wrong. You have to wonder how it is possible that even after Geller & Spencer have been caught spreading so many false stories, there is anyone at all who takes them seriously.”