Andy Sullivan, a Brooklyn construction worker and vocal opponent of Park51, the proposed mosque near the Ground Zero site, has found an unlikely new target: Justin Bieber.

Sullivan has rallied fellow mosque protesters in a protest against Bieber for comments the singer made in an issue of teen magazineTiger Beat in support of the community center. He has even banned his young children from hanging Bieber posters or attending his performances.

Except that Bieber never spoke to Tiger Beat about Park51. Salon’s Justin Elliott attempted to find the Tiger Beat article in question, and discovered that the piece cited by Sullivan was in fact a satirical work from a site called CelebJihad.com, which mainly features softcore celebrity porn. The proprietor of the site confirmed that the article was in fact a hoax.

Sullivan and the anti-Bieber campaign have yet to respond to this revelation.

Rolling Stone, 30 December 2010

Update:  See “Bieber gets apology over mosque hoax”, QMI Agency, 31 January 2010