Last night, Paris was struck yet again by a terror attack, killing a police officer and has leaving two other people critically injured. But if you see the video below, purporting to show “a crowd of ‘moderate’ Muslims celebrating the Paris terror attack in London,” don’t believe it. It’s not what it appears to be.
The video pops up periodically when terror attacks occur. And this time it’s being spread with the help of people like Paul Golding, a far-right political leader in England who heads the group Britain First. But the video doesn’t show Muslims celebrating a terror attack. It’s a video of British Pakastanis celebrating a cricket match victory back in 2009.
As the UK’s Independent newspaper reported back in 2015, the video received roughly half a million views after the Paris attacks in November 2015 that killed 130 people. It had been posted to Facebook with a similar caption, claiming that it showed Muslims in London celebrating the terror attacks in Paris. That video has since been removed.
It’s a popular rightwing meme around the world to say that Muslims in Western countries are celebrating attacks on civilians in places like the United States, England, and France. President Donald Trump even claimed that he saw Muslims celebrating in New Jersey after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. But more often than not, it’s simply a lie, as was the case with Trump.
Paul Golding, the British politician who’s helping spread the anti-Muslim video, was jailed for eight weeks last year when he violated a court order not to enter any mosques in England or Wales. He had been participating in “mosque invasions” where he would ambush people worshipping and accuse them of sex slavery.
More recently, Golding posted video of himself yelling “fuck off you fucking foreign cunt” during a clash between anti-fascist protestors and anti-immigrant groups in the UK. Sounds like a charming fellow.
[Twitter]