Earlier this year, international media uncritically reported that Uthman Ibn Farooq, a prominent Islamist preacher, had been attacked on the streets of San Diego by a knife-wielding "Islamophobe." Investigator and writer Ahnaf Kalam thought the tale a little too neat. In recent series of articles in Focus on Western Islamism, Kalam uncovered compelling evidence to suggest that Ibn Farooq faked his own stabbing. What was his motive? Is this the only example of fraudulent Islamist claims of hate crimes? Why does the media naively accept such unverified claims?
