Several articles saying that President Obama has declared November or October as “International Muslim Awareness Month” aren’t real.
The original article was published on satire website National Report, and it shouldn’t be taken seriously.
“Washington, DC — President Barack Obama held a press conference to announce that he is declaring the month of November ‘National Muslim Appreciation Month,’” it says. “‘National Muslim Appreciation Month’ begins November 1st and will end at midnight on November 30th. For any questions or comments please contact the 24-hour National Muslim Appreciation Hotline,” it adds.
The National Report used to have a disclaimer, which said: “National Report is a news and political satire web publication, which may or may not use real names, often in semi-real or mostly fictitious ways. All news articles contained within National Report are fiction, and presumably fake news. Any resemblance to the truth is purely coincidental . The views expressed by writers on this site are theirs alone and are not reflective of the fine journalistic and editorial integrity of National Report.”
However, it looks like a blog called American News picked up the fake report, using the same quotes as the National Report satire.
The article had tens of thousands of shares as of Friday.
According to Hoax-Slayer, it’s important to verify social media reports before sharing them with others on Facebook.
“Given the increasing number of fake-news stories that now circulate, it is wise to verify any ‘news’ stories that come your way before sharing them. Searching on a news aggregator website such as Google News should quickly reveal if stories like the one discussed here are true. Of course, the mainstream media would extensively cover any move by President Obama to declare an ’International Muslim Awareness Month,'” it says.
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