Fake News: Muhammad Al-Salad Does NOT Exist

Fact Check

  • by: Maarten Schenk
Fake News: Muhammad Al-Salad Does NOT Exist

Did a muslim principal named Muhammad Al-Salad force a halal menu on students in Bluefield, West Virginia? More specifically at Pratchett-Kline elementary school? No, that was a fake meme published by a Facebook page set up to troll conservatives and less intellectually gifted people who hate anything remotely connected to Islam.

The meme was published on April 8, 2018 with the comment "WHY DOES HE STILL HAVE A JOB?" (archived here). The text in the image read:

This is Muammad Al-Salad

As principal of Pratchett-Kline elementary in Bluefield, West Virginia he forced a halal meal on students 'as a matter of inclusion'.

The school board supported him 9-4

Share if you've had enough!

The Facebook page in question has following description on it's "Info" tab:

Info
Nothing on this page is real. It is a collection of the satirical whimsies of liberal trolls masquerading as conservatives. You have been warned.
Colofon
Use the force and the truth shall reveal itself. Just not here. Ever.
Products
Good Old Fashioned Liberal Troll Provided Fantasy presented as comedy to the left and a social experiment to the right. Please don't hurt the Trumpanzees. they'll be gone in a few years back to the shadows from whence they came and we'll be back to trolling Tea Turds.

That right there is enough proof the story is fake. The Facebook page is run by a group of people connected to infamous troll Christopher Blair (we wrote a lot more about him here recently) who runs several satirical fake news websites designed to trigger conservatives and Trump supporters into sharing their false articles online so they can be mocked for it.

Some of those sites ran stories that featured the same non-existent school before:

Fake News: WV School Did NOT Hire Muslim Principal Who Says 'Sharia Is And Will Be The Law' And Has Child Bride | Lead Stories

Fake satire news website Land of The Free - Home of the Brave published two hoax articles titled "WV School Hires Muslim Principal Who Says 'Sharia Is And Will Be The Law,' Parents Furious" and "Sharia-Loving WV Muslim School Principal Has A Child Bride Who Attends That School" respectively.

Back then it was spelled Pratchett-Cline Elementary School though. Terry Pratchett and Ernest Cline are famous science fiction writers, as far as we know no schools have been named after them.

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  Maarten Schenk

Lead Stories co-founder Maarten Schenk is our resident expert on fake news and hoax websites. He likes to go beyond just debunking trending fake news stories and is endlessly fascinated by the dazzling variety of psychological and technical tricks used by the people and networks who intentionally spread made-up things on the internet.  He can often be found at conferences and events about fake news, disinformation and fact checking when he is not in his office in Belgium monitoring and tracking the latest fake article to go viral.

Read more about or contact Maarten Schenk

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