Fake News: Michigan "Sharia Zone" Did NOT Ban Bacon, Does NOT Require Burkas in Public, Does NOT Exist...

Fact Check

  • by: Maarten Schenk
Fake News: Michigan "Sharia Zone" Did NOT Ban Bacon, Does NOT Require Burkas in Public, Does NOT Exist...

Did Michigan's 109th Congressional district adopt Sharia law and did this lead to banning of bacon and the requirement for women to wear burkas in public? No, that's not true: it is all part of a fictional article made up by a satire site that tries to fool conservatives and Trump supporters into sharing ridiculously over the top false news so their fans can then mock them for it. It did not happen, it is not real.

The story originated from an article published by America's Last Line of Defense on August 8, 2018 titled "Michigan "Sharia Zone" Immediately Bans Bacon, Requires Burkas in Public." (archived here) which opened:

Following the recent decision by Michigan's 109th Congressional district to adopt adherence to Sharia Law as well as traditional Wypipo Law, County Commissioner Art Tubolls took to the podium to announce further plans : A full-scale ban on bacon within the district, and compulsory wearing of a burka by all females in public.

Indeed, as expected, this news proved controversial. Dearborn's 200 billion dollar Allah Just'ava'nosh Mosque was surrounded by protesters, and the phone lines were jammed with angry potato pancakes. County Pastor Johnathan Regarp tried to calm the crowd down.

First of all, there is no "109th Congressional district", not in Michigan nor anywhere else in the U.S. Michigan currently has only fourteen of them. There is no "sharia zone" either.

"Wypipo law" is a slang term meaning "white people law". "Art Tubbols" is an anagram for "Busta Troll" (the owner of the site) and pastor "Johnathan Regarp" has a last name that is just the last name of John Prager (another writer of the site) in reverse.

There are several other hints the story is fake, for example the notice in the header that says "Information you probably shouldn't trust".

The site comes with a clear satire disclaimer at the bottom of each article:

sat·ire ~ˈsaˌtī(ə)r
noun
the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, OR ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.
If you disagree with the definition of satire or have decided it is synonymous with "comedy," you should really just move along.

The owner and main writer of the site is self-professed liberal troll Christopher Blair, a man from Maine who has made it his full time job to troll gullible conservatives and Trump supporters into liking and sharing his articles. He runs several other websites, including potatriotpost.us, dailyworldupdate.us and nofakenewsonline.us. Sometimes he is also known under his nickname "Busta Troll". A second man working on the sites is John Prager as revealed in this earlier story we wrote.

Articles from Blair's sites frequently get copied by "real" fake news sites who often omit the satire disclaimer and any other hints the stories are fake. Blair has tried to get these sites shut down in the past but new ones keep cropping up and he keeps knocking them down.

If you see one of his stories on a site that does not contain a satire disclaimer, assume it is fake news. If you do see the satire disclaimer it is of course also fake news.

We wrote about americaslastlineofdefense.org before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:

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  Maarten Schenk

Maarten Schenk is the co-founder and COO/CTO of Lead Stories and an 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.

Read more about or contact Maarten Schenk

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