Fake news goes viral:

Did Obama declare November as ‘International Muslim Awareness Month?'

Rasa - The article was reported on fake news website, the National Report way back in July 2014. Since that time other news websites have slowly picked up the news and reported it as fact.

News ID: 1426

Date: 19 October 2014 - 00:41

Rasa - US President Barack Obama has not declared November 2014 to be ‘International Muslim Awareness Month.’ Tens of thousands of Facebook and Twitter users fell for the fake news story which declared that Obama wanted to celebrate ‘the Muslim community, the Sunnah and the Quran’.

The article was reported on fake news website, the National Report way back in July 2014. Since that time other news websites have slowly picked up the news and reported it as fact.

In a fake quote from the report, Obama was alleged to have told reporters, “The Muslim community around the world deserves our full acceptance, respect, apologies and most important, our awareness.”

The National Report further claims that Obama said, “We have killed millions of Muslims overseas since the September 11th attacks. They are not all bad. In fact most of them are good. So from now on, November will be a month to celebrate the Muslim community, the Sunnah and the Quran.”

The news story spread quickly around Twitter and Facebook.

Parts of the same story were even used in another fake report that claimed Obama had announced plans for a federally funded Muslim outreach program aimed at US school children.

Unlike many other fake news and satire websites, the National Report does not openly share a statement about the nature of its news stories, leading many internet users to take their stories as fact.

If you happen to see a story about November’s International Muslim Awareness Month, please be kind for humanities sake and call the person out for their lack of responsible research and immature sharing of fake facts.

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