AP FACT CHECK: Obama Did Not Fill The White House With Muslim Imagery

President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference in the briefing room of the White House in Washington, Friday, Dec. 16, 2016. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
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WASHINGTON (AP) — A story shared thousands of times online claiming former President Barack Obama filled the White House with Muslim imagery and ordered silence during daily prayers is false.

The story, titled “Obama crushed after Trump orders White House to stop his sickest tradition,” was published shortly after President Donald Trump’s inauguration. It was posted on “The Resistance: The Last Line of Defense,” a satire website that imitates an actual news outlet. It was re-posted to dozens of other websites under similar headlines.

The false report appears to play into baseless claims that Obama is secretly a Muslim. Obama is a Christian and occasionally attended church near the White House during his term.

The report claims that Trump reversed an Obama policy of working “to appease” Muslims at the White House by filling it with prayer rugs and crescent moon symbols closely associated with Islam. It says Trump is leaving only a simple cross in a White House chapel.

No prayer rugs of crescent moons were visibly displayed in public White House spaces or in top aides’ offices when Obama was president. There is no chapel in the White House.

The report also says the White House ordered silence five times a day for Muslim prayers, and that the Obama administration “defended the practice” by claiming it also observed a moment of silence for Christianity on Sunday mornings. There were no recurring moments of silence for any religion in the Obama White House.

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This story is part of an ongoing Associated Press effort to fact-check claims in suspected false news stories.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Notable Replies

  1. This story is part of an ongoing Associated Press effort to fact-check claims in suspected false news stories demonstrate unequivocally that people are fucking stupid.

  2. OK…fine …

    That doesn’t disprove that there were fleshlights in all the drawers scattered about …

    Cause you weren’t allowed to " grab the wimmens " —

  3. Regardless, the good guy had to leave and now has been replaced with a clown with another 500 words that I won’t type here to describe the thing living rent free in our house.

  4. The mere fact that this is even a story demonstrates how utterly fucked we are…

    Aside from that I am all but convinced that Trump can no longer read…

  5. He filled it with family and love.
    Trump has filled it with ?

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