Walking to class on Tuesday, I couldn't help but notice remnants of a rally decorating the steps of the Student Union. "End Islamophobia!" was scrawled on the sidewalk in chalk, and discarded posters read "Stop Bigotry!"
A flyer inside the Student Union explained that the rally was held to condemn a recent anti-Islamic hate crime that occurred at a Dayton, Ohio mosque. It was sponsored by the Muslim Students Association (MSA), as well as other campus groups like the International Socialist Organization, the SGA and the Office of Jewish Affairs.
The MSA's Facebook page gave more details about the hate crime.
"On Friday, Sept. 26, 2008, Muslims worshiping in an Ohio Mosque were attacked by perpetrators who used chemical weapons against them. The chemical gas used burned at the eyes, throat and lungs of the 300 people inside the Mosque, most of whom were children. This was an act of terrorism perpetrated on American soil against innocent civilians who were engaged in their constitutional right to worship freely," reads the page.
After reading this, I was astonished - as I'm sure you are - that such a despicable act of intolerance occurred in this country.
I was even more surprised to discover the catalyst for this violence.
"This horrific attack occurred shortly after the start of a distribution campaign in Ohio of an anti-Muslim documentary called 'Obsession,' which portrays Muslims as violent extremists, all in order to create an atmosphere of fear right before the Presidential Election," the MSA reported.
So John McCain supporters distributed anti-Islamic propaganda that incited a chemical warfare attack against hundreds of Muslims? How, I wondered, did the media fail to report this startling story?
Until I remembered that they didn't.
The story first appeared in the Dayton Daily News on Sept. 27 under the title "Chemical irritant empties Islamic Society of Greater Dayton's mosque." The article reported that a 10-year-old girl was in the basement of the Dayton Islamic Society when two strange men came up to the window. The girl claimed that they sprayed her in the face with a can of pepper spray, or a similar chemical irritant.
Overeager blogger, Chris Rodda, picked up the story and wrote about it on the Daily Kos on Sept. 28, under the title, "Muslim Children Gassed at Dayton Mosque After 'Obsession' Hits DVD." Much of the information the MSA is dispersing is directly quoted from Rodda's blog entry.
Rodda's sensationalized, third person account of the story drew attention from many bloggers, who cited the incident as proof that anti-Muslim hate crimes are increasing. That was until Dayton officials released statements that put a damper on the excitement.
HAZMAT crews, who arrived at the scene shortly after the attack, reportedly found no chemicals in the area or on the 10-year-old girl.
"Whatever chemical was released dissipated too quickly for us to determine what it was," HAZMAT Team Coordinator Denny Bristow told the Dayton Daily News.
Far from the image of carnage that Rodda's article evokes, only the girl and another woman from the mosque were taken to the hospital after complaining of nausea. Some others at the mosque complained of eye irritation and a medical team cleansed their eyes on site with wet towels. There were no serious injuries.
But the story gets even more interesting. Police soon announced that they found what they believed was the offending can of pepper spray inside the mosque. An Oct. 7 article in the Dayton Daily News reported that police suspected a member of the Mosque may have sprayed the girl, and were questioning a 10-year-old boy in connection with the incident. Dayton Police Chief Richard Biehl also said the incident wasn't a hate crime.
Rodda has since apologized for exaggerating the event.
"I was mad, so I sort of shot from the hip," she told the Dayton Daily News.
When I spoke with the Dayton Police Department on Wednesday, the Superintendent of Investigations said that the case "seems to have hit a dead end…no one [from the mosque] has contacted us after the initial [911 call]."
Others who originally labeled the incident a hate crime have also backed away from the case. The Council on America-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a prominent Islamic activist group, originally supported the Dayton Mosque and even helped issue their press release. However, CAIR currently makes no mention of the incident on their Web site.
I contacted CAIR on Wednesday to ask if they were pursuing this issue on a national level.
"No," was the terse reply from their Media Relations Director Ahmed Rehab. Two months after the incident, virtually no Islamic advocacy organization will touch the case.
So why are student groups on campus still insinuating that hundreds of Muslims were injured and calling this incident an "act of terrorism" when these claims have been blatantly disproved? Why are they promoting unsubstantiated belief that the movie "Obsession" contributed to this crime, when it's now apparent that the attacker was probably another child at the mosque?
Rallying against bigotry is a noble idea, but basing it on this sham hate crime was irresponsible and unnecessary.
Alana Goodman is a Collegian columnist. She can be reached at agoodma@student.umass.edu.
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