Anti-Muslim "Note" In Iowa City WAS A HOAX

Stephen Gruber Miller Iowa City Press Citizen archive link:  http://archive.is/NP7fM

Erin Jordan Cedar Rapids Gazette archive link:  http://archive.is/nlM1H

Press Citizen Lujayn Hamad profile archive link:  http://archive.is/MbEyw

Julie Bosman New York Times archive link:  http://archive.is/HVLjO

Peter Holley Washington Post archive link:  http://archive.is/pGjbf


On Friday, November 11, 2016, three days after the US Presidential election, a note was allegedly left on Amir Samel's front door in Iowa City that said:

You can all go home now.  We don't want niggers and terrorists here.  #trump

What kind of person would leave that sort of a note on a door in Iowa City?  

If you're a partisan Democrat, angry about the turnout of the election, you might think that some mean, racist Republican #Trump supporter probably did it. 

The local, regional, and national media certainly portrayed it that way.

Has anybody noticed that the paper is lined and features a 3 hole punch?  Who uses that kind of paper today?  School kids still do.  The scrawl looks like that of an angry female.   And who would use a hashtag when signing a note?

Amar Samel and Muna Abdalla

This site will present evidence suggesting that this note was almost certainly a hoax, and that the note was probably written by an Angry Democrat activist.  Possibly by the Samel family or somebody they know.  

The local "fake news" media, run by partisan Democrat activists and Social Justice Warriors, fanned the flames of suspicion against Republicans and Trump supporters without being interested in all the other hoax notes going on throughout the country at the time.

Erin Jordan

Erin Jordan, a reporter for the Cedar Rapids Gazette, had her story published at 4:52pm on Monday, November 14, 2016.  Mr Samel talked about how he thought he lived in a "liberal city" that was "accepting of diversity".  His wife, Muna Adballa, wonders when the note appeared.  Their daughter, unnamed (although referenced as Raneem Hamad or Hamed in other articles), who attends West High,  says she "has heard more anti-immigration comments since Republican Donald Trump's election to president last week."

Looks like we might have the first suspect here:  The Samel's teenage daughter.

Want to see a picture of "Raneem Hamad" from Facebook?

Looks like Raneem is a huge lefty activist!

Just a few days later, on November 19th, the New York Times ran a story by Julie Bosman involving an alleged incident with a Muslim student at West High, Lujayn Hamad, who said that a boy bumped her, swore at her, and told her to "go home" - although the boy denied it.

Lujayn Hamad?  Raneem Hamad?  Those two girls look like sisters in that NY Times photo!  Turns out that Lujayn Hamad and Raneem Hamad are sisters!

Why would the New York Times be interested in a minor incident at "diverse" West High in liberal Iowa City?  Even if the story was true, who cares?  That's the kind of incident that doesn't even make the local news.

Back to story about the note on the door of the Samel / Abdalla / Hamad household.

Stephen Gruber-Miller

On November 14, 2016, at 6:12pm, just about 90 minutes after Erin Jordan's story ran in the Cedar Rapids Gazette, Stephen Gruber-Miller of the Iowa City Press-Citizen published a similar story about the Samels, which was also published in the Des Moines Register (Gannett owns both the Press-Citizen and the Register).  The story reads like he ripped off and barely re-wrote Erin Jordan's story, particularly the part involving Iowa City Police Chief Bill Campbell.  Check these sections of text.  They're remarkably similar:

Erin Jordan's text:

Interim Iowa City Police Chief Bill Campbell said Monday the response of the police was “absolutely unacceptable” and not typical of the agency. He confirmed to The Gazette Samel had called 911 at 12:37 a.m. Saturday and that an officer returned the call a few minutes later, but did not go to the house. 

“A phone call was by no means sufficient,” Campbell said. “These are things that are sensitive and cause fear. I would certainly understand if there was a delay, but I would still expect us to respond to the residence.” 

The note left on Samel and Abdalla’s door can be analyzed for fingerprints, handwriting or other evidence, Campbell said. Some of that evidence can be destroyed when paper is handled. “If we had responded to the scene, we would have had the opportunity to have that note handled less,” Campbell said. 

As soon as Campbell learned of the incident Monday, he assigned a detective and the department reached out to Samel, he said.

Stephen Gruber-Miller's text:

Interim Iowa City Police Chief Bill Campbell confirmed that the officer who took the call did not go out to the house, and said he is disappointed the department did not respond more appropriately. 

"That’s completely unacceptable and is not an appropriate response on our part," Campbell said. "I expect in cases like this that our officer would respond to the scene and meet with the complainant and discuss the situation and have meaningful dialogue about what’s happened." 

Campbell declined to name the officer who took the call but said his performance would be evaluated. A detective has now been assigned to the case, he said.

Looks like Erin Jordan and Stephen Gruber-Miller wrote their articles based on the same script!

But so did Peter Holley of the Washington Post.  Although Holley's article appears to be served up by CAIR (the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a declared terrorist organization by the United Arab Emirates), since CAIR is credited for the photo of the note.

You've got to wonder if CAIR had anything to do with that New York Times article.

You've got to wonder if CAIR had anything to do with the Erin Jordan or Stephen Gruber-Miller stories.  Or was working behind the scenes with the Samel / Abdalla / Hamad family.

Let's go back to Lujayn Hamad, who has gotten a lot of fawning press in the interim.  She was even made one of the Press-Citizen's "10 to Watch in 2017".

ABC News mentioned her on a program:

Sounds like little Lujayn Hamad is a full-blown Social Justice Warrior!

Does anybody remember all those Fake Hate Crimes around Trump's election?  

November 14:  Bisexual North Park University student who school says fabricated hateful pro-Trump notes complete with hashtags

November 11:  A young lady from Ann Arbor who fabricated a terrifying tale of a Trump supporter threatening that he’d burn the hijab off of her if she didn’t take it off

November 9:  University of Louisiana at Lafayette student who now admits she fabricated her claim that men wearing Trump hats attacked her, knocked her down, and stole her headscarf

November 10:  Bowling Green student who was arrested after falsely claiming she was attacked and taunted with racial slurs by MAGA-gear wearing Trump supporters

November 15:  A black man in Malden (Boston area) who claimed he was forced to run for his life after being threatened with lynching, chased, and told that “It's Trump country now”, but then admitted he fabricated the story

November 8:  The Asian female student in Minnesota who made up a verbal and physical assault.

November 9:  the woman who was supposedly threatened at a gas station with a gun by Trump supporters, but who never contacted police and has now deleted her accusation

November 12:  Williams College students who admitted they wrote KKK graffiti and dumped fake blood in a church to bring attention to the effects of the presidential election

November 10:  An Elon University hate message that received national attention “Bye bye latinos hasta la vista” but was later revealed to be written by a Latino student who was upset about the results of the election

November 1:  The black man who tried to burn down a predominantly African-American church and had spray painted "Vote Trump" on the outside.

That's just a small list of them.

Let's go back to Erin Jordan.  The Gazette writer posted a followup story on November 30, 2016 indicating that Iowa City Crimestoppers had a $1000 reward for information about who left the note.  The police supposedly had few leads.

The Iowa City Police must be really stupid if they can't connect the dots on this case.

Let's take a look at Iowa City and Johnson County voting details.  In Johnson County, Iowa, around 19% of registered voters are Republicans.  Republicans didn't run any candidates at the county level or lower except District 73's Bobby Kaufman, which only clips rural NE Johnson County.  

In the 2016 election, Donald Trump only got 27.8% of the vote in Johnson County.  In absentee ballots in Iowa City alone, Trump managed only 14%.  There's almost no support for Donald Trump in the Iowa City area.

What about campaign signs in Iowa City?  During the 2016 caucus season, Bernie signs outnumbered Hillary signs throughout Iowa City by a ratio of probably 200 to 1.  For the general election, there were a scattering of Hillary signs, but not many.  

The handful of Donald Trump signs appearing in Iowa City ended up like this:

This Trump/Pence sign at Dodge and Governor, about than a mile from Lujayn Hamad's house, was repeatedly destroyed before the owner affixed the sign to the second story of the house.  

We don't remember Erin Jordan, the Cedar Rapids Gazette, Stephen Gruber-Miller, or anybody at the Press-Citizen, New York Times, or Washington Post writing stories about that kind of destruction.

And what about Lujayn Hamad's neighborhood?  She lives near Shimek Elementary.  There probably isn't a Republican around for miles, or at least one who would admit it.  That part of town is filled with old hippies and young communists.  No way would any Republican or Trump supporter express any public support for fear of having their property vandalized!

Who would sign a hate note with a hashtag and "trump" in lower case?  Possibly somebody on Twitter?  Lujayn Hamad is on Twitter.  So is Raneem Hamad.  What about all the other "hate note" hoaxes where the notes were signed with a hashtag and trump?

It's our conclusion that the note left at Amir Samel's house was a hoax.  

If the note wasn't written by his angry, partisan, lying daughters Lujayn Hamad or Raneem Hamad, then it was probably written by somebody they know.

We think the fakestream media colluded in writing and promoting the story in order to denigrate Republicans and Trump supporters because they are partisan activists first.

We think CAIR, the terrorist group, peddled the hoax to other media outlets, including Washington Post, who willingly published it. 

We think Iowa City Police Chief Bill Campbell is a suck up to Democrat activists and anarchists.  ICPD didn't arrest anybody when activists marched towards and stopped traffic on Interstate 80 on November 11th.  There has been no statement from the police department or detective since this incident.