Global Opinions Editor at the Washington Post, Karen Attiah, is at the receiving end of great criticism after she falsely accused the French Government of targeting Muslim children. She claimed that the French Government wanted to give IDs to Muslim children. France has strongly denied the allegations that the IDs will be given on the basis of religion or race or sex or any other factor.
The same lie was spread by the Minister for Human Rights in Pakistan as well who accused the French of treating Muslims the way the Nazis treated Jews. France slammed Pakistan for making such distasteful remarks in a statement. Karen Attiah, since peddling the bit of fake news, has issued an apology.
Initially, Attiah appeared hesitant to offer an apology. She said, “I had an earlier tweet which said the ID Bill was targeting Muslim children which was incorrect. That said, it is foolish to ignore the likelihood that such a bill will likely create a climate in which Muslims will disproportionately suffer even more in France.”
Karen Attiah “unequivocally” apologised for the “error” she made two hours later. “I do have a responsibility to facts. And I do not want to make anything harder for my colleagues who are doing an amazing job with a difficult story,” she stated.
It is not the first time that Karen Attiah has landed herself in a soup. She has made extremely controversial remarks in the past that had earned her a great deal of criticism. In June, she tweeted that white women are ‘lucky’ black people are ‘just calling them Karens and not calling for revenge’.
She said, ‘The lies and tears of white women hath wrought; the 1921 Tulsa massacre, murder of Emmett Till, exclusion of black women from feminist movements, 53% of white women voting for Trump.’ Calls were made for her expulsion but they did not amount to anything. And it is unlikely that any action will be taken against her in the aftermath of the current debacle either.
On a separate occasion, she tweeted “white people, you guys need to figure this out how to erase the emotional rewards of sadistic pleasure white people have long enjoyed in dominating and destroying black bodies.”
France calls the rumours ‘fake news’
The Foreign Affairs Ministry of France said, “Any so-called information pertaining to alleged intent to register children being schooled in France based on religion, belief or origin, is absolutely false.” “12 million children are already registered and the registration process will be completed including home schooling children,” it added.