A FOUNDING member of an Islamic group has been ridiculed after claiming that Zionists broke into his house and stole his shoe.
In a post on Facebook, Asghar Bukhari, a member of the Muslim Public Affairs Committee UK, wrote: “Are Zionists trying to intimidate me: someone came into my home yesterday, while I was asleep.”
He said there were no signs of a break in, and the only thing stolen was a shoe. He claimed they left behind the other one “to let me know someone had been there”.
Mr Bukhari added: “Of course I can’t prove anything and that’s part of the intimidation. The game is simple — to make me feel vulnerable in my own home.”
He went on to write: “It is not the first time I have heard this happening. I have had another Muslim leader call me a year or so ago, in tears — she told me they had been coming into her house and re-arranging things — just to let her know they had been there.”
Mr Bukhari urged his online contacts: “Share this widely, for if it is happening to me, I am sure it is happening to many, many others who have not exposed it.”
While the post, written on Friday, was indeed shared hundreds of times, Mr Bukhari did not get the response he might have intended. Within hours, the hashtag “#Mossadstolemyshoe” was trending on Twitter, in a reference to the Israeli counter terrorism unit.
Several Twitter users suggested their dogs were secretly working for Mossad, while others came up with novel ways to combat shoe thieves, from secret cameras to tying the laces together.
Undeterred, Mr Bukhari claimed the fact that he was being mocked amounted to “intimidation of Muslim speakers” — for which he again blamed Zionists. He went on to post a 15-minute YouTube video repeating his claims.
The Muslim Public Affairs Committee UK describes itself as a grassroots civil liberties organisation that works to “expose and counter the sinister and toxic anti-Muslim narrative that permeates mainstream politics and media”.
However, it has been accused of promoting extremism and is banned from many universities as a hate group.