America’s first female Muslim olympic medalist just did something pretty awful

Ibtihaj Muhammad rose to fame last year when she became the first Muslim-American to win an Olympic medal. But instead of simply carrying the torch for inspirational world-class athletes, Muhammad became an outspoken critic of Donald Trump and now appears to have deceived the press to further her own political agenda.

In an interview with PopSugar, Muhammad was asked if she knew of anyone directly affected by President Trump’s travel ban. In fact, she answered in a way that was very misleading:

“Well, I personally was held at Customs for two hours just a few weeks ago. I don’t know why. I can’t tell you why it happened to me, but I know that I’m Muslim. I have an Arabic name. And even though I represent Team USA and I have that Olympic hardware, it doesn’t change how you look and how people perceive you.

“Unfortunately, I know that people talk about this having a lot to do with these seven countries in particular, but I think the net is cast a little bit wider than we know. And I’m included in that as a Muslim woman who wears a hijab.”

Sounds terrible, right? Trump issues a travel ban on Muslims, and suddenly one of our own gets caught up in the mess? Except she wasn’t detained under Trump at all. Her ordeal happened back in December, under President Obama, as she clarified days later on Twitter.

And what’s more, PopSugar’s Lindsay Miller didn’t bother to ask for a specific date on that “just a few weeks ago” statement. Nor did multiple other outlets who ran with the story, as The Washington Examiner noted:

“Olympic athlete Ibtihaj Muhammad was detained because of President Trump’s travel ban,” read a headline published by Time magazine’s Motto.

The U.K.’s Independent went with a story titled, “US Olympic fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad says she was detained by customs after Donald Trump’s ‘Muslim ban.’

“U.S. Olympian Ibtihaj Muhammad being detained illustrates why Trump’s Muslim ban is not who we are as Americans,” read the headline to an article published by the New York Daily News.

The Hill published an article whose opening paragraph read, “A Muslim-American Olympic medalist says she was detained by Customs for nearly two hours without explanation after President Trump’s travel ban was instituted a few weeks ago.”

Sports Illustrated and ESPN published stories whose entire purpose was to tie Muhammad’s customs tale to Trump’s immigration order, though the reports don’t come right out and say it.

Not a single journalist or editor at these outlets thought to seek out the facts before publishing? Pathetic! Fake News much?

Other parts of Muhammad’s story don’t check out either. A Customs official who has direct knowledge of the incident spoke with the Examiner and clarified that she was not held for two hours, but only one. Also, Muhammad wasn’t targeted; she was part of a random check.

“She comes and goes many times,” the official said. “She travels quite extensively. She has never been stopped before. We were surprised and disturbed when we saw the story. We didn’t mistreat her. We’re very proud of what she has done.”

So much for being a good role model.