A Yemeni wedding convoy in Brooklyn, New York, was turned into an anti-Muslim disinformation campaign by far-right circles. An investigation by Al Jazeera's Open Source Unit found that the footage, recorded in July 2025, was recirculated on social media a year later in July 2026 with the same misleading narrative.
The claim spread on July 20, 2026, through accounts posting in English. Texts beginning with 'This is not Somalia or Iran, this is Brooklyn, New York' were shared by accounts such as Unmask The SYS, The Rubin Report, and DR POOL. These accounts alleged that Muslims blocked the road and chanted slogans calling for an intifada. DR POOL's post received nearly half a million views.
Ideological ties of the accounts
The accounts examined share the common trait of being far-right and conspiracy theorists. The Concerned Citizen account, with over a million followers, regularly pushes the 'collapse of the West' narrative and portrays immigrants as a threat. The DR POOL account signals its affiliation with the extremist QAnon community through the Q17 symbol on its profile.
The real source of the footage and community reaction
Open-source research revealed that the video was first shared with the same claim on July 27, 2025. At that time, the incident was also linked to then-U.S. President Joe Biden's immigration policies. Far-right activist Eric Dougherty had shared the video with the same text that day.
Examination of existing copies of the video reveals no clear slogan such as 'spread the intifada.' The footage also contains no banners, flags, or political symbols. The Yemeni Immigrants in the US page published the footage on July 28, 2025, criticizing the behavior as 'extremism and ostentation.'
A user named Halit Ubeyd al-Idrisi shared an additional video, stating he personally witnessed the event, and confirmed that it was a social gathering linked to a wedding, not a political protest. Discussions among Yemeni users also contained no reference to a political demonstration or intifada connection.
The US Yemeni Community Platform stressed that blocking the road was unacceptable, while warning against turning such individual incidents into sweeping accusations against Arab and Muslim communities. According to the investigation, the misleading narrative was constructed by stripping the footage of its original context and adding unsubstantiated claims.
