Far-right and anti-Muslim accounts turned footage of a Yemeni wedding convoy in Brooklyn, New York, into ‘Muslim invasion’ propaganda, spreading it on social media in the US.
An investigation by Al Jazeera’s Open Source Unit found that the footage, recorded in July 2025, was recirculated in July 2026 with the same misleading narratives. The posts used captions beginning with ‘This is not Somalia or Iran, this is Brooklyn, New York,’ and the videos were viewed hundreds of thousands of times.
QAnon-linked accounts shared the same claim
Accounts like Unmask The SYS, The Rubin Report, and DR POOL claimed that Muslims blocked the road and called for intifada. DR POOL’s post received nearly half a million views. The account, with a Q17 symbol on its profile, shows its link to the extremist QAnon community.
The Concerned Citizen account, which has over a million followers, added the unheard phrase ‘Allahu Akbar’ to the video, warning New York of London’s fate. These accounts share a common trait: they are far-right conspiracy theorists who regularly push the ‘collapse of the West’ narrative and portray immigrants as a security threat.
The footage originated from a year-old wedding video
Open source research revealed that the video was first shared on July 27, 2025, with the same claim. At that time, the incident was linked to then-US President Joe Biden’s immigration policies. Far-right activist Eric Dougherty also shared the video with the same caption on the same day.
However, examination of existing copies of the video reveals no clear slogan like ‘spread the intifada.’ The footage also shows no banners, flags, or political signs.
Yemeni community confirms wedding, criticizes behavior
The Yemeni Immigrants in the US page published the footage on July 28, 2025, a day after the right-wing accounts shared it. The page criticized the road-blocking behavior, describing it as ‘extremism and showmanship.’
A user named Khalid Ubaid al-Idrisi shared an additional video stating he personally witnessed the event and confirmed it was a social gathering linked to a wedding, not a political protest. Discussions among Yemeni users also lacked any connection to political demonstrations or intifada.
The US Yemeni Community Platform also republished the footage in the context of a wedding convoy, stressing that blocking the road was unacceptable. The platform warned against using such isolated incidents to incite against immigrants and turning them into generalized accusations targeting Arab and Muslim communities.
According to the investigation, the misleading narrative was constructed by stripping the footage of its original context and adding written statements with no visible evidence in the video. Words like ‘occupation’ and ‘invasion’ turned a social event criticized even within the Yemeni community into provocative content targeting Muslims and immigrants.
