Thousands of Muslims in New Jersey cheered the September 11 attacks
| Thousands of Muslims in New Jersey cheered the September 11 attacks | |
|---|---|
| FALSE | |
| "Thousands of Muslims in Jersey City, New Jersey, were seen celebrating on rooftops and in the streets as the World Trade Center towers collapsed on September 11, 2001." | |
| Domain | Culture, Religion & Society |
| Tactic | Fabrication Statistical & Evidentiary Distortion |
| Era | Current |
| First seen | 2001 |
| Origin | Unconfirmed rumors in the days after the attacks, revived in November 2015 when presidential candidate Donald Trump said he had watched thousands of people cheering in Jersey City |
| Last reviewed | 2026-10-27 |
| Further reading: books on Culture, Religion & Society | |
The claim that thousands of Muslims in New Jersey cheered the September 11 attacks was made by Donald Trump at a rally in November 2015 and repeated in subsequent interviews. He said he had watched on television as "thousands and thousands of people were cheering" in Jersey City as the towers came down. Journalists, police officials and fact-checkers found no evidence of such celebrations, and no television footage showing them has ever been found. Rumors about celebrations circulated in 2001, and police investigated some reports, but they were not substantiated. Some news reports at the time described police questioning a small number of people after unconfirmed reports of celebrations.
What the evidence shows
- No footage. News organizations searched archives for footage of large celebrations in New Jersey and found none. Footage of celebrations in the West Bank was broadcast widely in 2001, which may have contributed to confusion.
- Officials. Jersey City mayor Steven Fulop said in 2015 that the claim was false, and law enforcement officials said they had no record of mass celebrations.
- 2001 reports. A Washington Post article on September 18, 2001, reported that police had detained and questioned a number of people allegedly seen celebrating, but it did not describe thousands of people and the allegations were not confirmed.
- Fact-checks. PolitiFact rated the claim "Pants on Fire," and other fact-checkers found no support for it.
Why it persists
The claim connected an event of collective trauma with fears about Muslims. Some people recalled hearing rumors in 2001, which made the claim feel like a memory. Footage from elsewhere may have been misremembered as local.
Lessons for readers
- A claim of a large televised event should be verifiable in archives.
- Memories can merge rumors and images from different places.
- Small, unconfirmed reports can be inflated into mass behavior.
- Claims that portray an entire religious group as hostile deserve particular scrutiny.
See also
- Immigrants commit more crime than native-born Americans
- Haitian immigrants in Springfield are eating pets
- Saddam Hussein was behind the September 11 attacks
Sources
- Lauren Carroll, "Fact-checking Trump's claim that thousands in New Jersey cheered when World Trade Center tumbled," PolitiFact, November 22, 2015.
- Serge F. Kovaleski and Fredrick Kunkle, "Northern New Jersey Draws Probers' Eyes," The Washington Post, September 18, 2001.