A brief history of religious hoaxes | Fox News
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A brief history of religious hoaxes
By Benjamin Radford
Published October 03, 2012
LiveScience
Shroud of Turin
The Shroud of Turin, the reputed burial shroud of Jesus.
The trailer for the film “Innocence of Muslims” recently led to riots over its depiction of the prophet Muhammad as a womanizer, child molester and criminal. Several Americans, including U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens, were killed in protests that have been linked to the film.
Despite the outrage it’s not clear that the film actually exists; certainly a trailer for it does, but a trailer isn’t a film. Investigation into the anti-Muslim “film” is ongoing, but as yet there seems to be no evidence that the film exists other than as a deadly hoax. People create hoaxes for many reasons, but when fraud mixes with religious fervor the results can range from the comical to the deadly.
Here’s a look at seven religious hoaxes throughout history.