Jan 3, 2018
A reality TV show production crew is apparently behind rumors regarding the supposed sale of a local shopping center in order to build a mosque.
Clear Meadow Films recruited people interested in participating in a focus group through local Facebook pages; attendees signed a consent form that allowed filming and use of the film on air.
"The speaker started off saying lots of jobs were coming to our area because we were chosen to begin a $385 million construction project on a plot of land in Kingman located at the Bank/Airway intersection," said Venessa Mudge, a Kingman resident who attended a focus group meeting in Bullhead City. "He said the project was going to be the building of the world's largest mosque outside of the Middle East. He implied that Muslims would take over our town and we'd all be converted or would have to move."
"I think they were trying to piss us off, just for reactions," said an attendee who asked not to be named. "Because the stuff they were stating was just absurd."
The speaker told attendees that the land was purchased already and permits obtained for the building.
"He showed pictures of our town with business signs photoshopped into Muslim languages," Mudge said. "He used many trigger statements like the Muslims would be protected from regular citizens to make sure there were no terror attacks from us."
Mudge, who attended with her husband, said she and some of the other attendees speculated the purported focus group was going to be used to create a show or documentary about hate toward Muslims using the responses from the meeting.
"They claimed it (the filming) was for the architectural firm that was going to build the mosque," she said. "We even tried pointing out to those around us to stop playing into the speaker's hands by responding because it was all a set up. So many members responded with hate, some with blatant racism and a whole lot of ignorance."
Mudge said she realized the group was fake when the speaker said the Kingman building site was already bought; she drives by the "for sale" signs every day.
Recruitment advertising on local Facebook pages under the name Cory Nicks offered $100 for anyone willing to participate in a community development focus group led by "a community relations representative for a real estate developer," Mudge said. Residents from Kingman were paid $150 for the inconvenience of being bused to Bullhead City.
"They told us about the film crew when we got to the convention center," Mudge said. "They didn't ask us if we wanted to opt out once we found out about the film crew. They told us we couldn't have our phone. They also had a security guard at the door to scan us with a detector or search any bags/purses we may have had with us."