"Hate crime victim" charged with making false police report

Last week Safia Z. Jilani, a female student at Elmhurst College west of Chicago said she was attacked by a gunman in the womens bathroom after giving a diversity speech on campus. The week before, according to the nineteen year-old from Oak Brook, "Die Muslims Die" was scrawled on her locker.

The Daily Herald is reporting tonight that the student's life is much more complicated--Elmhurst police are asking her different kinds of questions than they were last week.

Safia Z. Jilani, 19, of Oak Brook, was charged with one felony count of filing a false police report and released on $10,000 bond.

Jilani told police she was attacked about 8:30 p.m. Oct. 9 after entering a bathroom in the Schaible Science Center by a gunman wearing a mask who made racial slurs. The Muslim student had spoken hours earlier at a diversity rally on campus.

Police found anti-Muslim graffiti written in marker in the bathroom.

Deputy Chief Jim Doherty, though, said on Friday that "there was no gunman and no attack."

The cops are looking into the veracity of the graffiti incident as well.

This was a major news story in Chicago--the local television stations were especially interested in Jilani's tale--make that fairy tale.

Absolutely shameful.

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