On June 1, 2025, a man named Mohamed Sabry Soliman threw Molotov cocktails at a pro-Israel gathering in Boulder, Colorado, severely injuring 15 people, including a Holocaust survivor. The demonstrators had assembled in support of hostages being held by Hamas when they were burned. But USA Today has found the real victim: the terrorist’s family.
According to the FBI, Soliman, an illegal immigrant from Egypt, had planned the attack for months. As JNS reported, Soliman shouted “Free Palestine” while allegedly committing the attack, and he told investigators that he was driven to by a desire to “kill all Zionist people.” Soliman reportedly told the FBI that “he had been planning the attack for a year and was waiting until after his daughter graduated to conduct the attack.”
Soliman allegedly carried out extensive preparation prior to the attack, including researching how to make Molotov cocktails and assembling them in advance—facts that prosecutors will likely use to argue premeditation and intent. Soliman has been charged with more than 118 counts, including attempted murder, assault, illegal use of explosives, and animal cruelty.
Notably, Soliman is also an Egyptian national who has been in the United States on a visa overstay. His immediate family is also here illegally. The horrific crime that occurred in Boulder could possibly have been prevented.
But USA Today has found the real victim.
“Boulder suspect’s daughter dreamed of studying medicine. Now she aces deportation,” read the newspaper’s headline on June 3. Reporters Michael Loria and Michael Collins chose to use their talents to focus on the plight of Soliman’s daughter instead of his victims.
Indeed, the article opens with the following lines: “She moved to the United States with a dream of studying medicine. She had stepped off her high school graduation stage in May.”
Unsurprisingly, USA Today’s report prompted numerous rebukes and mockery on social media. The headline was subsequently changed to read “Habiba Soliman wanted to be a doctor. Then, her father firebombed Jewish marchers in Boulder.” Yet the dispatch itself is inordinately focused on Soliman’s daughter’s plight:
“Before the attack, Habiba Soliman had written about her hope of accomplishing great things,” the newspaper writes, before quoting her application for a scholarship. “She decided to study medicine after watching her father learn how to walk after a difficult surgery…. Moving to the U.S. from Kuwait provided her new opportunities to pursue her dream.” The overwhelming majority of USA Today’s report is focused on Soliman’s daughter’s ambitions and dreams—there is even a subsection entitled “Overcoming challenges.” Letters of recommendation from her teachers are even quoted. By contrast, comparatively little space is devoted to the fate of her father’s victims. Indeed, the article doesn’t state their names, much less their dreams, hopes, and ambitions. It is they who are the victims.
Notably, USA Today’s pathetic excuse for a news report stands in stark contrast to some of the other dispatches that they filed on the Boulder attack—several of which extensively detail both the crime, and the motive, that led to Jews being burned on the streets of America in 2025. After all, Soliman’s daughter can conceivably attend medical school in another country, whereas her father’s victims have had their lives changed in far more significant ways.
But perhaps the most interesting thing about USA Today’s lament, however, is what it reveals about some in the media who insist on heroizing, and offering apologetics for, those who maim and murder Jews. CAMERA noted the roots of this phenomenon in an April 22, 2025 Washington Times Op-Ed, “Hands across America for Hamas.”