It's not just the fact that the story was rubbish. It's that people were prepared to believe it

Not just prepared to believe it, but apparently quite eager to believe it. We have the same problem here in the US. It's a nasty, evilminded business altogether. Whisper campaigns and hate-mongering rumors like this make me genuinely believe that there are people whose main agenda is to try to convince all non-Muslims that all Muslims should be killed. And there seem to be a frightening number of people who are willing to blindly follow along.