A viral video showing a man making an impassioned speech about a minor's religious conversion to Islam is being shared on social media.
What are social media users claiming?: The two minutes and 20 second long video is being shared to claim that it shows a Hindu member of Parliament "begging for mercy in Pakistan Parliament" against forced religious conversion.
An archived version of this tweet can be seen here.
(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)
(Archives of more posts with the same claim can be seen here, here, and here.)
What is the truth?: The man in the video is Tariq Masih Gill, a former member of Pakistan's Punjab Assembly, speaking against the forced religious conversion of a 12-year-old girl. According to the Punjab Assembly's official website, Gill follows Christianity.
How did we find out?: Using relevant keywords, we looked for reports regarding a Hindu MP in Pakistan speaking about religious conversion but did not find any.
Under one of the claims on Twitter, we saw that a user had mentioned that the man was a Christian minority member of Pakistan's Punjab Assembly.
We then looked for social media posts on the man and found a tweet identifying him as Tariq Masih Gill, a Christian Member of the Provincial Assembly (MPA) of Punjab.
On YouTube, we found a longer video of Gill's speech about the forced conversion of a minor Christian girl to Islam. He is heard asking the Assembly's speaker how a child who is unaware of many things can be awarded a certificate of religious conversion.
Which community goes Gill belong to?: Pakistan government's Provincial Assembly of Punjab's website recognised Tariq Masih Gill as a member of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) party and mentioned that Gill followed Christianity.
Pakistani news channel Aaj TV's journalist Kamal Siddiqi also confirmed to The Quint that Gill belongs to the Christian community.
Gill follows Christianity.
(Source: Provincial Assembly of the Punjab/Screenshot)
More on Tariq Masih Gill: We found various news reports and videos published over the years identifying Gill as a minority leader in Pakistan's Punjab.
As per a 2019 news report published by Dawn, MPAs from minority communities across political parties – including Gill – had come together to demand representation in the Punjab Curriculum and Textbook Board (PCTB).
Gill previously served as the Parliamentary Secretary for Human Rights & Minorities Affairs in Pakistan from 2013 – 2018.
We also came across an interview on YouTube from 2020 featuring Gill, which discussed sayings in the Bible and asked people to follow them.
Conclusion: A video of Pakistan's MPA from Punjab, Tariq Masih Gill – who belongs to the Christian community – speaking about forced religious conversions is being shared to falsely claim that he is a Hindu Member of Parliament in Pakistan.
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