A screenshot of a tweet attributed to author and right-wing commentator Shefali Vaidya is going viral on social media which shows a picture of group of Muslim men wearing t-shirts with 'ISIS' written over them.
The claim: The tweet claims that these people are from Kerala who are showing their support to the terror organisation Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), after the release of the controversial film, The Kerala Story.
An archive can be seen here.
(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)
Vaidya also took to Twitter to post an update about the claim and said that this picture is not from Kerala.
However, her tweet carrying the viral photo has gone viral on Facebook and Twitter.
Where is the image from?: The image is from Ramanathapuram, Tamil Nadu and dates back to 2014.
It shows a group of 26 Muslim youths praising ISIS.
How did we find out the truth?: We performed a reverse image search on the image and found old reports from 2014.
Several news media outlets like The Hindu, The Scroll and NDTV carried the viral photo and reported about this controversy caused by a group of 26 Muslim youth posing in black t-shirts which read “ISIS”.
The viral image is from 2014 and not recent as claimed.
(Source: The Hindu/ Screenshot)
The report mentioned that this image is from Ramanathapuram's Thondi town in Tamil Nadu and this was clicked on Eid 2014.
According to a report by The Hindu shared on 6 August 2014, none of the men in the photo were connected to the organisation.
It added that later a Tirupur-based imam was arrested by the police who had procured the t-shirts.
The article also stated that one of the person involved in the photo told the police that this was done to thank ISIS for releasing Indian nurses from their captivity in Iraq.
This same image went viral in 2019 with a claim that it was taken in Wayanad, Kerala after 2019 Lok Sabha elections. You can read our fact-check about this claim here.
Conclusion: An old image from Tamil Nadu is being shared on social media as an image showing Muslim men from Kerala supporting ISIS.
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