A tweet's screenshot is making rounds on social media claiming that English cricketer Moeen Munir Ali has demanded an apology from India over former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member Nupur Sharma's controversial statements against Prophet Muhammad.
The claim also states that he will boycott the Indian Premier League (IPL) and will never visit India to play any match.
This comes after 16 countries called out the Indian government over Sharma's remarks. Following this, BJP suspended Sharma on 5 June 2022.
However, the Twitter account which made these statements was not the cricketer's official account. The account has now been suspended and the available archives show that the bio mentioned 'not official'.
CLAIM
The viral tweet made by the handle '@Moeen_Ali18' said, "If India does not apologize for its blasphemous statement, I will never go to India to play match again, I will also boycott the IPL. And I will appeal to my fellow Muslim brothers to do the same 🙏 I Love Muhammad P.B.U.H"
An archive of the post can be seen here.
(Source:Facebook/ Screenshot)
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
The account with the handle '@Moeen_Ali18' was suspended at the time of writing this story.
We then looked up for archives of this account and found that this account was created in May 2022 and had over 8,000 followers on Twitter.
The bio of the account states 'NotOfficial' and also says that it is a 'Commentary account of Moeen Ali'.
An archive version of the account on Twitter.
(Source: Altered by The Quint)
Next, we checked the England and Wales Cricket Board's (ECB) website and found that the account linked to Ali's social media handle was '@MoeenAli'. However, the account was inactive.
No recent reports about Ali boycotting IPL were found. He had recently visited India to play for Chennai Super Kings for IPL 2022 in May.
WHAT IS THE CONTROVERSY ABOUT?
Sixteen Arab countries and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) consisting of 56 member states, have condemned the comments made by ex-BJP spokespersons Nupur Sharma and Naveen Jindal.
The list of nations includes Kuwait, Iran, Iraq, Qatar, Indonesia, UAE, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Libya, Taliban in Afghanistan, Jordan, Turkey, and the Maldives.
Following the diplomatic row, the two were suspended from the primary membership of the party.
Evidently, a fake account of English cricketer Moeen Ali tweeted about the player boycotting IPL over Nupur Sharma's remarks against the Prophet.
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