(Editor's note: The story was first published on 27 October 2020 and is being republished from The Quint's archives in the light of the video resurfacing with a claim that people from the Muslim community gathered in support of Prophet Muhammed after former Bharatiya Janata Party leaders made controversial remarks against him.)
After the recent violence in France, when a teacher was beheaded in Paris over a controversial cartoon on the Prophet Mohammed, an old video of a massive crowd gathered for the celebration of the Prophet’s birthday in Yemen is being shared with a false claim that it’s from France.
CLAIM
The video was shared with the claim, “आज फ्रांस है, कल आपका देश हो सकता है ।”
(Translation: “Today’s its France, tomorrow it can be your country.”)
The video shared by user Gopal Goswami had amassed over 18,700 views before it was deleted.
When called out by another user, Goswami went on to claim that the mosque in the background is Hagia Sophia and the crowd was protesting against France.
A page on Facebook shared the video with another claim, that the video showed a protest against France in Chechnya, which is the origin-country of the suspect in the Paris beheading.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
The video is not of a protest in either France or Chechnya as claimed, it’s actually from Yemen, where the crowd had gathered to celebrate the Prophet’s birthday.
A reverse image search led us to an article by Iranian online news aggregator, AhlulBayt News Agency carrying the visuals from the video.
The article stated that photos were from the birth anniversary of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him), which was observed in Sana'a, Yemen.
A keyword search on Getty Images also led us to a video by news agency AFPTV, with the same visuals as the viral video.
Dated 9 November 2019, the video’s description reads “Yemenis and Huthi supporters gather in Sanaa to mark Prophet Mohammad's birthday.”
The visuals can also be seen on American television and radio broadcast network, VOA’s report on the event.
Further, the mosque in the background is not Turkey’s Hagia Sophia, but the Al Saleh Mosque in Yemen’s Sana’a city.
A comparative image of the mosque in the viral image and the Al Saleh Mosque in the city’s backdrop can be seen below.
Evidently, an old video of the Prophet’s birthday celebrations in Yemen is being shared with the false claim that it’s from a protest in France or Chechnya.
(Update: The story has been updated to include another false claim on social media that the video is from Chechnya.)
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