CLAIM
A viral post, which appears to have originated on Facebook on 29 August, claims that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has converted to Islam.
The post, which has been shared with a picture of Trudeau in a keffiyeh, quotes the Prime Minister as saying:
"After meeting thousands of Syrian Refugees and learning more about their faith, I have learned to love Islam. Islam promotes peace and is in fact more peaceful than Christianity. Islam is the religion that I identify with.”
Another video baring the same claim - “BREAKING! JUSTIN TRUDEAU CONVERTED TO ISLAM AND HE IS NOW A MUSLIM” shows Trudeau attending a prayer reading at a Mosque.
The post and variations of the video have since been shared on Twitter and Facebook.
VERDICT: TRUE OR FALSE?
The quote in the post is fake, while the picture has been taken out of context, reported AFP Factcheck. The fake news debunking website discovered that the quote appears to have been taken from the Vatican Enquirer, a website which supposedly publishes satirical articles.
According to the Vatican Enquirer report, Trudeau made the claim while addressing a 13-minute-press conference on 26 August 2016.
However, the Vatican Enquirer had in turn attributed this information to another website named thegloabalsun.com – which no longer exists.
AFP Factcheck further cross-verified Trudeau's official schedule for 26 August 2016, and found that the Prime Minister was in eastern Canada's Quebec for the National Caucus of his Liberal party, that day.
NOW, THE VIDEO
The video is reportedly from 2013, when Trudeau, as the leader of the Liberal Party, had joined Muslims in West Canada for evening prayers during Ramadan.
According to Al Arabiya, Trudeau delivered a speech at the gathering, beginning with the Muslim greeting ‘Salam Alaiqum’, which means “peace be upon you.”
The video resurfaced after Trudeau won the election in 2015.
AND WHAT ABOUT THE PICTURE?
The picture in the post is from Halloween 2016, when Trudeau dressed up as the pilot from The Little Prince to complement his youngest son Hadrien – who dressed up as the prince.
AFP Factcheck discovered the original photo had been flipped, as is done widely for alteration purposes by fake news mongers.
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