The month of Hajj has begun and Muslims from all over the world are flocking to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, a holy city. Meanwhile, a video is going viral on social media that shows some Indian Hajj pilgrims offering prayers in Arabic in front of the Kaaba. In the video, the person leading the prayers appeals to others to pray against the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Former Minister and BJP MLA from Uttar Pradesh, Mohsin Raza, shared the same video on his verified Facebook account and wrote, “In Hajj, a holy pilgrimage and in a sanctified place like the Kaaba, these few people, who have demonstrated their negativity, have become toys in the hands of anti-India forces. These people are praying for the destruction of the BJP government and the RSS. I demand an investigation by the Indian government into these people and the organizations behind them, and they should be charged with anti-national activities. Their citizenship should be revoked and they should be sent to the country whose ideology they believe in.”
Mohsin Raza also tagged PM Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP President JP Nadda, and other BJP leaders in his Facebook post. He also shared the same video on Twitter.
On the basis of Mohsin Raza’s post, Hindustan News ran the headline, “Did Hajj pilgrims in Mecca pray for the destruction of BJP and RSS? Former minister Mohsin Raza tweeted VIDEO.”
Fact Check:
To find out the truth about the viral video, the DFRAC team converted the video into frames and conducted a reverse image search with the help of Google. During this process, the DFRAC team found the same video in some old social media posts.
User Mahesh Vikram Hegde shared the same video on Twitter on January 10, 2020, with the caption, “When Hindu pilgrims go on a pilgrimage, they bow down in devotion and ask for the well-being of everyone, but these Muslims go on a Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca and pray for the elimination of the RSS and BJP. If we Hindus still don’t wake up, we will soon face a fate like that of our Kashmiri Pandits.”
According to Mahesh Vikram Hegde, he is followed by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The video was posted on Facebook by user Sawdha Mani on January 2, 2020, in Tamil, which roughly translates to, “I cannot tolerate your distress, it is funny that Muslims who go to Mecca once in their life are praying there to remove the BJP and RSS. It seems like in the end, due to their hatred towards Modi, they will become disillusioned fools.”
FB Post Archive Link
The same video was also posted on the Facebook page Jammu-Kashmir Now on April 30, 2019, with the caption, “A Tamil Muslim group praying for the removal of the BJP and RSS from Mecca, Kaba, and establishing the rule of Allah by removing Modi’s government from the country.”
Source: Facebook
Conclusion:
This fact-check by DFRAC makes it clear that the viral video is four years old, so sharing the video and demanding action against BJP leaders is misleading. The DFRAC team is still looking for the original source of the video and will update the story when it is found.
