Old image of Sikh man praying in mosque viral as Muslim man who posed as farmer - Alt News
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12th January 2021 / 3:09 pm / Last updated: 13th January 2021
An image of a Sikh man praying in a mosque is being shared on social media. On January 12, Indian Navy veteran Harinder S Sikka tweeted, “He went to attend ‘Kissan Rally’, forgot to remove his headgear on return to mosque. His agenda could be anything but their welfare. Pls help in sharing this pic. In the name of Farmer’s Bill, we’ve Jihadi, communists & traitors washing their dirty linen? @narendramodi @AmitShah.” (archive link) Sikka is alluding that a Muslim man posed as a Sikh farmer in the ongoing protests.
He went to attend ‘Kissan Rally’, forgot to remove his headgear on return to mosque. His agenda could be anything but their welfare.
Pls help in sharing this pic. In the name of Farmer’s Bill we’ve Jihadi,communists & traitors washing their dirty linen?@narendramodi @AmitShah pic.twitter.com/vMCXUchcP4
— Harinder S Sikka (@sikka_harinder) January 12, 2021
Facebook page Defence360 that has about 30,000 followers shared the image with identical text.
Actor Diljit Dosanjh tweeted an image of Manpreet J Singh’s book ‘The Sikh Next Door: An Identity in Transition’. Twitter account @TheAngryLord quote-tweeted him along with the viral image and wrote, “If this is the transition, I feel very sad for what our Gurus fought for…” This tweet was retweeted over 200 times. (archived link)
If this is the transition, I feel very sad for what our Gurus fought for… https://t.co/LjAYtOuvFe pic.twitter.com/63Mon4xmrU
— INFERNO (@TheAngryLord) January 11, 2021
Alt News performed a keyword search on Facebook and found that the viral image dates back to at least 2016.
Doha-based Facebook user زيد أولدي posted the image in January 2016. He wrote, “Sikh brother praying namaz in masjid. This is my India #proudIndain“.
Sikh brother praying namaz in masjid. This is my India #proudIndain
Posted by ‎زيد أولدي‎ on Friday, 22 January 2016
Facebook page ياران وطن posted it in May 2016.
دا سیک ورور مسلمان شو
خو وایې چې خپل کلتوری لباس نه بدلوم
هر کلی راشی وروره
اسلام ته راتګ په خاطر ضرور لایک او خپور کړئ
Posted by ‎ياران وطن‎ on Tuesday, 3 May 2016
Alt News couldn’t identify the man in the image nor details about its location. However, it is not related to the recent farmers protest as it is at least five years old.
Thus, an image of a Sikh man praying in a mosque that dates back to at least 2016 was shared with the false claim that he forgot to remove his turban after returning to the mosque from the farmers’ protest. In the past, Alt News has debunked similar claims that allege people from the Muslim community are posing as farmers in the on-going movement.
🙏 Blessed to have worked as a fact-checking journalist from November 2019 to February 2023.
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