Video of street prayers: Neither from London nor linked to French teacher’s beheading

by Aqib Pathan

A video of Muslims offering prayers on the street has been shared with the claim that it’s from London. A provocative message accompanying the video reads, “If we do not become radical for our faith and our country, then our condition will be worse than other nations.”

The same video was also shared last year after French teacher Samuel Paty was beheaded by a Muslim fundamentalist for showing Prophet Muhammed’s caricature in class.

French President Emmanuel Macron had backed the display of the cartoon. Macron’s comments resulted in backlash from several Muslim countries. On November 1, 2020 over 20 European Muslim organisations called on Macron to end his “divisive rhetoric”. In response to the controversy, Macron said, “I understand the feelings this stirs, I respect them. But I want you to understand my role: my role is to calm things down as I’m doing here, and to protect those rights.”

This video was shared claiming that French Muslims came out on the streets to pray in protest and blocked traffic.

Twitter user @kaushaldubey_kd posted this video on November 3.

Several Facebook users shared this video with the text — “Situation in France! Wait for it in India soon. *Ambulances will have to wait till the prayers are over!!* This is “sickularism”.”

Alt News had received several requests to fact-check the video on our WhatsApp helpline number (+917600011160) and official Android application.

Fact-check

Alt News searched the keywords ‘Street prayer in France’ on Facebook and found that a video was uploaded by the page Frustrated Paul Revere.com in 2018. The six-minute video includes scenes from the viral video.

Next, we performed a reverse image search of frames from the Frustrated Paul Revere.com video and found that LDC News Agency had posted it on YouTube in 2017. As per the title (written in French), the video shows street prayers in Clichy, a locality in Paris, after a mosque was closed by the city administration. Parts of the viral video can be spotted at different points in the longer clip — 3:19, 3:57, 4:07 and 4:40.

In November 2017, Muslims in Clichy took to the streets to pray in protest against the closure of a local mosque.

Videos from the four-year-old protest were also revived in the past with false claims.

About the Author

Aqib is monitoring and researching mis/disinformation at Alt News