Tarek Fatah - A case study of unrelenting divisive misinformation - Alt News
Pooja Chaudhuri
27th January 2020 / 5:04 pm / Last updated: 29th August 2020
A prominent name on social media, Tarek Fatah is an active Twitter user with over 6 lakh followers. But on numerous occasions, the Pakistani-Canadian writer has been found using the micro-blogging platform to circulate misinformation along communal lines, particularly targeting Indian Muslims. Even more concerning is his refusal to take down false news after the truth is pointed. He has, in fact, been found taking extra efforts to ensure that his followers remain misled.
Earlier in January 2020, Fatah tweeted a video of Burqa-clad persons dancing to a Bollywood number. He questioned, “Could someone confirm if this video is from the #CAA_NRCProtests at #ShaheenBagh or nor?” There are enough hints in the video which suggest that it did not represent protests at Shaheen Bagh against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The group is dancing around a woman dressed as a bride. Quite ironically, Fatah had tweeted the same video three years ago…twice. When he was slammed for the same, he quietly took down his tweet from August 2017. However, missed his tweet from May 2017.
Tarek Fatah’s Twitter timeline is an exhibition of disinformation and in this article, we will look at numerous such instances.
“This video speaks for itself,” wrote Fatah after anti-CAA protests sparked riots in Delhi.
This video from #ShaheenBagh in Delhi speaks for itself. pic.twitter.com/qBOsJutGfF
— Tarek Fatah (@TarekFatah) February 29, 2020
While Fatah tried to paint Shaheen Bagh women as ‘paid’ protesters, this video depicted relief distribution for Delhi riot victims.
Remember the video circulated claiming people were paid money to go to Shaheen Bagh protest. Well I’m conclusively proving it as a lie, by shooting from the same location and with the person who gave the money and explaining for what reason, with corroborative video evidences. So watch it share it and please stop sharing fake news. Thanks a lot.
Posted by Rowthran Chandra Mohan on Monday, 2 March 2020
Despite Alt News Fact Check and numerous others, the tweet remains on Fatah’s timeline. In fact, it was used in a Delhi riots ‘fact-finding’ report submitted to the Home Ministry to build a case against CAA protests.
In June 2018, Tarek Fatah tweeted a photograph claiming that it depicts a madrasa teacher coaching his students that Islam is superior to Hinduism. He later took down the tweet, however, not before it drew numerous retweets.
The image tweeted by Fatah was morphed. In the original photograph, published by several media organisations including ANI, the blackboard has words written in Sanskrit. The teacher was giving the students a lesson on the language. Incidentally, this piece of misinformation had been debunked by Alt News just days before Fatah’s tweet.
On February 8, 2020, Tarek Fatah quote-tweeted a video of a group of men, a majority of them wearing skull-caps, and wrote, “In the #DelhiPolls2020, Muslim goons chant a provocative slogan against Hindus to boast Islamic supremacy.”
In the #DelhiPolls2020, Muslim goons chant a provocative slogan against Hindus to boast Islamic supremacy.
“Hindustan me rehna Hoga,
Allah-O-Akbar kehna Hoga”
(If u wish to live in India, then
you’ll hv to chant Allah-O-Akbar)
https://t.co/Bx51eF3rdZ
— Tarek Fatah (@TarekFatah) February 8, 2020
While the original tweet has been taken down, Fatah is yet to delete his tweet. The video was shot in December 2017 thus unrelated to the 2020 Delhi polls. Here, apart from chants of Allah-o-Akbar, slogans against Shiv Sena, Bajrang Dal and PM Modi were also raised.
You can read Alt News’s detailed fact-check here.
A video of an elderly Muslim fruit-seller was shared by Tarek Fatah with the claim that he was caught sprinkling his urine on the produce. This video was massively viral as COVID cases in the country rose.
Muslim fruit vendor in India caught collecting his pee in a bottle and then sprinkling his urine on bananas for sale What is wrong with my community? Ya Allah, what have we Muslims become?
pic.twitter.com/XZyWFYKvK0
— Tarek Fatah (@TarekFatah) April 21, 2020
The police informed that the video was being shared with false claims. The elderly man had taken water from a bottle on his cart to wash hands after urination. He later used the same bottle to sprinkle water on the fruits. Our detailed fact-check on the incident can be read here.
Fatah had claimed that a girl was hit on the head by a man who disapproved of her cycling without wearing a Hijab (archive).
Man upset at seeing girls cycling without Hijab, slaps one on her head. Coming soon to a neighbourhood near you. https://t.co/dc8QUcpaaV
— Tarek Fatah (@TarekFatah) June 25, 2017
Alt News found multiple Turkish reports which stated that the man had indeed assaulted the 9-year-old. However, none of the reports mentioned the absence of Hijab as the motive for the crime. The incident had gained much prominence in Turkey after the perpetrator was released from jail and referred to a mental health facility. Despite Fatah’s tweet debunked two years ago, he is yet to take it down.
Fatah tweeted a video where bike-borne men can be seen waving green coloured flags. The Pakistani-Canadian writer claimed that the flags were of Pakistan and were raised during Ramzan in Tamil Nadu (archive).
Guess which community is waving Pakistan flags in India’s Tamilnadu state? Buddhists? Zoroastrians? Must be Jews. pic.twitter.com/ypeXYknY0o
— Tarek Fatah (@TarekFatah) June 9, 2019
However, the flags were not of Pakistan but Islamic flags often used by the Muslim community in the sub-continent. Alt News’s detailed fact-check can be read here.
Tarek Fatah wrote in foul language that “jihads” uprooted saplings to practice “killing infidel kaafirs” in Pakistan.
Pakistani Jihadis uprooting tree saplings to practice killing infidel kaafirs.
Which begs the eternal question:
How does one country produce so many rectums? Just how does Pakistan do it?
pic.twitter.com/ADNkdmvrR9
— Tarek Fatah (@TarekFatah) August 9, 2020
In reality, a chaotic incident took place at the Mandi Kas area in Khyber Agency in Pakistan. Newly-planted trees were uprooted by locals over alleged “forceful plantation on private land”. The tree plantation drive was an initiative by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf member Iqbal Afridi as a part of Pakistan’s 10 Billion Tree Tsunami, a nationwide plantation drive.
Locals uproot trees of PTI lawmaker’s plantation campaign in Khyber over land dispute#TheNews
— The News (@thenews_intl) August 9, 2020
The “Pak flags” theory has been propagated by Fatah several times. Last year, after Congress won the assembly polls in Rajasthan, he claimed that the victory was celebrated by Muslims in the state by raising Pakistani flags. Fatah later deleted the tweet but an archived version can be accessed here.
The flags in the video were actually representative of the ‘Indian Union Muslim League’ and not Pakistan. Alt News’s fact-check can be read here.
In the view of protests against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), Fatah retweeted a video of a man sporting a skull cap pelting a stone at a bus.
The video, however, turned out to be from 2017 therefore unrelated to CAA which was passed by the Parliament in December 2019. Moreover, in the complete video, one can spot a group of people pelting bricks at the bus, whereas in the video retweeted by Fatah, the portion where a man donning a skull cap was throwing a brick was mischievously clipped.
“Leading Islamist in India @KhanumArfa caught on video advocating for a “change in strategy” by Muslims to push for Islamisation of Hindustan without compromising their Islamic ideology,” wrote Fatah.
Leading Islamist in India @KhanumArfa caught on video advocating for a “change in strategy” by Muslims to push for Islamisation of Hindustan without compromising their Islamic ideology. She seems to advocate faking love of secularism, constitution & flag
pic.twitter.com/SsjBBf2svT
— Tarek Fatah (@TarekFatah) January 26, 2020
A speech delivered by Arfa Khanum at Aligarh Muslim University was clipped and misrepresented on social media. Fatah claimed that the journalist was promoting the establishment of Islamic society and urging protesters to maintain a pretence of support to non-Muslims until such a society is created. However, Khanum was stating the complete opposite. She urged protesters to not use religious slogans to maintain the secular character of the movement.
Alt News’s complete fact-check on the video can be read here.
A photograph of several men pelting stones was shared on social media in the backdrop of protests against CAA and NRC. In the middle of the group is an elderly man wearing a skull cap hurling stone. Fatah tweeted the photograph with the message, “Meanwhile #, in India a ‘peaceful’ in action.”
Meanwhile #, in India a ‘peaceful’ in action. pic.twitter.com/cVNeOwTErX
— Tarek Fatah (@TarekFatah) December 24, 2019
A reverse search of the image on Google revealed that it is almost three years old. We found the same image posted on January 8, 2016. The user claimed that the image is from the Malda riots.
During Malda Riots..Very Peaceful Protestor Tries to Pacify Situation by Throwing a Stone @tathagata2 @bengaleebabu pic.twitter.com/mXtQrESTvM
— সমরजीत দাस🇮🇳 (@jitsamar14) January 8, 2016
Fatah’s misinformation cycle is not limited to targeting Muslims but extends to attacking Congress using similar methods. A video where Rahul Gandhi can be heard saying, “Mahatma Gandhi picked up the idea of non-violence from ancient Indian philosophy, from Islam”, was shared by Fatah last year. (archive).
India’s Rahul Gandhi claims Gandhi Ji picked up the idea of ‘non-violence’ not just from ancient Indian philosophy, but also Islam. He takes Vote-bank politics to a new low. pic.twitter.com/rn9Vcp4eKC
— Tarek Fatah (@TarekFatah) January 13, 2019
The video, however, was clipped. The Congress President did not only mention Islam but other religions as well – “…Mahatma Gandhi picked up the idea of non-violence from ancient Indian philosophy, from Islam, from Christianity, from Judaism, from every great religion where it is clearly written that violence will not help anyone achieve anything.”
The relevant part of Rahul Gandhi’s speech can be seen in the video below starting at 23:37.
Read Alt News’s fact-check here.
“Muslim mob attacks a church and school, setting the building on fire and destroying church proper right under the nose of the police,” tweeted Fatah in April 2020.
Scenes from Pakistan:
Muslim mob attacks a church and school, setting the building on fire and destroying church proper right under the nose of the police. pic.twitter.com/WNr00QeIRO
— Tarek Fatah (@TarekFatah) April 28, 2020
The video carries text that says, “Mob are ready to attack on Mardan Church, Pakistan.” The same clip was also shared in 2017 which means that the incident is certainly not recent. A simple Google search with the keyword ‘Mardan church attack’ leads one to media reports from September 2012.
Read Alt News Fact Check.
A video of a woman holding a girl by her hair and beating up the child with what seems like a slipper was tweeted by Tarek Fatah in November 2019 with the claim that the incident took place in Pakistan and that such kind of “severe beating” is normal among Punjabi families.
Alt News found that the video is from Nagri area of Kathua district, Jammu & Kashmir and not Pakistan.
Follow Up : Horrible Viral Video of Nagri #Kathua
Mother detained by Police who brutally thrashed her 5 years old daughter.
Posted by JK MEDIA on Saturday, 16 November 2019
“Dear @PriyankaGandhi, ‘Nauroz’ was celebrated last month. The Kashmiri new year’s day being celebrated today is ‘Navreh’,” tweeted Tarek Fatah on April 6, 2019, trolling Priyanka Gandhi for her Kashmiri new year greeting (archive).
Dear @PriyankaGandhi, ‘Nauroz’ was celebrated last month. The Kashmiri new year’s day being celebrated today is ‘Navreh’. https://t.co/DDEUMxUkkU
— Tarek Fatah (@TarekFatah) April 6, 2019
Alt News found that Nauroz was a perfectly acceptable form of greeting for Kashmiri new year, used by Kashmiris themselves. Our detailed fact-check can be read here.
Fatah tweeted a video alleging that Congress leader Naseemuddin Siddiqui said, “Loyalty is for dogs. We Muslims own India; our loyalty is to Islam.”
“Loyalty is for dogs.
We Muslims own India;
our loyalty is to Islam.”
Indian @INCIndia Congress leader Nasimuddin Siddiqui unashamedly rejects all Indian laws not in conformity with Islamic Sharia.https://t.co/gyQkT1AxSw
— Tarek Fatah (@TarekFatah) December 31, 2019
The video dates back to August 2017. It features Samajwadi Party leader Mavia Ali who had kicked up a storm while reacting to Uttar Pradesh government’s controversial circular asking madrasas across the state to celebrate Independence Day and record a video of the event.
We are Muslims first, Indians after that: Mavia Ali, SP #PoliticsOverPatriotism pic.twitter.com/olZHzxKEhD
— Republic (@republic) August 14, 2017
A tweet that gained 2,400 retweets still adorns Fatah’s timeline despite debunked by international media (archive).
Pictures emerge of #Saudi officials bulldozing bodies of dead #Hajj pilgrims like garbage & dumping them into a pile. pic.twitter.com/6uKtbuF9Rm
— Tarek Fatah (@TarekFatah) September 26, 2015
His claim that Saudi officials bulldozed dead bodies of Hajj pilgrims was made using decade-old photographs.
Mina Mecca, old and new photos ! Don’t be mislead ! No bulldozer was used to move dead bodies. pic.twitter.com/diEXFpNfpJ
— Mufassil Islam (@mufassili) September 26, 2015
The misinformation was debunked by France24.
On October 13, 2017, Tarek Fatah made the aforestated claim via a tweet (archive).
At Least 2,000 #Rohingya Muslims join #ISIS with plans to to atack #Nagaland in India’s northeast. https://t.co/lFvd8cYBqW
— Tarek Fatah (@TarekFatah) October 13, 2017
His tweet was inspired by a story published by ANI on October 12, 2017.
Local publication Morung Express had raised a flag about ANI falling for fake news. It reported that the so-called news was circulating widely on Facebook and WhatsApp groups before ANI reported it. Alt News found messages dating back to October 10, 2017, on Facebook which claimed that Rohingyas were going to attack Nagaland. Renchamo P Kikon, IGP of the Intelligence Department of Nagaland Police, termed the news false. A detailed fact-check published by Alt News at the time is available here.
ANI subsequently took down its story and the organisation’s news editor Smita Prakash issued a statement.
pic.twitter.com/pyuXpumzDq
— Smita Prakash (@smitaprakash) October 15, 2017
While the misinformation cannot be pinned on Fatah since the news was published by ANI, his failure to take down the tweet despite ANI’s clarification shows a lack of concern.
This piece of disinformation was published by Kerala media outlet Janam TV. The organisation later deleted its YouTube broadcast but a written report is still available on its website.
SHOCKING: Al-Qaeda and ISIS presence in university campuses in the Indian state of Kerala. Muslim students rally in support of Islamic terrorist organisations. https://t.co/CDCJRjkRia
— Tarek Fatah (@TarekFatah) December 30, 2018
Alt News found that the flags show by Janam TV were not Al-Queda’s. The media outlet painted a nine-month-old video of an annual day celebration, where students dressed in black, as support to Al Qaeda and Islamic State by the students. Alt News’s investigative report can be accessed here. While the fake news was propagated by Janam TV, Fatah’s failure to take down his tweet (archive) despite fact-checks points to a lack of interest to curb misinformation.
In a historic move promoting women’s rights, Saudi Arabia lifted the decades-old ban on female drives in 2018. However, in a tweet marred with sexism, Fatah claimed that Saudi women began a “road rage” on the first day they were allowed to drive (archive).
Saudi women in ‘Road Rage’ fight on first day after they were allowed to drive https://t.co/6Ib7Mc4as2
— Tarek Fatah (@TarekFatah) July 2, 2018
The video tweeted by Fatah was not shot in 2018 but has been on the internet at least since 2015 when women could not drive on Saudi roads. Therefore, it cannot be representative of a fight that took place on the first day after the driving ban on women was lifted on June 24, 2018. SM Hoaxslayer had debunked the video.
Tarek Fatah tweeted a video with the claim that it shows a Pakistani mother denying polio workers from vaccinating her children. “Pakistani mother slams the door shut in the face of Polio workers. Screams at the two female volunteers,” read his tweet.
The video tweeted by Tarek Fatah is part of a 2018 movie Pakistani film ‘Load Wedding’. The same clip was uploaded on August 2, 2018, on YouTube. One can also spot cameras and the production team in the video.
On June 16, India played against Pakistan in the Cricket World Cup. A day before the match, Fatah tweeted that the Pakistani captain had to bring “a Mullah to bless the pitch for tomorrow’s match against India.” His tweet was liked over 10,000 times and received more 3,000 times.
The man in the picture was actually former Pakistani cricket captain Inzamam ul-Haq. Despite being called out by numerous people, Fatah neither took down his tweet nor did he post a clarification. He instead made a meme out of the photograph.
Columnist Harbir Singh quote-tweeted a tweet which shared a photograph of a turbaned woman holding an automatic weapon. The original tweet claimed that the image showed US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar at an Al-Qaeda training camp in Somalia. This was retweeted by Fatah.
This photograph does not show Omar but a woman recruit of the Somali Army at a military training campus at Halane, Mogadishu. The image is available in the archives of Associated Press, according to which it was shot on February 25, 1978. Omar wasn’t born until four years later in 1982.
Tarek Fatah shared a video on Twitter claiming that it depicts explosions in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia’s Halal nightclub. “Explosion last night at the Halal Disco in Jeddah Saudi Arabia. Many deaths and many injuries feared. Total ban on media coverage,” read his tweet (archive).
Alt News found that the video was uploaded by an Arabic media outlet Alziadiq8 on July 6, 2014, which described it as protests in Kuwait. A report by Al Jazeera said that on July 6 more than 2,000 people marched from Kuwait City’s Grand Mosque after evening Ramzan prayers and into the old market to protest the arrest of opposition leader, Musallam al-Barrak. The protesters also demanded the expulsion of corrupt judges. The police used tear gas and stun grenades to disperse the crowd.
Tarek Fatah tweeted a dance video with the words, “The Magic that is Hindustan.” The video has a Hindu devotional song with chants of Lord Ram playing in the background.
The Magic that is Hindustan pic.twitter.com/ANpDj189vJ
— Tarek Fatah (@TarekFatah) September 17, 2019
Fatah’s tweet was misleading as the dance form has been created by Zhang Jigang, an internationally acclaimed choreographer and an officer in the Chinese national army (PLA). Interestingly, the dance is performed by hearing-impaired artists.
Artists of China Disabled People’s Performing Art Troupe presented thousand-hand Bodhisattva dance on Monday at the United Nations headquarters in New York pic.twitter.com/jzlwg45JNq
— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) November 5, 2018
Tarek Fatah is a vocal critic of Islam, however, often blurring the lines between rational scepticism and contempt toward the Muslim community. As laid out in this report, he continually misrepresents events to throw a poor light on Muslims across the world, especially Indian Muslims. He frequently resorts to misinformation that is sectarian in nature to get his point across. Moreover, Fatah’s failure to clarify or takedown tweets that have been fact-checked as false or misleading suggests that he has very little regard for the truth. It is also important to point out here that Fatah has been able to weaponise misinformation because Twitter as a platform has failed to control sectarian misinformation adversely affecting democracies across the globe.
[This article was updated on August 27, 2020.]
Pooja Chaudhuri is a senior editor at Alt News.
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