“Protest in London against action taken by Sri Lankan Government.. Against Tertorist who organised synchronised bomb attacks in the country..! Their brothers just killed 290 Christians in Srilanka..! Is this a joke or something.. Now terrorists are Victims..!!”
The above message has been shared widely on social media platforms, along with a video showing a group of protesters holding placards. It has been claimed that this protest by the Muslim community took place in London, against the crackdown on terror by the Sri Lankan government after the recent attacks in which over 300 people were killed.
The text written on the placards reads, ‘Sri Lankan Govt enemy of Islam and Muslims’, ‘Muslim nation is one nation’ and ‘Muslims Rise’, among others.
Protest in London against Srilankan govt for taking action against Jihadis, post terror attack..
This is the biggest reason for growing terror attacks. The muslims around the world come together in support playing victim card.
And terrorists are the” Victims.” pic.twitter.com/fD5MrGXP4W
— Pratheesh Viswanath (@pratheesh_Hind) April 29, 2019
The above tweet by a user, posted on April 29, has been retweeted over 1200 times already. The message and the accompanying video have gone viral on Twitter and Facebook. Several individual users have posted the video on their timelines with identical text. This suggests that the same may be circulating on WhatsApp as well.
Old video, from 2013
The video which has been circulated so aggressively by social media users is not representative of any recent event. It was shot in 2013. A protest had been organised in London against the Sri Lankan government, outside the Sri Lankan embassy. The backdrop to this protest was the campaign organised by the Bodu Bala Sena, a hardline Sinhalese Buddhist nationalist organisation, against the Muslim community over the ‘growing rise of Islamism’ in the island nation.
Alt News found that this particular video has been available online since at least May 2013. It is available on YouTube, and has been posted below for reference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTXRo0f_EiM
In conclusion, a video of a protest from 2013 was shared widely on social media with the false claim that it represented a demonstration against the Sri Lankan government for taking action against terror.
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