In June this year, Alt News had debunked a viral photo-shopped image of a Madrasa teacher portraying Islam as superior to Hinduism. Five months hence, Canadian author of Pakistani origin Tarek Fatah has tweeted the same image captioned as – “No, the Mullah is not playing ‘knots & crosses’. He is teaching Muslim girls in an Indian Islamic school the comparative superiority of Islam over Hinduism.” In less than two hours, his tweet was retweeted nearly 700 times.

Original image

Alt News reverse searched the image and found that it was from an April 10, 2018 report that depicts a Madrasa named Darul Uloom Husseini in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh.

Many news organisations had reported the story and carried the original photograph, out of which an article from Outlook reported, “This Madrasa has become a centre for modern education, where along with Arabic and English, Sanskrit is also taught (translated from Hindi)”. It further states, “The speciality of this Madrasa is that Sanskrit is being taught by a Muslim teacher. Probably, this is the first time ever that Sanskrit is also being taught in Madrasa”. The original image can be seen below.

ANI had tweeted a few other photographs of the Madrasa in April 2018.

Alt News has reported several instances in the past where Tarek Fatah has spread misinformation on social media. From claiming that a girl was assaulted for not wearing a hijab to falling for fake news on 2,000 Rohingya Muslims joining ISIS, Fatah has contributed significantly to the online misinformation system.

Donate to Alt News!
Independent journalism that speaks truth to power and is free of corporate and political control is possible only when people start contributing towards the same. Please consider donating towards this endeavour to fight fake news and misinformation.

Donate Now

About the Author

Pooja Chaudhuri is a senior editor at Alt News.