Fact Check: Biker harasses Muslim man on road? No, video is scripted
A video has been circulating, claiming rioters are harassing a Muslim man on the road.
By Md Mahfooz Alam
Claim:The video shows two men on a bike allegedly harassing a bearded Muslim man by snatching his skull cap.
Fact:The claim is false. The video is scripted.
Hyderabad: A video circulating on social media shows two men on a bike allegedly harassing a bearded Muslim man by snatching his skull cap. The footage then shows another biker chasing and catching the two men, retrieving the cap from them. The cap, now visibly torn, is shown at the end of the video.
An X user shared the video and wrote, āA rioter and blind devotee was pulling off a Muslim manās cap on the street. But then, Abdul completely knocked the arrogance out of him ā in other words, Abdul beat him up. Itās not clear where this incident took placeā (Roughly translated from Hindi)
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the claim is false, as the video is scripted.
Next, we noticed the Instagram username Mulklesur_Ali and the phrase āMuklesur Bhaijaanā mentioned as text in the video. Using this clue, we found the Instagram account and found an extended version of the video, posted on April 12. We also found that the account has posted similar videos showing bikers harassing Muslim men (links here and here), including one involving a disabled Muslim man. That video was debunked by NewsMeter on February 27 as being scripted. In that video, we also found that the bike was registered under a Muslim name, and the same individuals appeared in several other scripted videos.
We also found the extended version of the video on the YouTube channel Muklesur Bhaijaan, published on November 26, 2024, and the caption claimed that a YouTuber helped a harassed Muslim man. The channel has 1.9 million subscribers and mentions in its About section that it shares bike-riding vlogs and scripted videos.
Hence, we conclude that the YouTube channel and Instagram account regularly share scripted videos portraying Muslims as victims of harassment. We have already debunked a similar video published by the same channel as scripted. Therefore, we conclude that the video showing bikers harassing a Muslim man is also staged.
