Fact check: Anti-France protests passed off as anti-Modi rally in Bangladesh
Mashallah! Today's anti-Modi movement of Islamic parties in Dhaka. Islamic parties have shown that patriotism and....
By Satya Priya BN Published on 25 March 2021 5:25 AM GMT
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Bangladesh from March 26 to attend golden jubilee celebrations of its independence. He will also attend the birth centenary function of Bangladesh founder 'Bangabandhu' Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. This would be his first visit to a foreign country since the outbreak of the pandemic.
Meanwhile, an image of people protesting is going viral with a claim in Bangla "মাশাল্লাহ! ঢাকায় ইসলামী দলগুলোর আজকের মোদী বিরোধী আন্দোলন। ইসলামিক দলগুলো দেখিয়ে দিলো যে দেশপ্রেম এবং ধর্মপ্রেম তাদের হৃদয়ের মনিকোঠায় থাকে! অভিনন্দন ইসলামপ্রিয় তৌহিদী জনতা!️"
"Mashallah! Today's anti-Modi movement of Islamic parties in Dhaka. Islamic parties have shown that patriotism and religiosity are in their hearts! Congratulations Islam-loving Touhidi people! (Sic)" reads the English translation of the message
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Fact Check:
The claim that the photo shows an anti-Modi protest in Dhaka is FALSE.
When performed a reverse image search using Google, we found the same image being shared in October 2020 with the caption: "Bangladesh Dhaka protesting against psycho #Macron #Boycott_French_Products #IStand4MuhammadPBUH."
When searched with keywords "Bangladesh protest against France", we found several news reports. The reports state that around 10,000 people in Bangladesh rallied in the South Asian nation's capital to protest against the French president and his staunch support for secular laws that deem caricatures depicting the Prophet Muhammad acceptable.
Thousands of demonstrators carried banners and placards reading "all Muslims of the world, unite" and "Boycott France" as they marched towards French Embassy in Dhaka.
According to bbc.com, about 40,000 people took part in the march, which was organized by Islami Andolan Bangladesh, one of Bangladesh's largest Islamist parties.
Protesters chanted "Boycott French products" and called for President Macron to be punished.
Some carried portraits of French President Emmanuel Macron with an "X" on his face. One protester carried a cutout image of the French president with shoes around his neck as a sign of insult.
The issue has once again come to light in recent days following a gruesome beheading near Paris of a French teacher who showed caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in class. The 18-year-old Chechen refugee who carried out the attack was later shot dead by police.
The viral picture is from anti-France protests in 2020, and not anti-Modi rally in 2021.
