FACT CHECK: Vir Das is not Muslim, Wiki page is edited
Actor-comedian Vir Das’ stand-up performance on `Two Indias’ at John F Kennedy Centre in Washington DC is drawing heavy criticism.
By Newsmeter Network Published on 20 Nov 2021 11:00 AM IST
HYDERABAD: Actor-comedian Vir Das' stand-up performance on `Two Indias' at John F Kennedy Centre in Washington DC is drawing heavy criticism. Netizens believe that he presented India in a bad light on an international stage.
Social media users are sharing a screenshot of Vir Das' Wikipedia page claiming that the stand-up comic is a Muslim. The screenshot shows Vir's name as 'Vir Abdullah Das'.
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FACT CHECK:
NewsMeter looked at Vir Das' Wikipedia page. The team found that currently, the name shows up as just "Vir Das", the name "Abdullah" wasn't mentioned. We checked the history and edits page to find any edits made previously. It was found that at 6: 45 am on November 17, the page was edited and the name "Abdullah" was added.
Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, has entries written and maintained by contributors and allows anyone to make changes to the articles (with some exceptions to prevent vandalism). Thus it was easy for anyone to access the page and edit the name to falsely claim the stand-up comic is a Muslim.
Several changes had been made on November 16 and 17 which were later removed. Another such change was his nationality from Indian to Nigerian. Another change that was later edited was against Das' family. Users claimed that the comedian had been accused of raping his family members.
Clearly, the Wikipedia page had been edited and the name was changed.
Moreover, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal in 2019, the actor spoke at length about his parents and mentioned their names. "My father, Ranu, worked for a big Indian food-processing company. My mother, Madhur, was a teacher in Lagos," he said.
This slightly indicates that his family is not Muslim.
Although no clear statement of Vir Das' religion has been issued anywhere, it is safe to say that the viral screenshot of Das' Wikipedia page claiming his middle name as "Abdullah" and that he is a Muslim is false.
