Man asking people to read Hindu scripture is Acharya Prashant Sharma, not a Muslim scholar

The text in the video suggests that the man in the video is a Muslim scholar.

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the man in the video is Acharya Prashant Sharma, a Hindu preacher.

We skimmed through the comment section of the viral post and found a user saying that the man in the video is Acharya Prashant Sharma.

Taking a cue from this, we ran a keyword search and found an extended version of the video posted on the Facebook page of Acharya Prashant Sharma on 30 June 2022. The viral clip appears at the 1.50-minute mark.

We checked Sharma’s Facebook account and found several posts related to the Hindu religion. The bio section of the page states, “The aim is to make Vedic philosophy accessible to you.”

Sharma had also posted a shorter version of the video on Twitter on 30 June 2022. The video is captioned, “They have learned terror from Quran, what have you learned from Vedas? Don’t be afraid, we have to fight.”

During our investigation, we found that the clip was also viral last year with the claim that it shows a Muslim scholar. On 7 July 2022, Sharma put out a clarification in a Facebook post. He posted screenshots of social media posts and WhatsApp forwards that refer to him as a Muslim scholar and asked, “Which Muslim recites Veda mantras in Hindi and Sanskrit like this?”

He also mentioned in the post that he was contacted by Aaj Tak for a fact check. He had clarified to Aaj Tak, “It is my video. I had posted a small chunk from the longer video on Twitter and that has become viral. Now people from WhatsApp University are sharing it as a remark from a Muslim scholar.”

From this, we conclude that the viral provocative video clip shows Acharya Prashant Sharma, not a Muslim scholar. Hence, the claim is false.