Muslims dragged off the road in France for praying in the streets? No, claim is misleading
A video is being shared with the claim that Muslims doing namaz on the road were dragged off the road in France.
By Md Mahfooz Alam Published on 23 Dec 2022 11:42 AM GMT
Hyderabad: A video is being shared with the claim that Muslims doing namaz on the road were dragged off the road in France.
Right-wing activist Madhu Kishwar shared the video and wrote, "France. People are getting down from their cars& clearing roads occupied by the Namazisā¦"
Former Governor of Meghalaya, Tathagata Roy, shared the video and wrote, "Some people were trying to do Namaj on the road in a town in France, blocking traffic. The public is dealing with them."
Several Facebook users shared the video with the same claim. (Click here and here to see the posts.)
Fact Check
NewsMeter performed a reverse image search of the video's keyframe and found the same video published on Daily Motion on 2 December 2022. The video is titled "French remove some activists who were blocking the road."
Taking a cue from this, we ran a keyword search and found the same video in a report published by Daily Express on 2 December. According to the report, the video is from Paris, France. It said climate activists blocked the road on the Levallois bridge in Levallois-Perret, Paris. Furious drivers took matters into their hands and brutally dragged them off the road.
Finally, we found a report by Ouest France, a French newspaper, from 26 November. It carried images with visuals similar to the viral video. It mentioned that a group of seven activists from the 'Last Renovation' was dragged off by angry commuters to clear the traffic, which remained blocked for half an hour.
It is evident that the video shows climate activists being dragged off the road, not Muslims praying on the road. Hence, we conclude that the claim is misleading.
