Old video of Imam praying during an earthquake falsely linked to recent Indonesia temblor

Social media users are sharing a video of a man praying fearlessly inside a mosque even during heavy tremors.

The video is been shared widely in the backdrop of a deadly 5.6-magnitude earthquake that struck western Indonesia on 21st November 2022, killing at least 162 people and injuring hundreds in Cianjur in West Java.

In the viral video, you can see an Imam along with many others worshipping in a Mosque. Within seconds the place got hit with terrific tremors. Everyone else started running in chaos but the Imam continued praying and refused to run which shows his unbroken faith in Allah and his prayers. Following him, two others also remained and a few others came back and joined the Imam.

The viral post reads, '#Earthquake of 5.6 magnitude hits Indonesia, 56 died and700 injured so far. worshipers continued to pray Salah. SubhanAllah. May Allah bless them and have mercy on them.'

FACT CHECK

NewsMeter ran a reverse image search on the keyframes to find the origin of the video. We found the full version of the same viral clip on the official channel of The Guardian and BBC News published 4 years back.

The viral video titled 'Indonesian imam continues prayers in Bali during earthquake' was uploaded on Youtube on 6th August 2018. In the description of the video, The Guardian writes: "Footage of an imam reciting evening prayers in Bali while a deadly earthquake struck the neighboring island of Lombok has gone viral, with people praising him for his unwavering faith."

BBC reported: "A spokesman for the Musholla As-Syuhada mosque told BBC News Indonesian that worshippers heard sounds from "the ceiling and the roof like it was going to fall, so we ran. The imam, named Arafat, stayed as he believed "his life was only for God to take" and so the mosque was "the best place to take shelter".

Lastly, we also found the same incident reported on Outlook as well that confirms that the video is 4 years old that is 2018 from an earthquake in Bali, Indonesia, and not a recent one.

The claim is false.