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PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

Religion & belief fact checks

Explore claims publishers have checked about religion & belief. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.

3,371 published reviews in this topic

FACTLYReligion & belief

Video of a monkey ringing bell at Ayodhya Ram Mandir

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a video of a monkey swinging on a temple flagstaff and ringing bells, said to show an incident that happens every day at Ayodhya Ram Mandir. FACTLY identifies the temple in the footage as Sri Bhoga Narasimha Swamy Temple at Devarayanadurga, Karnataka, rather than the claimed site in Ayodhya. The investigation describes a sequence of visual checks. A keyword search found a similar YouTube video whose description identified Devarayanadurga temple. The reviewers then searched Google Maps for that temple and compared user-posted images with screenshots from the disputed video and the YouTube video. They report seeing matching features, including the flagstaff and its surrounding premises. The article also points to travelogue videos that show the same flagstaff and surroundings. As additional context for rejecting the Ayodhya attribution, the review states that the proposed temple was still under construction and that there was no proper temple-like structure there at the time. The article’s conclusion rests on the visual similarities linking the footage to the Karnataka temple, alongside that description of the Ayodhya site. The excerpt does not provide a date for the video or identify the original uploader.

FACTLYReligion & belief

Video of Muslim leaders speaking aggressively to police, who tried to stop them building a Mosque by encroaching Hindu temple

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim attributes the confrontation shown in a circulating video to Muslim leaders trying to build a mosque on encroached Hindu temple land, and says police were there to stop them. The investigation identifies the man in the footage as Majid Hussain, a corporator representing Mehdipatnam ward of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation. It places the confrontation in Banjara Hills, Hyderabad, where police were intervening in a dispute between Hussain’s group and another party over ownership of property. To check the communal explanation for the confrontation, the review says it examined news reports about the incident and contacted the Banjara Hills station house officer. The reports described a civil dispute between two factions claiming the property; the review found no reporting that Hussain’s group was building a mosque or that a Hindu temple had been encroached upon. The SHO, according to the review, also characterized the matter as a property-ownership dispute and rejected those allegations. The review further reports that police booked a case against Hussain for allegedly obstructing officers in their duties, and that another case was filed following a complaint by Nikhil Reddy, the other person involved in the argument. Those details provide a different account of why police were present: the described incident concerned a property dispute and police intervention, not an attempt to stop mosque construction on temple land. The supplied excerpt does not give the incident’s date or identify the individual news reports, so those details cannot be established here.

FACTLYReligion & belief

Photo of anti-Sharia signboard placed at the Indian side of India-Pakistan border

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a photo said to show an anti-Sharia signboard on the Indian side of the India-Pakistan border. The sign in the circulated image appears to say, “YOU ARE ENTERING INTO A SHARIA-FREE ZONE. PLEASE SET YOUR WATCHES FORWARD 1400 YEARS.” FACTLY’s review reports that the image was altered, rather than a photograph of such a sign at the claimed border location. To investigate, the review says it used reverse image search and found a similar signboard photo in a Latin Dispatch photo essay published on 15 September 2010. The text visible on that original sign was a warning that weapons and ammunition are illegal in Mexico—not a message about Sharia. The review identifies the original sign as one warning about illegal firearms trafficking into Mexico and places it at San Luis, Arizona, on the US-Mexico border. The review also reports that India’s Press Information Bureau addressed this specific image on 26 July 2021, saying it had been digitally altered and that the Indian army had not put up such a sign at the India-Pakistan border. Taken together, the identified original photo and the contemporaneous clarification address both the image’s provenance and the claimed location.

Fact CrescendoReligion & belief

Claim: John Paul not kissed his homeland I போப் தன் தாய் மண்ணுக்கு முத்தமிட்ட புகைப்படமா இது?

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim attached to the circulating photo was that Pope John Paul II was kissing the soil of his homeland. The review identifies the pictured pope as John Paul II and says he was known to kiss the ground after landing in countries he visited. It distinguishes that general practice from the specific question at issue: whether this particular photograph was taken in Poland, his native country. The review also describes the post’s political framing, which contrasted the pope’s regard for his homeland with Indian Christians’ supposed lack of regard for theirs, but says its investigation focused only on the photo’s location. To investigate, the reviewers searched for other photographs and videos of John Paul II kissing the ground, then used reverse-image search on the image in question and continued looking for when and where it had been taken. They report finding that the photo showed him kissing the ground at an airport in Lithuania on September 4, 1993—not in Poland. Their conclusion therefore addresses the specific photograph, not whether John Paul II ever kissed the soil of Poland or other countries: the photo does not establish the claim that this scene occurred in his homeland.

Fact Crescendo Sri LankaReligion & belief

FACT CHECK: කතරගම දේවාලයේ ගිනිපෑගීමේ චාරිත්‍රයට ඇමති බැසිල් සහභාගිවූ අවස්ථාවක්ද?

Publisher’s rating: False

The claim concerns a photograph circulated as showing Minister Basil Rajapaksa taking part in the Kataragama temple’s fire-walking ritual. The review identifies the image as one taken during the ritual held at the Ruhunu Maha Kataragama Devalaya in July 2021, and says it checked whether the person shown was Rajapaksa. The photograph’s resemblance was attributed in part to the person wearing a face mask, which made him look like the minister. To establish who was pictured, the review reports contacting the journalists who had taken photographs of the scene. Sandima Dewapriya said the person in his image was not Rajapaksa. Asanka Subodha identified the person in his photograph as a police officer. The review then says it contacted that officer, who identified himself as K. H. Piyatilaka, a police sergeant serving at the Agunukolapelessa Police Station and assigned to duty at Kataragama. He confirmed that the photograph showed him. The review also reports checking with the Kataragama Devalaya office. It said no VIPs took part in the ritual, which was held on the 21st at 4:15 a.m.; about 20 people participated, and only people who had undergone PCR testing were permitted to perform it. Taken together, the image-source accounts and the temple office’s information support the conclusion that the person in the photograph was Piyatilaka, not Basil Rajapaksa.