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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

Social Media UsersReligion & belief

FACT CHECK: පොසොන් පොහෝ දා රුවන්මහවැලිසෑය පුදබිමේ දී අසූහාර දහසක කිරිපිඬු පූජාවක්?

Publisher’s rating: Misleading

The posts implied that an offering of 84,000 portions of kiripidu (milk rice) took place at the Ruwanwelisaya shrine on Poson Poya, June 24, 2021. The review reports that the shrine’s chief incumbent said no such offering had taken place. He explained that, because of the pandemic, outside people had not been permitted to hold offerings there; only the shrine’s daily observances were taking place, and an offering of this kind had not been held recently. The investigation also checked the image used to support the posts through a reverse-image search. It traced the offering shown in that image to July 24, 2018, at the Ruwanwelisaya, and reported that it had been held under the patronage of former minister Mervyn Silva. The image therefore did not document a new offering on Poson Poya in 2021. The review concludes that the posts were misleading: they presented a 2018 ceremony as if it had taken place at the shrine on June 24, 2021. Its account also distinguishes the other image in the comparison, which it says came from a video about residents unable to obtain food in a travel-restricted area of Kandy, rather than from the offering itself.

FACTLYReligion & belief

Images of Muslims practising yoga in Saudi Arabia

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim concerned two social-media images said to show Muslims practising yoga in Saudi Arabia, shared around International Yoga Day on 21 June 2021. The review traced each image to a different place: one to Abu Dhabi and the other to Ahmedabad, India. Its conclusion is that neither image documents yoga practice in Saudi Arabia. For the first image, the review says it used reverse image search and found the same image in a 2017 Gulf News article. That article’s caption identified the people as Bohra community members practising yoga at the Bohra Islamic Community Cultural Society in Abu Dhabi. The review also reports that the gathering was held ahead of the third International Yoga Day. For the second image, reverse image search led to a 2015 VOA News article containing the same image. Its caption placed the scene at a school in Ahmedabad and identified the participants as Indian Muslim students practising yoga ahead of the first International Yoga Day. Together, the two image matches establish that the photographs predate the 2021 claim and depict events in Abu Dhabi and Ahmedabad, not Saudi Arabia.

FACTLYReligion & belief

‘ಇತಿಹಾಸದಲ್ಲಿ ಮೊದಲ ಬಾರಿಗೆ ತಿರುಮಲಕ್ಕೆ ಹೋಗಲು ಸಾಧ್ಯವಾಗದವರಿಗೆ ಮತ್ತು ಕೊರೊನಾದಿಂದ ಶ್ರೀನಿವಾಸ ಸ್ವಾಮಿ ದೇವರ ದರ್ಶನ ಪಡೆಯದವರಿಗೆ ದೇವಾಲಯವು ಸ್ವಾಮಿಯ ಮೂಲವಿರಾಟ್ ದರ್ಶನದ ವಿಡಿಯೋ ಬಿಡುಗಡೆ ಮಾಡಿದೆ.

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

dpaReligion & belief

Foto zegt meer dan duizend woorden over moslimkoppels.

Publisher’s rating: De post mist essentiële context: de foto is een geposeerd portret. Het toont geen echt koppel of echte situatie.

The post shared a beach photograph with the caption “1 beeld zegt meer dan 1000 woorden,” suggesting that the image spoke for itself. The review identifies the people in the image as a man in swim trunks and a woman wearing a chador. It says the photograph was not a candid scene or evidence of an actual couple’s situation: it was a posed portrait created by Dutch photographer Jaimy Gail for her “Normaal Doen” series in 2017. The review names the man as Mehran Palad and says he was, or was at the time, Gail’s partner. It adds that the woman’s identity is unknown. Thus, the image does show people posing together, but its original setting was an artistic project, not a documentary record of an ordinary couple or spontaneous encounter. According to the review, Gail’s series explored the idea of what is considered “normal” in Dutch culture. The photograph’s original presentation invited viewers to decide for themselves whether they found it normal and to reflect on the social norms behind that judgment. The post omitted that project context, changing how viewers might interpret the image.