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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

台灣事實查核中心Religion & belief

網傳影片宣稱「義大利人民 全國跪地向天懺悔」？

Publisher’s rating: 錯誤

The claim attached to the circulating video said that people across Italy were kneeling to repent. The review traced the footage to a prayer event in Manaus, Brazil, rather than Italy. It reports matching the logo visible at the end of the video to the Brazilian church Mir Centro Sul, then finding the same footage on the church’s official Instagram account, where it had been posted on April 6, 2020. The review describes several checks of the video’s location. A title card visible at 00:03 mentions “manaus,” which the review identifies as the capital of Brazil’s Amazonas state. It also compared a street-facing shop in the footage, identified as Amazonas Energia, with a Google Maps photograph of a branch at the intersection of Ayrão Street and Maj. Gabriel Street in Manaus. The review says identifiable details, including a blue railing and a red-roofed building at another corner, matched. The original Instagram post described the event as a prayer for Brazil and the world amid the coronavirus outbreak. According to the review, it lasted 10 minutes and participants followed WHO-recommended social distancing, avoiding contact. These details locate and characterize the footage; they do not support the claim that the gathering took place in Italy. The review concludes that the video was from the Brazilian event and had been misrepresented as showing Italy.

FACTLYReligion & belief

Muslims killed Sadhus in Palghar (Maharashtra)

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns the lynching of people including sadhus in Palghar district, Maharashtra, and alleges that Muslims killed them because they were sadhus. FACTLY distinguishes the fact of the killings from the claim about the perpetrators and motive: it reports that three men were lynched, but says a group of villagers attacked them on suspicion that they were thieves, not in a communal incident. The review states that two of the deceased were sadhus. [S1: “While it is true that three people, including sadhus, were lynched in Palghar (Maharashtra), it was not a communal incident as mentioned in the post. A group of villagers lynched three men on the suspicion that they were thieves.”] To check the communal allegation, FACTLY says it searched for reporting on the incident, contacted the Palghar police public relations officer, and consulted statements attributed to police and Maharashtra’s home minister. The review quotes Inspector Anandrao Kale describing residents stopping the men’s vehicle and attacking them because they suspected the men were thieves. It also says the police PRO denied a communal angle. [S1: “When searched on the internet, many news reports regarding the incident were found in the search results.”] [S1: “FACTLY has contacted Palghar PRO, who has denied any communal angle to the incident.”] The review further reports that Palghar Police said the arrested accused belonged to the local tribal community, and that Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said the accused and victims were not from different religions and urged people not to portray the incident as communal. Together, these details address the claim’s central allegation: the review does not dispute that sadhus were among those killed, but reports evidence against the claim that Muslims killed them for being sadhus. [S1: “The Palghar Police tweeted that ‘till now 110 accused (of the local tribal community) have been arrested out of which 9 are juvenile.’”] [S1: “Anil Deshmukh (Home Minister of Maharashtra) has tweeted that the accused and victims are not from different religions and asked people not to portray it as a communal incident.”]

NewtralReligion & belief

Imágenes de musulmanes que se congregan para rezar en azoteas en España

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim concerns an image of people gathered on rooftops to pray, presented as showing Muslims in Spain and accompanied by text alleging that Spain’s Interior Ministry was not acting. Newtral says the image was not taken in Spain. It reports using reverse-image search to find the picture in an April 13, 2020 article by the Arabic-language site HowiyaPress, whose translated account placed it in Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh, Kuwait. The review also refers to a video posted by a regional newspaper that it says supports that location. The review then describes another location check: Alt News identified a tall building in the background near Dubai Creek, and the review says dome- and minaret-shaped structures visible in the image are within Dubai’s Department of Architectural Heritage. It reports comparing the image with Google Earth and Street View views of buildings, a shopping centre, and other landmarks to match the scene to a specific area in Dubai. These comparisons support the conclusion that the image was taken in Dubai, not Spain. The account contains two different location attributions: HowiyaPress is reported as identifying Kuwait, while the landmark comparisons are reported as identifying Dubai. Newtral’s stated conclusion is Dubai. It also says it could not establish whether the photo was current or old, so the review supports rejecting the claimed Spanish location but does not establish when the image was taken.

The QuintReligion & belief

Tablighi Jamaat member roaming around naked

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim attached to the video was that it showed a Tablighi Jamaat member walking naked in an isolation setting in India. The Quint’s review identifies the footage as a different incident: a naked man entered a mosque, damaged glass panels, and was filmed in Karachi in August 2019, months before the COVID-19 outbreak discussed in the claim. To trace the footage, the review says it found a longer version on YouTube through a keyword search. That version had been uploaded on 25 August 2019. Its Urdu caption placed the incident at Gulshan-e-Hadeed Phase 2 in Karachi and described the man entering a mosque, breaking glass, and lying in the imam’s place. The longer clip also showed him walking along the street before entering the mosque, with a man on a bike following him. The review compared the viral footage with images of Jamia Masjid Khalid Bin Waleed on Google Maps. It reported that the mosque’s blue board and window shapes matched those in the video. It also found earlier social-media descriptions identifying the man as Shafeeq Abroo and reporting that police had investigated. Those descriptions are presented as claims in the review, rather than as independently established findings. The location and dated versions of the same footage support the review’s conclusion that the video does not document the claimed Tablighi Jamaat or COVID-19 isolation incident.

FACTLYReligion & belief

Photo of Muslims offering prayers on the rooftops in India

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a photo presented as showing Muslims praying on rooftops in India, with the review noting that the image was also said to show people not following social-distancing rules. FACTLY’s investigation concluded that the pictured buildings are in Dubai, not India. That location finding directly contradicts the claim that the photo was taken in India. To identify the setting, FACTLY describes searching for a mosque-like building visible beside a waterbody, using reverse image search and keywords. It then searched Google Earth for the buildings on the opposite side of the waterbody, where the people were pictured, and reports finding them there. The review does not identify the people or establish where or when the photo was taken beyond its conclusion that it was taken in Dubai. The account therefore supports a conclusion about the image’s location, but not about the circumstances of the gathering: FACTLY says it could not find the photo’s context or when it was taken. The image’s identification as being from Dubai does not, on the evidence provided, establish whether the people were observing social-distancing rules.