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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

The mob has humiliated the old Brahmin by making him remove his janeu (sacred thread generally worn by Brahmins) and dance after stripping his clothes

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a video circulated with an allegation that a mob stripped an old Brahmin man, made him remove his janeu, and forced him to dance. FACTLY reports that the footage instead shows him dancing voluntarily at an event honouring Tamil social activist and politician E.V. Periyar Ramaswamy. The review says the event was near a Periyar statue by Sankara Mutt Temple and identifies the gathering as a rally held on May Day. To check the allegation, the review says it found a Tamil fact-check about the video, then located a longer version on YouTube. The full video, uploaded by the channel Karuppar Koottam on June 24, 2019, runs for 1 minute 37 seconds; the social-media post used a 10-second clip. In the longer footage, the man is seen among a crowd holding black flags bearing Periyar Ramasamy’s image. At about 1:14, he adjusts his janeu, interacts with drummers and shakes their hands. FACTLY reports that the thread remains on his body throughout the video. The review also describes contacting Karuppar Koottam. The channel said the man came to the event and began dancing, after which people nearby cheered and applauded. The longer footage and the channel’s account support the review’s conclusion that the clip does not show the alleged forced removal of his sacred thread or coerced dancing; the short clip’s presentation omitted the broader event context.

FACTLYReligion & belief

Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman has threatened that if Muslims in India are forced to say ‘Jai Sri Ram’, then he would convert all the Hindus in his country to Muslims and also cancel their visas.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a specific alleged threat by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman: if Muslims in India were forced to say “Jai Sri Ram,” he would convert Hindus in Saudi Arabia to Islam and cancel their visas. FACTLY’s review concludes that he made no such threat and reports that it found no credible information authenticating the allegation. The review does not present a direct statement from the crown prince or other primary evidence about the alleged threat. To check the allegation, the review says it searched Google for reports of the remarks and found no relevant information. It reasons that remarks of this kind would likely have been reported by major newspapers in India and Saudi Arabia, but says it found nothing concrete to substantiate the claim. This is the review’s account of its search, rather than proof that every possible source was examined. The review also says it checked whether the crown prince had posted the alleged statement on social media and found that he had no Facebook or Twitter accounts. It closes by reiterating that it found no evidence he threatened the conversions or visa cancellations described in the post. The evidence presented is thus the review’s search and lack of corroboration, not an independently reproduced record of the alleged statement.

Fact CrescendoReligion & belief

Claim: Bill Gates converted to Islam

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The review investigates a social-media video presented as showing Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates accepting Islam. It says the clip was posted by Basheer Khan on September 12, 2018. In the footage, an unidentified Western-looking man recites the Islamic declaration of faith and appears tearful; the accompanying post identifies him as Gates. The review notes that the man is not identified within the video itself. To check that identification, the reviewers compared the man’s appearance with Gates and concluded that he did not look like him. They also searched YouTube for related footage and found a video, posted on April 7, 2018, described as showing an American official accepting Islam; the review says that video also did not identify the person. It reports no information establishing where or when the viral footage was filmed. The review further says it found other fact-check articles addressing the same video and reports that Gates had described himself as a Catholic Christian in an interview. Its conclusion is that the footage shows someone else and was misleadingly circulated as evidence that Gates had converted. The excerpt does not identify the man in the footage or establish the location and original filming date, so those details remain unresolved.

Fact CrescendoReligion & belief

Claim: Live Video of Athi Varadar Darshan held on June 20

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The review investigates a Facebook post shared on June 20, 2019, which claimed that Athi Varadar had emerged from a well at the Varadaraja Perumal Temple in Kanchipuram and that the rare darshan would not be possible again until 2059. The review says the post’s video was being shared as footage of that event. It finds that the video does not show Athi Varadar darshan. To assess the post, the review reports examining comments beneath it. Some commenters identified the footage as Devarajar darshan during the Nadavavi festival, rather than an Athi Varadar event, and said the Athi Varadar event would take place in July. The review also says it searched for information about the Nadavavi festival and found the video’s “true video source,” which it says confirmed that identification. The review concludes that footage of the Nadavavi festival had been misrepresented as Athi Varadar darshan. Its finding addresses the specific video in the June 20 post; the excerpt does not provide further details about the source video or the particular evidence used to identify it beyond the reported search and confirmation.

FACTLYReligion & belief

At the time of partition, in India, the Hindu and Muslim populations were 93% and 3% respectively. Currently, the proportions are 77% and 21% respectively. In Pakistan, the Hindu population reduced from 23% (at time of partition) to 2% (now).

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The post claims that India’s population was 93% Hindu and 3% Muslim at Partition, compared with 77% Hindu and 21% Muslim “currently,” and that Pakistan’s Hindu share fell from 23% at Partition to 2%. FACTLY says the figures are false. A key qualification is that the review found no official population figures for either country for 1947: the countries’ official census numbers were first given in 1951. The post’s Partition-era percentages therefore are not established by the official census comparisons the review discusses. For India, the review uses religious-population figures from the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment’s *Handbook on Social Welfare Statistics – 2018*. It reports that Hindus accounted for 84.1% of the population in 1951 and 78.3% in 2011, while Muslims accounted for 9.4% and 14.2%, respectively. Those census figures do not support the post’s stated 93%/3% and 77%/21% comparison. For Pakistan, the review says the relevant 1951 figure was for West Pakistan, then part of Pakistan: Hindus were 1.6%, not 23%. It also reports a 1.6% Hindu share in the 1998 census, while noting that it found no official figures for more recent years. It adds that East Pakistan separated in 1971 to form Bangladesh and had a higher Hindu proportion than West Pakistan. Thus the post’s Pakistan comparison also does not match the census figures cited, and the review does not establish its claimed current 2% figure.