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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 Indian Hindu Monk Nirmal Singh Ji with two women

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns footage said to show Indian Hindu monk Nirmal Singh Ji, also known as Guruji, with two women. FACTLY says the video instead depicts Pallegama Sumana Thero, a Sri Lankan Buddhist monk. The review reports that the footage shows people entering a residence in Nawagamuwa, Sri Lanka, where Thero was allegedly intimate with two women in July 2023. To investigate the footage’s origin, FACTLY says it conducted a reverse image search. That search led to reports by Sri Lankan media outlets featuring the same visuals, published on 08 July 2023, and identifying their origin as the Nawagamuwa area. This links the viral visuals to the Sri Lankan incident rather than to Nirmal Singh Ji. The review also gives two reasons the identification cannot be Nirmal Singh Ji: it reports that he died in 2007, and says a member of his Delhi ashram told India Today that the video had no connection to him. Taken together, the reported footage provenance and those details support the review’s conclusion that the video does not show Nirmal Singh Ji.

Fact Crescendo Sri LankaReligion & belief

කිරුලපන ධම්මවිජය හිමියන් ඉලක්ක කරගනිමින් සමාජ ජාලා තුළ පැතිරෙන අසත්‍ය ප්‍රචාර!

Publisher’s rating: False

The review examined social-media posts alleging that Kirulapana Dhammavijaya Thera had made contradictory claims about his life: that the JVP killed his father in 1989, and that he served as a soldier during the war, despite reportedly joining the army in 2011. The posts also associated him with the army’s long-range operations force. The review says it found no video, mainstream-media report, or post on his own social-media accounts showing him making the alleged statements, and found no such material in online archives. It located the video used with the posts, but says it concerned his legal action against Sepala Amarasinghe, not his personal history. (S1: “සමාජ ජාලා සටහන්වල පළව තිබුණේ උන්වහන්සේ තමන්ගේ ජීවිතය පිළිබඳව එකිනෙකට පරස්පර විරෝධී නොගැලපෙන කරුණු පවසා ඇති බවක්.”; “නමුත් එවන් වීඩියෝ පටයක් හෝ උන්වහන්සේ විසින් එසේ පවසා ඇති බවට ප්‍රධාන ධාරාවේ මාධ්‍ය විසින් වාර්තා කර ඇති බවක් දැකගන්නට ලැබුණේ නැහැ.”; “නමුත් එහිදී ද උන්වහන්සේගේ පුද්ගලික ජිවිතයේ කරුණු සකච්ඡා වන්නේ නැති අතර, ‘කිරුළපන ධම්මවිජය ස්වාමීන් වහන්සේ, සේපාල අමරසිංහට එරෙහිව නඩු මගට’ යන තේමාවෙන් පළවූ එම වීඩියෝ කොටස මෙතනින්.”) As further checks, the review describes examining an earlier interview in which the monk discussed false information about him, and says its reporters contacted him by phone. In the interview, he said he joined the army in 2011, after the war ended, and that he had not turned 18 during the war. He said his father died in 2014. The review reports that he denied making the statements attributed to him and said his army service was in the Sri Lanka Engineer Regiment. (S1: “එම සාකච්ඡාවේදී උන්වහන්සේ අවධාරණය කරන්නේ තමන් යුධ හමුදාවට බැඳුනේ යුද්ධය අවසන්වීමෙන් පසුව 2011 වසරේදී බවයි.”; “එසේම ධම්මවිජය ස්වාමින්වහන්සේ ගේ පියා මිය ගොස් ඇත්තේ 2014 වසරේදී බවත් උන්වහන්සේ පවසනවා.”; “තමන් එවැන්නක් නොපැවසූ බව සදහන් කරන උන්වහන්සේ වැඩිදුරටත් පැවසුවේ තමන් යුධ හමුදාවේ කටයුතු කලේ ශ්‍රී ලංකා ඉංජිනේරු රෙජිමේන්තුවේ බවයි.”) The review’s account of his chronology places his father’s death in 2014, followed by his departure from the army and entry into monastic life. It says he described spending time meditating at a forest monastery in the Mahaw area and later in a cave in Pulmude before beginning to give sermons. These details provide context for the allegations; the review’s stated conclusion is that he had not claimed his father was killed by the JVP in 1989 or that he served in the long-range operations force during the war. (S1: “2014 වසරේ සිය පියාගේ මරණයෙන් ඇතිවූ කලකිරීම නිසා පැවිදිව මහව ප්‍රදේශයේ ආරණ්‍ය සේනාසනයකට ගොස් බණ භාවනා කරමින් කටයුතු කර, ඉන් අනතුරුව පුල්මුඩේ ප්‍රදේශයේ ගල් ගුහාවක වසර කිහිපයක් භාවනා කටයුතු සිදු කර”; “කිරුලපන ධම්මවිජය හිමියන් විසින් උන්වහන්සේගේ පියා 1989 දී ජවිපෙ විසින් ඝාතනය කල බවට හෝ , යුද්ධය පැවති සමයේ හමුදාවට බැදී දිගු දුර මෙහෙයුම් බලකායේ/මහසෝන් බලකායේ කටයුතු කල බවට කිසිදු අවස්ථාවක පවසා නොමැති බවයි.”)

FACTLYReligion & belief

ఏదైనా దేశ జనాభాలో ముస్లింల వాటా 16% దాటినట్లైతే వంద లేదా నూటయాభై ఏళ్ల లోపు దశలవారీగా ఆ దేశం ఇస్లామిక్ దేశంగా మారుతుందని హార్వర్డ్ యూనివర్సిటీ చేసిన అధ్యయనంలో రుజువైంది

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

FACTLYReligion & belief

Video of a non-Muslim woman being forcefully converted to Islam

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a video presented as showing a non-Muslim woman being forcefully converted to Islam, in a post that linked it to alleged events in India and to the film “The Kerala Story.” FACTLY reports that the footage instead shows a Muslim priest, or peer, conducting an exorcism on a Muslim woman in Bangladesh. Its account therefore disputes both the asserted conversion of the woman and the suggested connection to India. The review describes tracing the footage through reverse image searches of screenshots from the shared video. Those searches led to a June 2021 BlogSpot article that had already described the footage as an exorcism video misrepresented as a forced-conversion scene. FACTLY also found extended versions posted by YouTube users in 2019, predating the post under review. The review gives further context for what appears in the footage: a 2019 response from a Bengali speaker characterized it as an exorcism, not a forced conversion, and said the woman was Muslim. It also reports that Bangladesh-based Rumor Scanner identified the scene as a priest performing an exorcism on a Muslim woman. According to the review’s account of that reporting, the priest addressed a supposed jinn inside her and taught it the Kalima in an attempt to convert the jinn—not the woman—to Islam. Thus, the clip’s conversion-related words or actions were presented without the context needed to identify who was supposedly being converted.