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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

Photo of a burqa-clad Qatari news anchor expressing concern over religious freedom in India.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim attached to the photo identified the woman as Fatima Sheikh, a Qatari news anchor, and said she was expressing concern about religious freedom in India. FACTLY’s investigation identifies the person in the image instead as Khatereh Ahmadi, an Afghanistan TV anchor who worked for TOLO News in Kabul. It says the image shows her covering her face while reading the news, not making the statement attributed to the supposed Qatari anchor. The review describes a reverse image search as its method for tracing the photograph. That search found the same image published by the Associated Press, whose caption identified Ahmadi and described her as reading the news at TOLO News in Kabul on Sunday, May 22, 2022. This provenance directly connects the circulated photograph to an Afghan journalist and the stated broadcast setting, rather than to the claimed Qatari identity or Indian religious-freedom statement. The review gives the relevant context: the Taliban government had ordered female TV news anchors in Afghanistan to cover their faces while on air. It reports that Ahmadi was seen doing so on May 22, 2022. This context explains the face covering shown in the photograph; the supplied evidence does not support interpreting it as a burqa-clad Qatari anchor expressing concern about India.

FACTLYReligion & belief

Photo showing the Prasad served at Vaishno Devi temple

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a photo circulated as showing prasad served at Vaishno Devi temple in Jammu and Kashmir. FACTLY identifies the image instead as showing food prepared for a “Kabir Parkat Diwas Bhandara” held by Sant Rampal in Rohtak, Haryana, on 9 June 2017. It says the meal was served free to people invited to the event, rather than being prasad from the temple. The review describes using reverse image search to find similar photos posted on Facebook in June 2017. It reports that one post connected the laddus to an event on 9 June, and that other posts showed similar laddus in connection with Sant Kabir. The review also says that searches for relevant terms found video stories about the Rohtak event, whose visuals it matched to the “Kabir Parkat Diwas Bhandara.” For further context, FACTLY reports that the event was associated with a celebration of Kabir Prakat Diwas and quotes the organisation involved as saying the occasion commemorates Kabir’s manifestation in 1398 in Kashi (Varanasi). It says the occasion is celebrated with a bhandara, and that the first such bhandara was organised in Rohtak in 2017. These details place the meal in the reported Haryana event, not at Vaishno Devi.

FactRakersReligion & belief

Pope Francis delivered retirement speech

Publisher’s rating: Misleading

The review examined Facebook posts presenting a text about family as Pope Francis’s “retirement speech.” It reports that the text was not his exact wording, but an unofficial summary and a pastor’s analysis of a speech he gave in Cuba in 2015. The review also says there was no official Vatican announcement that the 85-year-old pope was set to retire. To check the text’s provenance, the review compared it with the official translation of Francis’s address at the World Meeting of Families in Santiago, Cuba, on Sept. 22, 2015. That translation did not contain the text shared in the posts. The review traces the circulated material instead to a pastor’s reflection that excerpted an unofficial translation and summary published by Uganda’s Daily Monitor in November 2015. The review describes how the retirement framing spread: a Facebook post by Dom Badinas on June 7 quoted the reflection and called it a retirement speech, then removed its opening paragraph later that day. The review reports that the original version had received 80,000 interactions by then. Its account supports the conclusion that the post misrepresented a text derived from an earlier family address as a retirement speech; it does not report that Francis delivered a retirement address.

dpa-factcheckingReligion & belief

Die russisch-orthodoxen Priester segnen eine Satan-Rakete

Publisher’s rating: Das Foto zeigt nicht Russlands Rakete mit dem Spitznamen «Satan», sondern eine andere Interkontinentalrakete. Es ist zudem alt und schon mindestens seit dem Jahr 2015 im Umlauf.

The review identifies the missile in the image as a Yars, not a missile nicknamed “Satan.” It says the photo had circulated since at least 2015 and depicts a blessing connected with the Victory Parade.

FACTLYReligion & belief

Recent video of the crowd protesting the comments of Nupur Sharma on Prophet Muhammad.

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim concerns a video presented as recent footage of people protesting Nupur Sharma’s comments about Prophet Muhammad. FACTLY reports that the video instead shows a gathering in Lahore, Pakistan, for the Chehlum of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan chief Khadim Hussain Rizvi, held on 3 January 2021. The review says this event was unrelated to Sharma’s later comments.

FACTLYReligion & belief

Photo of a Hindu family who converted to Islam in the United States

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a photo circulated as showing four members of one Hindu family who had recently converted to Islam in the United States. FACTLY says its reverse-image search found similar images in a Facebook post from 7 November 2015, where the user described a German man named Donel Clause converting with his family in Hurghada, Egypt. The review also located the same photo in a Youm7 article dated 6 November 2015, which identified the family as German and placed the conversion at Al-Tawhid Mosque in Hurghada. (S1) The review’s account of the image’s earlier appearances and the matching location and family details contradicts the post’s US setting and identification of the family as Hindu. The article reports that Donel Clause converted with his wife and two children, and says the photo was reportedly taken after the mosque’s imam distributed a Quran to each family member. It also cautions that the family’s prior religious background could not be established. (S1)