A three-year-old video showing Muslims offering prayer on a street in France to protest against the closure of a mosque has been revived with captions suggesting that people from the community are blocking the streets to offer namaz.
BOOM found that the 2017 video is from Clichy commune in Paris, France where members of the Muslim community had offered prayers on the street as a mark of protest against the closure of a local mosque.
The video is viral in the backdrop of the recent shocking beheading of school teacher Samuel Paty allegedly for showing offensive cartoons of Prophet Mohammed as part of a class discussion on freedom of speech and expression. The incident led to a global outrage against Islamic extremists with people protesting against the attack.
The incident has also seen multiple protests against France and President Emmanuel.
Also read 2017 Protest Clip Viral Claiming Muslims In France Stopped From Praying
The viral video shows a group of people offering namaz on a street while the traffic is on a standstill. The video has been shared from verified Twitter handles as well as many Facebook pages with misleading claims.
A verified Twitter handle @Ali_Albukhaiti with 1 million followers has shared the clip with a caption in Arabic which translates to 'They cut off the street in a country where they are mainly guests, and obstructed the movement of people and obstructed their interests, a disgusting scene for performing the prayer in a place not designated for it, although they can perform it in mosques, homes, open yards, and even in the open. Islam and Muslims are really in crisis. Macron is true and Erdogan lied'. (Translated by Google)
Click here for an archive of the tweet.
Another verified Twitter handle @sameh_asker has shared the same clip with a caption in Arabic which translates to 'In Europe, Muslims did not respect the rights of the street, so they showed their power (in the name of God). An open trade in religion under the protection of secular laws prohibiting attacks on them in the name of freedom of expression and ritual performance. Question: Do these backward people dare to do this scene in #مصر or #السعودية or #ايران ? This is the meaning of Macron's words against the Muslim'.
Click here for archive of the tweet.
Another Twitter user has shared screenshots from the clip with an Arabic caption translating to 'Bravo upon you Pray in the streets, disrupt traffic and the interests of people ... Very soon we will find airplanes and ships loaded with you in a mass deportation campaign to your country of origin, so that you can live in your comfort, pray anywhere, and apply the Sharia you dream of'.
Click here for archive of tweet.
The same video is viral from several Facebook profiles with a different claim.
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A Facebook post has the same video with a claim 'Situation in France! Wait for it in India soon. Ambulances will have to wait till the prayers are over!! This is sickularism'.
Archive of the Facebook post can be accessed here.
Fact Check
BOOM did a YouTube search with keywords 'Prayers on street of France' and found a video uploaded on February 8, 2018 which had scenes from the viral video. The headline of the video is 'Islamic Street Prayer in France'.
At the time stamp of 3.12 one can see the same men shown in the viral video.
Performing a reverse image search on a screenshot from the YouTube video, we found another longer version of the same video uploaded on YouTube channel LDC News Agency on March 23, 2017.
The title with the video in French translates to 'Street prayer after the administrative closure of a mosque. Clichy / France - March 22, 2017'.
(French: Prière de rue après la fermeture administrative d'une mosquée. Clichy/France - 22 Mars 2017)
Watch the video below.
The details stated with the video read 'In Clichy-la-Garenne, many faithful prayed in the street in front of the Mary. They protest and demand the reopening of the mosque in rue d'Estienne-d'Orves. The Council of State had validated the decision to expel the mosque in November 2016. The municipality and owner of the premises wants to install a new media library (Sic)'.
Translated from French by Google
A BBC report from November 2017 mentions about the protest prayers by Muslim community in Clichy, France. The worshipers had told BBC that they had 'nowhere else to go since the town hall took over the room they used for prayers back in March'.
BOOM compared screenshots from the YouTube video with the viral video and found several shots to be one and the same.
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