Claim
A video of a group of climate activists being dragged away by commuters in Paris, France last year is circulating on social media with false and communal claims that Muslims were forcefully removed for offering namaz on roads. The video has been captioned on Facebook Posts as “Shantidoots (messiah of peace, a rhetoric against Muslims used by right wingers in India) blocking road in France, by sitting for Namaz. A bodybuilder gets down his car, and throws all of them aside. We need to do the same here in Bharat!!”
Fact
BOOM debunked the same false claim in December, last year when author Madhu Purnima Kishwar had tweeted the same video making the false claim. We found that the video was uploaded by Sky News Arabia on its YouTube channel on December 1, 2022. The original description states that pedestrians can be seen removing environmental activists from the road in France. At that time Daily Express reported the incident where furious Parisian drivers dragged climate off the road on the Levallois bridge in Levallois-Perret, Paris. The protesters, who are members of the French activist group “Dernière Rénovation” had brought traffic to a standstill, prompting a strong retaliation by motorists. The activists were protesting against energy bill brought by President Emmanuel Macron led government.