Old Hate Speech By Bangladeshi Cleric Falsely Linked To Indian Elections

An old video showing hate speech by a Muslim cleric in Bangladesh is being peddled with a false communal spin, linking it to the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.

The viral video is being shared with the caption which roughly translated from Hindi reads, "If congress comes to power, they will go door to door and invite Hindus to Islam." In the 26 seconds video, a man is seen making objectionable remarks against Hindus.

(Original video - Congress agar aa gayi to ghar ghar jaakar Hinduon ko Islam ki dawat bhi denge.)

Click here to view, and here for an archive

FACT-CHECK

BOOM found that the viral video dates back to 2021 and is from Bangladesh. It is not related to India or the Congress party and is being shared with the misleading claim on social media posts.

We broke the video into keyframes and ran a reverse image search on Google. The search results showed that the video is from Bangladesh and dates back to 2021.

The YouTube channel 'Dr Syed Irshad Ahmad Al Bukhari' posted a longer version of the video on April 30, 2021. The caption of the video reads, "Likewise @Mufti Salman Azhari Allama Dr Syed Irshad Bukhari gave Mubahila Challenge to Vile Gustakhe Rasool Narsinghanand Saraswati from Bangladesh"

The caption identifies the man in the video as Dr Syed Irshad Bukhari and in the 7 minutes video, we can hear him protesting against Hindutva leader Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati's anti Prophet Muhammad statements.

At the 1.35 minutes timestamp to 7 minutes timestamp, we see the same sequence of events as in the viral video.

In this original video Bukhari criticises Narsinghanand and goes on to challenge him to convert to Islam. In the video below, Bukkhari does not speak about India or the Congress Party.

Click here to view