Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
The 2022 FIFA World Cup kicked off in Qatar last Sunday amid a flurry of claims alleging mass conversions during the event, led by controversial televangelist and India fugitive Zakir Naik. Now, another video, purportedly showing a preacher converting a group of people, is going viral with the claim that “non-Muslims in Qatar have accepted Islam”.
The archived version of the tweet can be seen here.
Fact check
Newschecker noticed that number of people who had allegedly converted to Islam in the viral video varied from post to post. While one user claimed that 120 people converted to Islam, another said that over 560 people changed their religion, raising doubts.
We then ran a reverse image search of keyframes of the video, which led us to this Youtube video, dated March 14, 2018 and titled “60 Filipinos convert to Islam”. A further search led us to another Youtube video with an Arabic title, dated March 11, 2018, stating that the conversion happened at Challenger Company in Al-Shahaniya in Doha, Qatar.
A comparison of both the viral and Youtube videos confirm that it is from the same event that happened in 2018.
Conclusion
Viral video claimed to be of mass conversion event dates back to at least 2018 in Qatar, and not during the ongoing FIFA World Cup.
Result: Partly false
Sources
Youtube video, March 14, 2018
Youtube video, March 11, 2018
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Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
