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.
Pankaj Menon is a fact-checker based out of Delhi who enjoys ‘digital sleuthing’ and calling out misinformation. He has completed his MA in International Relations from Madras University and has worked with organisations like NDTV, Times Now and Deccan Chronicle online in the past.
Claim
Madinah Municipality is washing and sanitising the streets of Madinah near the holy Masjid Al-Nabawi owing to the visit by a “non-Muslim” delegation led by Indian Union minority affairs minister Smriti Irani.
Fact
Arab fact-checkers, news outlet related to the holy mosques dismiss the claim as unfounded, saying the municipality routinely cleans the area inside and around the mosque.
Several social media users, including verified accounts, are circulating a video, which claims that Saudi Arabia’s Madinah Municipality is washing and sanitising the streets of Madinah near the holy Masjid Al-Nabawi, because a “non-Muslim” delegation led by Indian Union minority affairs minister Smriti Irani had visited a few days ago.
The archived version of the tweets can be seen here and here.
Irani’s Visit Triggers Social Media Outrage
Union minister Smriti Irani’s ‘historic visit‘ to Madinah after her signing the Bilateral Haj Agreement 2024 with Saudi minister of Hajj and Umrah Tawfiq bin Fawzan Al-Rabiah on January 7, which grants India a quota of 175,025 pilgrims for this year’s Hajj pilgrimage, reportedly led to a debate on social media, where users asked whether non-Muslims are allowed to enter Madinah.
“Though some netizens are trying to target Indian Muslims, the fact is that non-Muslims are allowed to visit Madinah. The restriction is only applicable for entry to the Nabawi Square where the Al-Masjid is located. However, in Makkah, only Muslims are allowed,” read a Siasat Daily report, dated January 10, 2024.
Fact Check
Newschecker first ran a keyword search for “Smriti Irani Madinah visit cleaning”, which did not lead us to any credible news reports of such an operation undertaken by the civic authorities following Irani’s visit.
We got in touch with Haramain Sharifain, an online news outlet that is a major source of information related to the two holy mosques, which stated that the viral claim is incorrect and baseless information. “The allegations in the video are inherently racist and unfounded and should be discarded. The Madinah municipality often cleans the streets outside the two Holy Mosques as often as two times a week depending on the situation,” said Haramain Sharifain.
Newschecker also got in contact with investigative reporter Saja Mortada, manager of Arab Fact-Checkers Network (AFCN), who directed us to Dina Ibrahim from Egypt-based Akhbharmeter Observatory’s fact-checking team, who reiterated that the team found the claim to be false. “The city of Medina does, in fact, carry out regular cleaning operations inside and around the Prophet’s Mosque. The Medina Municipality also publishes weekly statistics on the number of field cleaning rounds in the city in general, as well as the number of sites that have been disinfected and sanitised,” said Ibrahim, directing us to several online posts, seen here, here, here and here, confirming the regular cleaning operations. We, however, could not independently verify if the viral video is of a cleaning operation after Irani’s visit.
Also Read: Kerala not to shut down electricity on Ram Mandir consecration day as claimed
Conclusion
Viral claim stating that the Madinah Municipality washed and sanitised the streets of Madinah, near the holy Masjid Al-Nabawi, because of Smriti Irani’s visit was found to be false.
Result: False
Sources
Conversation with Dina Ibrahim, Akhbharmeter Observatory’s fact-checking team
Conversation with Haramain Sharifain
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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.
Pankaj Menon is a fact-checker based out of Delhi who enjoys ‘digital sleuthing’ and calling out misinformation. He has completed his MA in International Relations from Madras University and has worked with organisations like NDTV, Times Now and Deccan Chronicle online in the past.
