FACT CHECK: Viral Image of Lions Protecting a Man Praying in The Middle of a Road is Fake…
Religions around the world have their own ways and methods of worship. In Islam, the religious prayer Salat or Salah, also known as Namaz, is performed first standing and later kneeling or sitting on the ground, reciting verses from the holy Qur'an glorifying and praising Allah. An image of a worshipper offering Namaz in the […]
Religions around the world have their own ways and methods of worship. In Islam, the religious prayer Salat or Salah, also known as Namaz, is performed first standing and later kneeling or sitting on the ground, reciting verses from the holy Qur'an glorifying and praising Allah. An image of a worshipper offering Namaz in the middle of the road surrounded by a pride of lions who are disrupting traffic and allowing the devotee to complete his prayers has gone viral on social media.
However, when we investigated these posts claiming sighting a miracle, we found out that the image used is not real but altered. The devotee praying has been added into the picture which was actually of lions disrupting traffic on a road in South Africa. Let us see the claims that were being made about this viral image and also look at the research methods we adopted to find out the truth.
Claims made on Social Media:
Several Facebook pages and users shared the image of a person offering Namaz in the middle of a road while lions look on. Below is an example of one such post with a caption that reads as follows: “Islam is the only true Religion on the earth.”
This image appeared in many other Facebook posts and was also shared among Tamil language users as well.
Fact Check
We carried out a reverse image search of this image and came across many news reports carrying a similar image. Several prominent media websites in India had published reports with this image around mid-January 2019 after a video of full-grown lions blocking a road in Kruger National Park, South Africa had gone viral.
Comparison of images published in these websites and viral posts proved that the devotee performing Namaz had been clearly added to the original image
We also noticed a YouTube video posted by Africa Adventures on 27th November 2016 titled “Largest Lion Pride Ever Blocking Road in Kruger Park” and a screen comparison from 16th minute 37 second proved that the viral image is related to the above incident
In addition, a reverse image search on the devotee performing Namaz on the street proved that its image which is used extensively to show how Muslim prayers are performed as seen here
Here is an analysis report of the same image done by Fact Crescendo Malayalam, after this image had gone viral in India.
Conclusion
Our fact check proves that the viral image of image of a devotee offering traditional Namaz prayers in middle of a road guarded by well grown lions is clearly an altered image. Original image dates back to an incident from 2016, when a large group of lions were blocking a road in Kruger Park, South Africa.
Title:Viral Image of Lions Protecting a Man Praying in The Middle of a Road is Fake…
Fact Check By: Sathyajith SubasingheResult: Altered
