A video from Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, is doing rounds on social media. In the video, a man can be seen throwing something at the Kaaba and shouting at people gathered around before the security takes him away. The video is now going viral online with claims that the man is from Iran and he threw milk at the Kaaba claiming it to be a shivling.
A Facebook user posted the viral video with a caption in Hindi: ईरान के एक युवक ने “मक्का” पर दूध चढ़ाया और बोला हमारे पूर्वज “हिन्दु” थे और ये “शिवलिंग” है जय भोलेनाथ …. हर हर महादेव
(English Translation: A young man from Iran offered milk to “Mecca” and said our ancestors were “Hindu” and this is “Shivling”. Jai Bhole Nath ….. Everywhere Shiva)
You can watch the video here.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the viral post and found the claims to be false.
We started our investigation by running a Reverse Image Search on the video keyframes. Our search led us to a YouTube shorts video posted on June 28, 2018. The video keyframes match exactly with the viral video.
The title of the video read ‘A Man Who Tried To Burn Himself In Front Of The Holy Kaaba In Mecca, Saudi Arabia.’ Taking a cue from this we conducted a YouTube Search with relevant keywords and found a February 9, 2017, YouTube video titled ‘This man tried to set himself on fire outside the Kaaba in Mecca’ published on a verified YouTube channel of Middle East Eye– a London based online news outlet
The video published on their YouTube channel seems to be a part of the viral video, but from a different angle. The ending frames of the latter match with the video posted on the Middle East Eye. A similar news report dated February 8, 2017, can be seen on Siasat Daily’s YouTube channel as well.
To know more about the incident, we ran a Google Keyword Search and found a February 7, 2017, news report titled ‘Man tried to set himself ablaze, not Kaaba, security forces say’ published online on Gulf News. The news report states that the man was carrying gasoline in his bottle and was trying to immolate himself in front of the holy Kaaba before the security personnel came and rescued him. A spokesperson from the mosque’s security further told that the man is a Saudi national and was mentally ill. Similar reports can be found on Alarabiya news, onmanorama, and ABP News as well.
The news reports as well as the YouTube videos all indicate that the man was mentally ill and was trying to self-immolate in front of Kaaba. He was neither trying to burn down the mosque nor was he pouring milk at Kaaba claiming that it was a shivling.
Therefore, based on our investigation, we can conclusively say that the viral video showing an Iranian man pouring milk on Kaaba claiming it to be a shivling, is false.
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