The self-proclaimed Islamic evangelist Zakir Naik has been invited to the FIFA World Cup 2022, Qatar, to give religious lectures throughout the tournament. Naik, who has been in exile in Malaysia since 2017, is wanted in India for money-laundering charges, and alleged links to terror-related activities. So, the decision to invite him to the FIFA World Cup has infuriated a lot of Indian fans.
Against the backdrop, a viral video of 30 seconds, claiming four people converted to Islam after listening to Naik’s lecture in Qatar, is doing the rounds on social media.
A Facebook user posted the viral video with a caption: #fifaworldcup2022 : 4 People accepted Islam after listening lecture by Zakir naik in Qatar, Alhumdulillah
You can check the video here.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the viral video, and found it to be misleading.
Running a Keyword Search around the incident, we identified a tweet published on the official handle of Jaber Al Harami — the editor-in-chief of the Qatari paper Al Sharq. The Arabic tweet in English translation informs that four people converted to Islam after Naik’s lecture, but the tweet dates back to May 27, 2016.
The video in the tweet matches exactly with the viral clip, indicating that the incident has nothing to do with the ongoing FIFA World Cup.
We also came across a live-stream video from the same date done from the official Facebook account of the Doha-based channel Al Jazeera Mubasher.
The keyframes from 4:12 match with the viral video, and the 5-minute long live-stream informs that these four people converted to Islam after Zakir Naik’s lecture titled: “Does God Exist?”
An article in Arabic, dated May 28, 2016 and published in Al-Sharaq, translates to ‘In the video… 8 people converted to Islam at Dr Zakir’s lecture in Katara’ and informs that Naik visited the Katara Cultural Village Foundation in Doha and delivered his lecture “Does God Exist?”. It is here, eight people converted to Islam after his lecture ended.
We could not find a single news report informing that people converted to Islam during FIFA World Cup. Therefore, we can conclusively say that the viral video, claiming 4 people converted to Islam after listening to a lecture by Zakir Naik in Qatar, is misleading.
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