On June 9, a 30-second video showing a large-scale public prayer of Muslims was disseminated on social media. The author of the post claims that the footage was taken in Paris on June 9.
The footage is being circulated with a false description. The Muslim shrine shown in the video is actually the Moscow Cathedral Mosque and therefore is not located in Paris, but in Russia. The video can be found on the Internet since 2022.
The video has been on the Internet since 2022 and was first posted on May 3 by X account, حمود الطوقي . On the same day, a bit later, the Turkish daily Yeni Akit also published the same footage.
We also verified the location of the shots through Google Maps and it was confirmed that the mentioned mosque is not located in Paris, but in Moscow.
The Muslims gathered in the frame are celebrating the religious holiday – Eid al-Adha. The universal Muslim holiday is also celebrated in Russia in the form of numerous gatherings and prayers every year, as evidenced by the widespread footage. According to The Moscow Times, on May 2, 2022, Moscow Muslims celebrated the end of the holy month of Ramadan at the Moscow Cathedral.
The public prayer related to this holiday was recorded in Moscow as early as 2013. In particular, in October 2013, user Olga Ivshina shared a photo depicting the celebration of Kurban Bayram on Twitter.
According to The Moscow Times, Eid al-Adha was celebrated in Moscow in 2023 as well.
The mentioned video has been circulating in various countries since 2022 with incorrect descriptions and has been verified by a number of fact-checking organizations (Newschecker, Alt News, AFP Fact Check, You Turn).
About the Source
The Georgian-language Facebook account “Fantina Fantina” along with her other accounts regularly spreads false information. “Myth Detector” has debunked the false information disseminated by the user a number of times in the past.
Irina Samakashvili
Myth Detetor Laboratory
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