Did 350 people convert to Islam in New Zealand after the Christchurch Mosque attack?
On March 15, at least 49 people were killed in a horrific massacre at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. Two days later, a claim started circulating on social media that 350 people have converted to Islam, after the Christchurch massacre, in New Zealand. “Did you know? The terrorist attack in #Christchurch killed 51 Muslims, today approximately 350 people have converted/reverted back to #Islam in New Zealand. Stop fearing/hating Islam, please try to understand it.”, tweeted Zain Khan, a broadcast journalist based in UAE, on March 18. The tweet included three pictures of women wearing a hijab.
Did you know?
— Zain Khan (@ZKhanOfficial) March 18, 2019
The terrorist attack in #Christchurch killed 51 Muslims, today approximately 350 people have converted/reverted back to #Islam in New Zealand.
Stop fearing/hating Islam, please try to understand it.#NewZealandShooting #Islamophobia pic.twitter.com/X02TditdBI
One Facebook user Javed Shaikh has posted these photographs with the same narrative. The post has garnered over 2000 shares so far.
Multiple people on Twitter have shared the claim based on a blog published on March 17, 2019. “50 Muslims were killed on Friday in New Zealand & 350 people accepted Islam today in New Zealand”, states the title of a blog according to which 350 people have converted to Islam after the mass shooting in Christchurch. The blog also carried a photograph of a couple, where the woman was seen donning a hijab. It has garnered close to 3.8 lakh shares on Facebook alone.
A website named KashmirGlacier.com had also used the same image featuring a couple with an identical narrative. A tweet by @ibrocan2007, an individual user was one of the earliest that Alt News could trace back to on social media. This was several hours before a blog was published by Loveforislamic. The archived version of the blog can be accessed here.
ALHAMDULILLAH...
— ABOKI MX CITY (@ibrocan2007) March 17, 2019
They killed 50 Muslims while praying yesterday and today over 350 accepted Islam in New Zealand ???? pic.twitter.com/QhRQ6LHlmU
Viral video
A Facebook page, Sajid Hashmat has shared a video with an identical narrative, which has gathered more than 38,000 shares and 4 lakh views so far.
Several other individuals and pages have posted the same video claiming that 350 people have converted to Islam after the christchurch massacre.
Fact-check
The video now viral on social media with a narrative that 350 people have been proselytized to Islam in New Zealand is at least 10 years old and unrelated. It was posted on YouTube on September 27, 2009, while the video stated that it dates back to 2007.
Images
Alt News found that the photographs shared as those of proselytized individuals are several years old and are not related to the claim. Using Google reverse image search on the images circulating on social media, here is what we have discovered:
- This image pertains to a woman who had designed a ‘rugby hijab’ to support All Blacks, New Zealand’s national rugby team. A caption below the same image published in an article by a New Zealand website Stuff on September 18, 2017, reads, “Rehana Ali and her husband Azam Ali supporting the All Blacks in her uniquely designed All Blacks hijab”.
- Nancy Allen, a Christian woman from South Carolina, USA had worn a hijab in support of Muslim women and freedom of religion, according to an article published by an online edition of American newspaper Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on February 14, 2016.
- The image of a woman wearing a blue coloured hijab is generic and has existed on the internet at least since September 2018.
- On Facebook, the picture of a woman holding a Quran in her hand was posted on December 22, 2016.
Thus, old and unrelated pictures and video were circulated on the internet as those of people who converted to Islam after the attack in Christchurch. The source of the ‘350’ number was a poorly written blog. While the figure of 350 people converting to Islam cannot be independently verified, there are no references to any mass conversations in any media report.
Courtesy: www.altnews.in
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Police arrested Kejriwal's aide at same time his anticipatory bail plea was being heard: Atishi
New Delhi (PTI): Delhi Minister Atishi alleged on Saturday that the city police arrested Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's aide Bibhav Kumar at the same time his anticipatory bail plea was being heard in court.
Kumar was arrested on Saturday in connection with the alleged assault on AAP Rajya Sabha member Swati Maliwal, officials said.
He was picked up from the chief minister's residence by a Delhi Police team around noon, a senior officer said.
Addressing a press conference, Atishi said Kumar had filed a plea for anticipatory bail before the Tis Hazari court.
Kumar was picked up for questioning by the Delhi Police around 11 am. As soon as he was taken for questioning, news channels started saying he had been arrested, she claimed.
"This shows the BJP's conspiracy. Their intention is to disturb our election campaign and Arvind Kejriwal," she said.
Atishi said the Tis Hazari court considered Kumar's matter urgent and agreed to hear his plea on Saturday itself.
"The court commenced hearing on his plea at 3:55 pm and within 20 minutes, the Delhi Police arrested him at the Civil Lines police station. As soon as his lawyers began arguments, the police learnt that their case is weak and Kumar would get relief. So they arrested Kumar," she claimed.
Atishi alleged that when the court was dictating its order on the matter at 4:55 pm, the Delhi Police lawyer appeared through videoconferencing and said Kumar had already been arrested.
Kumar's anticipatory bail plea has become "infructuous" as he has been arrested, the court observed.
The chief minister's aide, accused of assaulting Maliwal on May 13 at Kejriwal's residence, was arrested two days after an FIR was registered against him at the Civil Lines police station.
Additional Sessions Judge Sushil Anuj Tyagi, while dictating the order to the court staff on the anticipatory bail plea, noted that Additional Public Prosecutor Atul Kumar Srivastava appeared through videoconferencing around 4:45 pm and informed the court that Kumar had already been arrested.
Atishi said, "Even they knew that their case was weak and if the case was heard, Bibhav Kumar would get bail. That is why tomorrow (Sunday) Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will lead all AAP leaders and to the BJP headquarters and court arrest."
Kejriwal said he and other AAP leaders would go to the BJP headquarters on Sunday "so that the prime minister can send anyone he wants to jail".
The BJP is saying they would send AAP MP Raghav Chadha and Delhi ministers Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj to jail, he claimed at a press briefing, hours after Kumar was arrested.
