An old video of a student in the United States posing a question to a panel about the negative portrayal of Islam around the world has surfaced with a misleading claim that she questioned the Muslim representation in US President elect Donald Trump's cabinet picks.
Trump is set to return to the White House in January 2025 after winning the US elections; he has already announced his Cabinet nominees with them set to be nominated with the advice and consent of the Senate, the US upper house of Parliament.
The video is being shared with the caption, "President Trump of America is taking oath on 20th January 2025, he has given place to people from all religions, castes and countries in his cabinet but unlike Modi ji, he has not included a single Muslim in his cabinet. A Muslim girl living in America asked the officials sitting on the stage a question that why the image of us Muslims is presented wrongly all over the world ..* the answer given by a female officer there was ear-opening.."
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FACT-CHECK: Old Video From 2014 US Panel Discussion
BOOM found that the viral video is from 2014, and not a recent video of a law student in the United States questioning a panel about Muslim representation after Trump's cabinet nominations.
In the viral video there is a name "The Heritage Foundation" written behind the panel. Taking a hint we found that the footage has been taken from a 2014 panel discussion held by the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation.
The original video is from June 17, 2014, uploaded with the title, "Full Context: Benghazi Accountability Coalition Event". The discussion was centered around the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012.
In the video, the woman identifies herself as Saba Ahmed, a law student in an American University. She asks how Muslims can be represented fairly in the US and be distinguished from the ideologies of Jihadists.
To this, Frank Gaffney, an American defense policy analyst states that the panel doesn't think "Muslims are the problem". He further goes on to talk about Sharia and the problems with it.
The second panelist Brigitte Gabriel, a Lebanese-American conservative activist states that radical Muslims are around 15 to 25 precent according to Intelligence services. She then concludes that 150 to 300 million people are dedicated to the "destruction of the western world". After this Conservative US talk show host Chris Plante concludes his response to the student by asking who's the head of the "Muslim peace movement".
The discussion in the video is not linked to Trump's cabinet picks and also predates Trump's first term in office which was in 2016. Additionally, the panelists are not US officials as being claimed in the viral post.
The conservative think tank had one more panelist who didn't answer the question - former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer Clare Lopez, who's been dubbed as an anti-Muslim conspiracy theorist.
The conversation can be seen below:
