A fake notice claiming to show Dubai-based Association of Sunni Muslims offering financial support to Muslims travelling to Karnataka to oust the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is viral online.
BOOM found that the claims are false, we found no evidence regarding the existence of an organisation called the Association of Sunni Muslims in Dubai and the address and contact numbers mentioned in the notice were fake too.
The notice dated April 29, 2024, claimed to offer financial support including ticket booking for Muslims voting in Karnataka on May 7 to oust Modi and vote for the Congress, a "true friend of the Muslims."
A user on X shared the fake notice with the caption, "Association of Sunni Muslims, Dubai is offering full financial support to Muslims to fly to Karnataka to defeat 'Fascist Forces' and restore CONgress. Meanwhile Hindus are sleeping at home as it is a hot summer or worse lying that Mualana Modi has done nothing for Hindus."
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
The claim is also circulating on Facebook with a similar caption.
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
FACT CHECK
BOOM did not find any results for an Association of Sunni Muslims in Dubai and the contact numbers and address mentioned in the notice were fake.
We first ran a search for the Association of Sunni Muslims (Dubai) on Google and Facebook and did not find results.
We then ran a search for the address mentioned on the notice's letterhead, '11th street, Khalid Bin Walid Road, Plot no. Umm Hurair One, Dubai, United Arab Emirates'.
We found that the address belongs to the Consulate General of Pakistan in Dubai and is listed on their website too.
Further, we reached out to the three contact numbers listed in the notice, and found that none of them were associated with the Association of Sunni Muslims.
The first number, attributed to a certain Mohammed Fayaz, is actually the contact number for a coffee machine sales and services company, Dallmayr. Upon reaching out to the number on WhatsApp, the company responded and clarified that they were "not affiliated with the organisation mentioned in the claim. I have no connection to this matter," they added.
The Instagram page of Dallmayr also carries the same contact number that is falsely linked to the Association of Sunni Muslims.
BOOM also reached out to the second and third contact listed in the notice via WhatsApp, both of which gave similar replies and said that the notice was fake and they were not associated with any such organisation. Further, the second contact, listed as 'Firoz Hidyatullah' in the notice clarified that their actual name was Santhakumar and they were from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.