A video of a man offering his prayers in the middle of a busy road in Istanbul is being shared with a false claim that the incident happened in London, United Kingdom.
The caption with the video is communal in nature and translates to, "London is under the grip of Islam. London, which ruled half of the world 75 years ago, is trapped in the clutches of Islam today...A lone Mullah is praying fearlessly on the congested roads of London. Showing the power of Islam in another sense. This is the upcoming future Hindustan...."
(Original Text in Hindi: #लंदन इस्लाम की चपेट में 75 वर्ष पहले आधी दुनिया पर राज करने वाला लंदन आज #इस्लाम के चंगुल में फंस चुका है। एक अकेला मुल्ला लंदन की #भीड़ भरी #सड़क पर निडर होकर #नमाज़ पढ़ रहा है। दूसरे मायने में इस्लाम की ताकत दिखा रहा है। यह आने वाले #हिन्दुस्तान का भविष्य है...1 मिनट 12 सेकंड के वीडियो में लंदन के व्यस्त सड़क पर एक अकेले मुल्ले को नमाज पढ़ते हुए देखें।)
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Viral On Facebook
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The video of the man offering prayer on the middle of a road is viral on Twitter as well.
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Fact Check
BOOM found that the video shows an incident from Turkey's capital Istanbul where a young man offered prayers in the middle of a road during the investigation.
According to a report on Turkish news website EN SON HABER published on 19 September 2021, a man started offering prayers ignoring the movement of vehicles on the Istanbul E-5 highway. When those commuting people noticed the man, they warned him for offering prayers in the direction of incoming vehicles. The video can be watched here.
The man, who was praying on the road, started walking carelessly saying "what are you saying?" and ignored the movement of the cars. The report includes several screenshots of the video. Middleeast.in 24 also reported about people's reaction to the video.
Many Twitter users also shared the video with a Turkish caption. Click here and here to see such posts.
We watched the video carefully and noticed a yellow coloured taxi with TET 57 and iTaksi written on it. A search for iTaksi showed that it is an online taxi service developed by Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB). Apart from this, a truck can also be seen with Erikli written on its body. BOOM found that Erikli is a bottled water brand in Turkey.
Taking a cue from the Turkish media report, we searched for the Istanbul E-5 highway on Google Maps and traced the blue glass building on the other side of the highway with 'Metroport' written on it in English. The building can be seen in the video.
The comparison can be seen below.
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