Communally Charged Speech By Muslim Cleric Revived As Recent

An old communally senstive and inciting speech by a Muslim cleric expressing anger over Tabrez Ansari's killing has been revived as recent. The video of the cleric is being shared after Delhi police arrested a gunman for firing shots in the air in a bid to threaten protesters at Shaheen Bagh.

The video from 2019 was shared by Sambit Patra, Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson with a caption quoting the cleric, "they want to live and our children are ready to die. Dangerous very Dangerous... Wake Up before it's too late!!"

Geetika Swami has posted the video with a claim that reads, "open threat by Delhi Maulana instigating violence and communal hatred against Hindus, What makes us think that these fiery speeches have no effect on vulnerable young minds? #JamiaShooting #HinduLeadersOnTarget #MondayThoughts #JamiaFiring"

Following which, Swarajya columnist Shefali Vaidya has quote tweeted Swami's tweet and wrote: "where is the outrage on this?"

The video is being shared amid the incidents of gun firings in the poll-bound national capital to counter the Citizenship Amendment Act protests. Till now four incidents of carrying guns have been reported in Delhi, among these three resulted in a shooting.

Two days following the Jamia shooting committed by a teenager, another man on February 1, 2020, fired bullets at Shaheen Bagh, a place that is being considered as the cornerstone of anti-CAA protests. While firing he shouted: "in our country, only Hindus will prevail". Read here and here. Delhi Assembly polls are set on January 8, 2020.

Also read: Did Anti-CAA Protesters Burn Photos Of Hindu Gods?

Fact Check

BOOM ran a reverse image search using keyframes from the clip and found that the video was uploaded on YouTube in the last week of June 2019.

See videos here and here. We also found that the longer version of the video shows the Muslim cleric, identified as Mufti Raees, the Dehradun district president of Ulema-e-Hind, was speaking to media after Tabrez Ansari's lynching by a mob on June 17, 2019.

We listened to the longer video, excerpts to which are given below:

Raees replying to a reporter's question about recent events says, "To which Raees can be heard replying, "this topic is brought up in continuation with Tabrez, Muslim kids have spoken up. This should have taken up long ago...This is a spark that will spread like a wildfire and will shake up till Delhi. This is because mob lynching is not one or two... it has happened in hundreds. This is a conspiracy. This is a saffron conspiracy, not a coincidence...but remember all the conspirators and listen carefully, Muslims have awakened."

He further says, "against the torture, these mob lynchings... Muslims also have children. Muslims are also powerful. We have weapons and can use them. Yet, Muslims are peace-loving and seek the development of this country...we want to establish Hindu-Muslim brotherhood...but if we also do the same, we will make their lives worse in this country. The atrocities they have been doing upon us, if we give a cue to our kids and provoke them, they are far more powerful than them. We are the children of the person who stood at Kubbat Al Sakhra and told Jews that you have ten people who want to live and we have the ones who want to die..."

Also Read: BJP's Inayat Hussain Assaulted For Supporting CAA? A FactCheck

Taking clues from the videos' introductions, we did a keywords search and found reports on the incident.

A Hindi daily, Jagran, reported, "according to the police, in a protest of Tabrez Ansari's lynching by a mob, Muslim Seva Sangathan had handed over a memorandum at Collectorate on June 27, [2019], a large crowd from Muslim community has participated in the protest."

The report citing police further reads: "Mufti Raees, a resident of Azaad Colony, has spoken to media at a road in court compound. Accusations were that the speech was inflammatory and to disturb communal harmony. The video went viral on social media and many organisations have asked to register a case."

According to The Times of India, the cleric was later booked under Section 153 A (1) (b) and 505-2 of the Indian Penal Code.