French football player Paul Pogba has rubbished media reports which claimed that he had quit the national team in protest against President Emmanuel Macron's recent comments on Islam.
Pogba, who is Muslim, shared a screenshot of an article by the British tabloid The Sun which has been superimposed by a graphic which read "Unacceptable. Fake News." The Manchester United footballer also shared the image on Twitter. In the caption, Pogba termed the news "absolutely 100% unfounded" and also stated that he will be taking legal action against those who published the claims.
The rumour was first reported by an Arabic website called 195sports who claimed that Pogba had quit the national team over alleged comments made by Macron. The report stated that Macron had termed Islam as the source of international terrorism. However, BOOM could not find any record of Macron making any such comment.
Macron allegedly made the comment after a teacher, Samuel Paty, was beheaded for showing images of the Prohphet Mohammed to his class. The report on 195sports stated that Macron's comment as well as his decision to award France's highest civilian award to the deceased teacher Paty were the reason's for Pogba to announce his retirement from international football.
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British news outlets The Daily Mail and Daily Mirror also published the news as did the Indian websites WION and Republic World. While The Sun, Daily Mail and Daily Mirror updated their articles with a corrigendum, WION and Republic have only updated their articles without acknowledging their mistake.
The claim is still viral on social media with thousands of Facebook and Twitter users congratulating Pogba for quitting the national team.
The archive of the post can be accessed here.
The archive of the post can be accessed here.
The archive of the tweet can be accessed
here.
The archive of the tweet can be accessed here.
Fake Macron Comment
While Macron has criticised "Islamic separatism" in France, there is no record of him claiming it to be the source of terrorism. The French president has earlier defended France's "right to commit blasphemy" after the magazine Charlie Hebdo republished caricatures of Prophet Mohammed in September. The magazine's move came in the week which the trial of 14 people accused of helping the two gunmen carry out a deadly attack at the magazine's Paris office in 2015 began.
On October 2, Macron stated that "Islam is in a global crisis" and that "Islamist separatism" was a danger to France while announcing a law against "religious separatism" and defending "the republic and its values and ensure it respects its promises of equality and emancipation." At a vigil in Paty's honour, Macron called the slain teacher the face of the republic and called him a face of "freedom and reason".