A video purporting to depict religious persecution of the Muslim community in China has been circulated and shows a religious structure is being demolished.
Azzat Alsalem (“@AzzatAlsaalem“) tweeted ” “China considers lsIam as mental Illness” China destroys mosques and turns them to public toilets. ” on Feb 7, 2024. The tweet has received an about 400.7k views on X.
“China considers lsIam as mental Illness”
— Azzat Alsalem (@AzzatAlsaalem) February 6, 2024
China destroys mosques and turns them to public toilets. pic.twitter.com/uFDp49NpLE
Several other accounts, including @raviagrawal3, @ajaychauhan41, @KreatelyMedia, @lonermonkeyy, @Linfo24 made the same claim that mosques were being destroyed by China, according to the viral video shared. The archive can be read from above.
What is the Actual Truth About this Incident? : Fact
In actuality, these assertions are unfounded and untrue. This video was taken in Adana, Turkey, following the devastating earthquake that struck the city in February 2023, resulting in the demolition of a mosque. The video is outdated and unrelated to China.
We visited ankaramasasi, which published an article on this incident on Feb 26, 2023 with the headline “Invisible accident during controlled demolition”. The article confirmed that the demolition of the mosque happened due to the Earthquake in Adana. It added “An invisible accident occurred during the demolition of the damaged mosque minaret in Adana, one of the provinces affected by the earthquake. During the controlled demolition, pieces falling from the minaret caused injuries to the attendant.”. For more clarification, we visited TurkHane, which wrote about the incident in a post published on Feb 26, 2023. The headline of the article is “The ‘controlled’ minaret demolition in Adana would end in disaster. There are people injured” which talked about the incident in details. samanyoluhaber shared the video of the incident and confirmed about the earthquake, which wrote “In the 7.7 and 7.6 magnitude earthquakes centered in Kahramanmaraş Pazarcık and Elbistan districts, the minarets of 16 mosques as well as many buildings in Adana were destroyed, and it was determined that 146 minarets were damaged and had to be demolished.”.
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D-Intent’s Fact-Checking Results:
1605
— D-Intent Data (@dintentdata) February 7, 2024
ANALYSIS: Misleading
FACT: A video that shows a religious structure is being demolished has been shared claiming to be of religious persecution of Muslim community in China. The fact is that these claims are false and baseless. This video is from Turkey's Adana, (1/3) pic.twitter.com/VpREEMjP1r
Intent:
Propagandists are circulating old videos from Turkey claiming to be from China to set their propaganda against a particular community. A video that shows a religious structure is being demolished has been shared claiming to be of religious persecution of Muslim community in China. These assertions are, in fact, unfounded and false. This video was shot in Adana, Turkey, where a mosque that had been damaged in the deadly earthquake that struck in February 2023 was completely destroyed. The outdated video is unrelated to China.
Conclusion:
Claim : A video showing the demolition of a religious structure has been shared, claiming to be evidence of religious persecution of the Muslim community in China.
Fact : The fact is that these claims are false and baseless. This video is from Turkey’s Adana, where a mosque was demolished which was damaged in the deadly earthquake in February 2023. The video is old and has nothing to do with China.
