An image of Iranian Paralympic athlete Sadegh Beit Sayah has been circulating online with misleading claims that he was disqualified from the Paralympic Games 2024 in Paris for raising an ISIS flag. However, the actual reason for his disqualification was his display of the “Ya Umm al-Banin” flag. This flag honors Umm al-Banin, the wife of Ali ibn Abi Talib, the first Shia Imam. And is a symbol of Shia Islam.
Sharing the image on X (Formerly Twitter) propagandist account @MrSinha_ wrote, He’s Iranian Athlete Beit Sayah Sadegh. After winning the gold in #Paralympics2024, he openly displayed the ISIS flag. Disqualified…! Imagine displaying the ISIS flag openly and getting away with a mere disqualification. He should have been treated like a terr0rist…
The truth about the flag, Fact Check
As soon as the posts containing the image and claims came to our notice. Subsequently, we conducted research and analysis of the allegations and found that the Iranian Paralympic athlete was disqualified for raising a different flag, not an ISIS flag.
To verify the claims made by the users, we performed a relevant keyword search on Google. This led us to multiple reports about his disqualification at the Paralympic Games Paris 2024. According to the media reports(1, 2), the Iranian Paralympic athlete Sadegh Beit Sayah was disqualified for raising the “Ya Umm al-Banin” Flag. Taking a cue from the media reports, we dug further to verify the flag, we ran a relevant keyword search. And found media report containing a similar flag to which he displayed on the ground. We also compared the flag with the ISIS flag(Alamy, Shutterstock ) and found no similarities between both of them.
It is important to note that Indian Paralympic Javelin thrower Navdeep Singh’s Silver was upgraded to gold after the disqualification of the Iranian Paralympic athlete Sadegh Beit Sayah.
Therefore, it is evident from verified sources that the Iranian Paralympic athlete Sadegh Beit Sayah was disqualified for displaying the “Ya Umm al-Banin” Flag, and not the ISIS flag.
Intent
Influencers are circulating false claims about the disqualification of the Iranian Paralympic athlete Sadegh Beit Sayah to set their narrative based on religion.
Conclusion
Claim– Iranian Paralympic athlete Sadegh Beit Sayah was disqualified for displaying the ISIS flag.
Fact– The Iranian Paralympic athlete Sadegh Beit Sayah was disqualified for displaying “Ya Umm al-Banin”.
Related Article: Fact check: The 2023 World Athletic Championship video from Budapest falsely shared as the Paris Olympics 2024 – D-Intent Data (dintentdata.com)
