Bangladesh mosque video falsely shared as 'Muslims taking cash from temple in India'

This article is more than one year old.
Published on June 26, 2023 at 11:29
3 min read
By Devesh MISHRA, AFP India

A video of people filling sacks with money has been repeatedly shared in social media posts that falsely claim it shows Muslims taking cash that had been donated to a temple in India by Hindus. The video, however, was filmed in Bangladesh and in fact shows money that was donated to a mosque.

"See for yourself where the money of the Hindus that was donated to Shirdi Sai is going! Make it so viral that it reaches every Hindu in the country who has become blind despite having eyes," reads the Hindi-language caption to the video shared on Facebook here on June 12, 2023.

Shirdi Sai Temple is located in the Ahmednagar district, in Hindu-majority India's western Maharashtra state. According to its website, it is a "secular place" where people of all faiths are welcome (archived link).

The one-minute 30-second video shows men wearing Muslim skull caps filling a sack with cash that appears to have been put into a donation box. The process is observed by people in uniform. Several sacks full of cash are then shown being carried to another location, where they are emptied onto a floor and counted by children.

Screenshot of the false Facebook post, captured on June 21, 2023

The video was shared with a similar false claim on Facebook here, while similar videos were shared elsewhere on Facebook here and Twitter here.

But the video was in fact filmed at a mosque in Bangladesh.

A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the video, followed by keyword searches, led to a longer video published on the verified YouTube channel of the Bangladeshi news portal Jago News on May 6 (archived link).

The Bengali-language title of the video reads, "A record 5.5 crore taka found in the donation box of Pagla Masjid".

Pagla Masjid is a mosque in the Bangladeshi city of Kishoreganj (archived link). "Crore" is a unit of measurement equal to 10 million, and "taka" refers to the Bangladeshi taka, the country's currency.

Below are screenshot comparisons of the video shared in the false post (left) and the video report published by Jago News (right):

Screenshot comparison of the video in the false post (left) and the video published by Jago News (right)

According to the Jago News report, eight donation chests at the mosque were opened on May 6 in the presence of district administration officials (archived link).

According to a report in the Business Standard newspaper, after a collection of donations in January 2023, the Pagla mosque is recognised as one of the most profitable religious institutions in Bangladesh and opens donation boxes every three months (archived link).

Mohammad Zubayer, a representative for the mosque, told AFP on June 21: "It is evident that the video shows our Pagla mosque. Why would it be from India? Even the Bangladeshi currency is seen here."

An analysis of the video shows the donation box included Bangladeshi taka notes.

Below is a screenshot comparison of a note seen in the video (left) and the country's 200 taka note (right):

Screenshot comparison of a note in the video (left), which was rotated by AFP, and the country’s 200 taka note (right)

"The funds donated to the Pagla mosque are spent on different mosques including the Pagla mosque, madrasas (Islamic seminaries), orphanages and various social welfare initiatives in the district," Zubayer added.

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