Clip of Muslim women in Indonesia falsely portrayed as London

Published on October 1, 2025 at 06:26
2 min read
By Sammy HEUNG, AFP Hong Kong

A clip of women dressed in niqabs has spread widely in Chinese-language social media posts, with some users falsely claiming it shows a street scene in London. In fact, the footage was taken in Indonesia outside a women's boarding school.

"Shocking: This is not Afghanistan, Syria, Pakistan, or Saudi Arabia. This is London, United Kingdom," reads a simplified Chinese post shared September 9, 2025 on X.

"You can see that the UK will soon become a Muslim-dominated country."

Screenshot of the false X post captured September 22, 2025, with a red X added by AFP

Anti-immigration sentiment has been spreading in the United Kingdom, as Brexit supporter Nigel Farage's hard-right Reform UK leads in polls and protesters target hotels used to house asylum seekers. Up to 150,000 people gathered at one of the largest far-right protests in the British capital on September 13 (archived link).

Similar claims spread on Threads, Instagram, TikTok and BiliBili. The clip also appeared in posts in English, Japanese and Spanish.

Some users who thought the claim was true said it was "scary" and that "the UK is over".

But the video circulating online does not show Muslim women in London. Full Fact and Misbar have previously debunked similar claims (archived here and here).

A reverse image search led to a Facebook post shared August 13, 2024 with a clearer version of the video (archived link).

At the 25-second mark of the video, the women walk past a green sign that reads "Pondok Al-fatah Putri Tahfidz" -- Indonesian for "Al-Fatah Women's Tahfidz Islamic Boarding School".

A keyword search on Google surfaced the school's website and address in Temboro, a village in Indonesia's East Java province (archived link).

Google Maps Street View imagery of the school matches the green sign and the archway of the entrance shown in the video (archived link).

Screenshot comparison of the Facebook post (L) and Google Maps Street View imagery of the school

Other images from Google Maps show the road where the video was filmed (archived link).

Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared video (L) and Google Street View imagery captured in 2023, with matching elements highlighted by AFP

The New York Times reported in 2020 that Temboro is often referred to as "Indonesia’s Medina", the city in Saudi Arabia where the Prophet Mohammed is buried, due to the local influence of Islam (archived link).

The posts' claim that the United Kingdom will "soon become a Muslim-dominated country" is also not supported by data.

According to a 2025 report from the Muslim Council of Britain, Christians accounted for 46.5 percent of the country's population, forming the largest faith group. Muslims comprised just 6 percent of the population (archived link).

AFP has previously debunked other posts that misrepresented images of Muslims.

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