Muslim cleric teasing ex-president misidentified as Sri Lanka's deputy religious minister
- Published on November 13, 2025 at 08:56
- 2 min read
- By Harshana SILVA, AFP Sri Lanka
Copyright © AFP 2017-2025. Any commercial use of this content requires a subscription. Click here to find out more.
Sri Lankan lawmaker Muneer Mulaffer has been the target of misinformation since he was appointed as a deputy minister of religious and cultural affairs in October in the Southern Asian nation -- the latest includes a video shared in social media posts falsely claiming it showed him mocking former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa. The person in the video is actually a local Muslim cleric, Ismath Moulavi, and he told AFP the circulating footage shows him taking part in protests in 2022 that called for the ex-leader's resignation.
"Thambuttegama Kota's government's new deputy minister of Buddhist affairs Mohammed Muneer Mulaffer," reads in part the Sinhala-language Facebook post on October 11, 2025, referring to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake.
"Wasn't there a Buddhist in the parliament to give that position? Anura seems to have massive issues with Buddhism."
The caption appears to make reference to another false claim debunked by AFP that Mulaffer was appointed as deputy minister of Buddhist affairs -- one of the officials responsible for promoting and protecting Buddhist teaching.
The post also shares a video showing a man wearing a skullcap mocking Rajapaksa in Sinhala, calling for his imprisonment as chants of "Go Home Gota" echo in the background.
The clip appeared in similar posts elsewhere on Facebook, TikTok and Instagram a day after Dissanayake announced a cabinet reshuffle and appointed Mulaffer, who previously held another position, as deputy minister of religious and cultural affairs (archived here and here).
The Buddhist-majority island nation has a long history of tension between the dominant Sinhala-Buddhist community and ethnic and religious minorities -- including Tamils and Muslims (archived here and here).
Following the Easter Sunday Attacks on April 21, 2019, Muslims have increasingly become a target of hate speech across social media platforms (archived here and here).
"They deliberately belittle our nation, poor jeppo," a user commented, referring to Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (People's Liberation Front), the main party of the ruling coalition National People's Power (archived here and here).
"Are the Sinhala-Buddhists watching this? Can a Muslim perform this duty?" another user wrote.
Misidentified person
A Google reverse image search of a keyframe of the clip followed by a keyword search found a clearer version of the video posted on TikTok on April 10, 2022 (archived link).
It was posted a day after massive street protests were held in Colombo demanding Rajapaksa's resignation as the island nation faced the most painful economic downturn since independence in 1948 (archived link).
Men and women poured onto Colombo's seafront promenade and laid siege to the colonial-era Presidential Secretariat, chanting "Go home Gota" and waving the national lion flag.
The TikTok video includes hashtags "Go Home Gota" -- referring to Rajapaksa -- and "Ismath Moulavi", the Muslim cleric seen in the clip.
He told AFP on WhatsApp that the video shows him at the 2022 protests.
"The video was taken during the aragalaya," Moulavi said on October 20, 2025, referring to the protests. "There were hundreds of people protesting. I don't remember who posted this video online."
A closer inspection of the clip shared in the false posts reveals Moulavi and Mulaffer do not look alike.
AFP has debunked other misinformation related to Sri Lanka here.
Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.
Contact us
