This photo does not show a Taliban leader drinking whisky in his private plane
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on August 24, 2021 at 12:14
- 3 min read
- By AFP Hong Kong
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The image, which shows a man sitting on board a plane with a bottle of whisky on the table next to him, was published here on Twitter on August 21, 2021, where it has been retweeted hundreds of times.
The post's simplified-Chinese caption reads: "The religious leaders of the Taliban are drinking whisky on private jets, but their soldiers still believe them, believe them when they say 'Allah Akbar'".
In Islam, alcohol is considered to be "haram", or unlawful. Allahu Akbar is an Arabic phrase that means "God is greater", used by Muslims on many occasions and for many prayers.
The same photo was shared alongside a similar claim on Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.
But the claim is false: the image has been digitally manipulated to include the whisky bottle.
A reverse image search on Google found a similar photo published here on Facebook on August 15, 2019.
The man in the photo is a Pakistani politician, Maulana Fazlur Rehman. He is the president of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F), a Pakistani political party.
The bottle of whisky is not seen in the photo. Below is a screenshot comparison of the doctored photo (L) and the Facebook photo (R).
AFP found that the cabin layout, seats and colour scheme correspond with the interior design of Saudi Arabian airline Saudia.
A picture of the inside of a Saudia Boeing 777 was published here by German frequent flyer and travel website frankfurtflyer.de, showing similarities such as the side table's cream-coloured frame and brown tabletop.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the doctored photo (L) and the photo published by the German travel website (R).
The airline does not serve alcoholic drinks on board, as stated on their official website here.
AFP published this fact check report about the same photo in October 2020 debunking a similar misleading claim.
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