This video shows a band pausing their performance for a call to prayer in Turkey

  • This article is more than one year old.
  • Published on November 26, 2019 at 06:00
  • 3 min read
  • By AFP Indonesia
A video has been viewed more than one million times in multiple posts on Facebook and YouTube alongside a claim that it shows musicians in Germany pausing a performance in order to listen to an Islamic call to prayer. The video has been circulated in a misleading context; it shows a French band pausing its performance in the Turkish city of Istanbul after hearing a call to prayer from a nearby mosque.

The video was published in a Facebook post here on November 1, 2019.

It has been viewed more than one million times.

The one-minute footage shows a group of people playing musical instruments in front of a crowd on a street.

Below is a screenshot of the misleading post:

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Screenshot of the misleading post

The Indonesian-language post’s caption translates to English as: “Mashallah...in Germany, which is a country in Europe, they show respect during the time of adhan...in Indonesia during the time of adhan, we still play music or watch TV with loud sound in shopping malls or at home...it is sad.”

Mashallah” is an Arabic phrase which means this is what God wills. It is also used to express praise.

Adhan” refers to the Islamic call to prayer recited five times a day at the beginning of the five daily hours of prayer.

The video was also shared here on Facebook and here on YouTube with a similar claim.

The footage was also uploaded with a similar claim in Malaysian language here, here and here, where it has been shared more than 13,000 times.

The same video was also uploaded here on YouTube alongside an Indonesian-language claim that it happened in the United States.

All claims are false; the video shows a French band pausing its performance in the Turkish city of Istanbul after hearing a call to prayer from a nearby mosque. 

The video in the misleading posts contains a watermark logo for Turkish newspaper Yeni Safak. Keywords searches for the original video on the newspaper’s website found this August 9, 2019, video headlined: “French Musician pause performance to honour Muslim call to prayer in Istanbul.” 

The caption of the one-minute video reads: “A French music band consisting of 18-members, Poil O’Brass Band’, stopped playing music after hearing the Islamic call to prayer (Adhan) in Istanbul.”

Poil O’Brass Band is a French music band. Here is its official website and here is its Twitter account.

Below is a screenshot of the video on Yeni Safak’s website:

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Screenshot of video on Yeni Safak’s website

Yeni Safak’s Twitter account also uploaded the original video here on August 9, 2019.

The Turkish-language tweet translates to English as: “18 people from French street music band ‘Poil O’Brass Band’, plays in front of music lovers in Istiklal Street. Citizens who passed by the street happily listened to the group. When the adhan started, the performance was given a break.”

Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in the misleading post (L) and the video published on Yeni Safak’s website (R):

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Comparison screenshot of the misleading video (L) and video published by Yeni Safak (R)

The video was filmed on Istiklal Street, Istanbul. It corresponds with this location on Google Street View.

At the 34 second mark of the video, the camera moved to this angle of the street. 

Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in the misleading posts from that particular angle (L) and a scene from Google Street View (R); AFP has circled the corresponding features in red.

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Comparison between the misleading video (L) and a scene from Google Street View (R)

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