Fact Check: Viral photo of anti-Modi protests in Malaysia over Ram Navami communal violence is from 2020
India Today
Viral photo does not show Malaysian Muslim groups protesting against communal violence in India. The photo is from an anti-CAA protest in 2020 in Kuala Lumpur.
Following incidents of communal violence during Ram Navami processions across states, a photo of protesters holding an anti-Narendra Modi banner has been making the rounds. It claimed to show Malaysian Muslims expressing solidarity with Indian Muslims following the violence.
On Twitter, one person shared the photo with the text, “Malaysian Muslims protest against attacks on #IndianMuslims.” Hashtags like #IndianMuslimsUnderAttack #IndianMuslimsGenocideAlert accompanied the photo.
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) found that the viral image was from a 2020 anti-CAA protest in Malaysia. The Hizb-ut-Tahrir, an international fundamentalist group, protested in front of the High Commission of India in Kuala Lumpur.
With the help of a reverse image search, we found that the viral image has been on several Malaysian news portals since 2020.
The Malaysian news portal, “The Khilafah”, published the photograph in a report on March 6, 2020, titled, “Hizb-ut-Tahrir Malaysia: Hizb-ut-Tahrir Demands Modi to Stop Persecution against Muslims in India”.
Per the report, the Hizb-ut-Tahrir Malaysia (HTM), an Islamist organisation in Malaysia, demonstrated against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in India in 2020.
The protest occurred at the High Commission of India in Kuala Lumpur to hand over a memorandum of protest to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, condemning discrimination against Muslims in the backdrop of the CAA.
