By Hazel Gandhi
An old video from 2018 is being shared with a false communal claim that a stage in Pakistan collapsed after an Imam standing on it was speaking about the extermination of Jews.
BOOM found that the claims are false, the video shows a stage collapsing during an election campaign of Pakistani political party Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) because it was overburdened and not because of any anti-Jew statements.
The 30-second video shows a man speaking while standing on the stage along with other people after which the stage collapses and all of them fall down.
A caption on Facebook suggests that the man is an Imam speaking about how he had a dream about the extermination of Jews. The full caption reads, "The timing is Divine! An imam in Pakistan preaches that he had a dream in which it said that all Jews must be exterminated. He goes on to say, “If this is not true, may the ground sink beneath me. Look what happens..."
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FACT CHECK
BOOM found that the video is old and shows an election campaign of Pakistani political party Jamaat-e-Islami, and does not show the man making any anti-semitic statements.
We ran a keyword search of the incident on Google and found a video report by Public News published on July 18, 2018. The video was titled 'Stage collapses during Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) election campaign' and carried visuals similar to the viral video.
Below is a comparison between the viral video and the original video from Public News.
Taking a cue from the title, we ran another keyword search on Google and found a report published on July 18 by The Express Tribune. This report, too, carried visuals matching the viral video and detailed how a stage collapsed in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa district of Pakistan during a JI campaign.
The report quotes a party official, Qaisar Sharif, who clarified that the collapse occurred because the stage was overburdened. Sharif also added that a few party workers and office bearers had sustained minor injuries, but everyone was safe otherwise. The report does not carry any details about an Imam attending or being injured during the event. A similar report by Pakistani news outlet Ary News can be seen here.
BOOM also spoke to a Pashtun speaker who confirmed that there were no statements made against Jews in this viral video. They informed that the video shows the man inviting the next speaker on to the dais.
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