A photo of a man in Islamic attire sitting in a plane with an alcohol bottle on his food tray is being shared on social media. The post’s description reads, ‘Molvi Diesel enjoying scotch whisky Black Label.’ Let’s fact-check this claim through this article.’
Claim: Photo of a Maulvi enjoying whiskey in an aeroplane.
Fact: This is an edited image. The original image does not contain a whiskey bottle and a glass on the food tray. The person seen in this photo is Maulana Fazal-Ur-Rehman, a Pakistani politician. Hence the claim made in the post is False.
To learn more about the viral photo and to check its veracity, we performed a reverse image search of it on the internet. This search led us to a few social media posts (here, here, and here) that contained the same image without the alcohol bottle and the glass.
Through the same search, we learned that the person in this photo is a Pakistani politician named Maulana Fazal-Ur-Rehman. He is the head of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Pakistan (Fazl), an Islamic political party (as described by ‘The Print’)
It is evident from these photos that the viral photo has been morphed by digitally adding a liquor bottle and a glass to the tray table. AFP Fact Check also debunked the same photo in the past. Additionally, they found that the aeroplane seen in this photo is identical to the interior of an aircraft belonging to Saudi Arabian airline Saudia. They further emphasise the fact that the airline does not serve alcohol on board.
To sum up, this photo of Maulana Fazal-Ul-Rehman sitting in a plane with a liquor bottle in his food tray is edited.
