A post accompanying a video of a man with a long beard performing Azan (call to prayer) in a big room is being widely shared across social media platforms with a claim that muazzin comes every day and performs Azan in the Cordoba cathedral in Spain, which was a mosque before. Through this article let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video showing Azan being performed at Cordoba cathedral in Spain.
Fact: There are no news reports regarding Azan perfomed in Cordoba cathedral in Spain. The viral video actually depicts Hassen Rasool reciting the call to prayer (Azan) in the Eton school hall, England. He was invited by Windsor and Eton Choral Society to perform call to prayer on 27 september 2014, to mark the 100th anniversary of the beginning of world war one. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Performing a Google reverse image search using keyframes extracted from the video, led us to an extended version of the video, uploaded to YouTube by Hassen Rasool on 7 December 2014. Hassen Rasool describes himself as an “artist” and “spiritual vocalist” on his Twitter and Instagram accounts. As per the description of the video, this call to prayer was not from inside the Mosque-cathedral of Córdoba, as being claimed, but from inside the auditorium of the Eton school in England.
To mark the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the first World War, Windsor and Eton Choral Society extended an invitation to Rasool to perform the call to prayer at the Eton College auditorium on 27 September 2014. The Windsor and Eton choral society presented two impressive choral works, “The Armed Man” by Karl Jenkins and Haydn’s Mass in Time of War. Hassen Rasool recited the call to prayer in the Eton school hall which was incorporated between these two pieces.
Upon carefully observing both videos and comparing the screen grabs of the viral video and the YouTube video posted by Hassen Rasool, we can conclude that both are the same.
We also found that the Windsor & Eton Choral Society published the list of all concerts and soloists who performed on their official website. The September 2014 concert is also documented in that list.
Further, we also searched for news reports regarding offering Azan in Mosque turned cathedral of Córdoba, Spain. We did not find any reports regarding offering Azan in Cordoba church.
To sum it up, the Muslim call to prayer performed in Eton School hall, England is falsely shared as Cordoba Cathedral in Spain.
