A video accompanied by a post is being widely shared on social media claiming that the video of a man praying in the middle of the road is from London. The post even claims that London is now trapped in the clutches of Islam and is under the grip of Islam. Let us fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video of a man praying in the middle of the road in London.
Fact: The video is from Istanbul, Turkey and not from London. This video of a man praying in the middle of the road, ignoring the passage of vehicles is from E-5 Highway in Istanbul, Turkey, taken in September 2021. However, there is a BBC video uploaded on YouTube in 2015, of a ‘Muslim man praying in the middle of oxford street’, which is in London. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When reverse image search is done on the screenshots of the video, a lengthier YouTube video with the same visuals was found. The video can be seen to be clipped from the YouTube video up to the 1:12 timeframe. The YouTube video uploaded on 19 September 2021, was titled (in English), ‘The man praying in the middle of the road/ E5 Istanbul’. The title of the video was in Turkish. The title and the language used suggest that the video could be from Turkey.
Taking the cue that the video could be from Istanbul, Turkey; we searched in Google with relevant keywords and found several articles about the same incident. A video of a man praying in the middle of the road and ignoring the passage of vehicles was taken on the Istanbul E-5 highway. The incident was reported by several Turkish media websites, which can be read here and here.
We looked for similar-looking buildings in the background of the video and found a photo from Google Maps with ‘Metroport’ written on the building. The photo is of ‘Metroport Mall’ which is beside the E-5 highway in Istanbul, Turkey. When we compare the photo with the screengrab of the video, we can confirm that the video was from Turkey.
However, we did find a video from 2015 of a ‘Muslim man praying in the middle of oxford street’, which is in London. Another video of a ‘Muslim man performing Adhan on London’s Tower Bridge’ was uploaded on YouTube in May 2021.
To sum it up, this video of a man praying in the middle of the road is from Turkey, not London.
