France: France President Emmanuel Macron made derogatory remarks against Islam this month, which led to the Arab nations calling for a boycott of French products. Many Arab nations including, Morocco, Saudi Arab, Turkey, and Pakistan have condemned Macron’s comment on Islam. Amidst this controversy, a video is going viral where the police can be seen using water cannon over Muslim women protestors.

User (@YamrajFromHell) Parveen Chauhan, shared this video with the caption “Well done French police Streets are for the cars, not for praying.”,  (Archive)

Another user (@dharmicverangna) Vaidehi, shared the same video with a caption, “French police used water cannon to clear the streets of Yüksekova! Streets are for cars, not for praying.” Th user initially said that its from France and later clarified that the video is from Turkey and asked people to understand the joke.  (Archive)

Another user @PiyushTweets1 shared the video with the caption, “When India is going to come out with secularism band & when will we start similar practice in India”.

This video is shared by many other users without knowing the City name mentioned in the tweet “Yüksekova” is in Turkey but not in France. This video is viral on Facebook also.

FactO Check:

We did a reverse image search of some screenshots taken from the video and found a video posted on YouTube on 9thNOV 2012 with a caption in Turkish “Gaz bombalı ‘civil Cuma namazı – Yüksekova – Gever” (Civil Friday prayer with gas bombs – Yüksekova – Gever). According to another article published by yuksekovahaber.com.tr on 9th NOV 2012, citizens caught in the gas bombs performed their prayers without paying attention to the gas bombs. Citizens offering prayer reacted after the prayer and wanted to hold a sit-in action to support the hunger strikes. Police intervened with pressurized water and gas bombs against citizens who reacted and made a sit-in.

Youtube Video posted on 9th NOV 2012 from the same event.

Why this 8-year-old video is viral again?

The video was recently posted by @EdipBedirhan, with the same caption which is viral in India. The user has already clarified that the video is from Turkey and Turkish police, using water cannon against Kurdish protesters. User @EdipBedirhan wants to show the hypocrisy of Turkish President Erdogan who used water cannon against his own people.

This video is shown to let you see hypocracy of Erdogan. The police that you see is Turkish police, attacking Kurdish protesters.

— Edip C. Bedirhan (@EdipBedirhan) October 28, 2020

Conclusion: An 8-year-old video posted by a Twitter user where water cannon and gas bombs were used against Muslims praying in Yüksekova,Turkey is being shared by Indian users with a different claim. The video is 8 years old and it’s from Turkey, not France.

A video of a teacher touching his student inappropriately is being shared by many social media users with a claim that the incident took place in a Madrasa (Islamic Pre-School). A Twitter user @gopugoswami shared the video from his account on October 19 with a claim, “बेटियों को मदरसा में भेजने से पहले विचार करें, उन्हें सरकारी विद्यालयों में भेज कर विज्ञान की शिक्षा दें, ये सब तो दुनियाँ सिखा ही देगी ( Think before sending daughters to madrasa, send them to government schools and teach science, all this will teach the world)”. The post has garnered over 3.5k retweets and more than 5k likes. 

A lot of social media users retweeted the video and appealed to ban Madrasas in India. Though the initial post by @gopugoswami never claimed where the incident happened, many users (here here here here) believed that it took place in India and demanded that all the Madrasas should be banned in India. A Twitter user @abhi14377 shared the video with a claim, “@AIMPLB_Official एक दिन तुम्हारे ये सारे मदरसे बंद होकर रहेंगे। छोटीबच्चियों पे अपनी भूख मिटाते हो धर्म की आड़ में कमिनो।(@AIMPLB_Official One day all these madrasas will be closed. Kaminos under the guise of religion to feed their hunger on small children. #Madarsa #JaiShriRam @myogiadityanath @SmritiIraniOffc @RubikaLiyaquat)” and tagged ‘All India Muslim Personal Law Board’, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in his post. Some users replying to the post have called for the nationwide implementation of National Register of Citizens as in Assam and tagged Prime Minister Office and Home Minister Office with #BanMadarsa_SaveNation tags.

The same video was quoted by Shefali Vaidya with the caption, “Ugh, this was horrifying to look at.”. The video is viral over Facebook as well with almost the same caption. “बेटियों को मदरसा में भेजने से पहले विचार करें, उन्हें सरकारी विद्यालयों में भेज कर विज्ञान की शिक्षा दें, ये सब तो दुनियाँ सिखा ही देगी.” (Think before sending your daughters to Madarsa, Send them to a government school to give them education, this they can learn by time.)

FactO Check:

A reversed image search on Yandex(a Russian search engine) directed us to many YouTube videos which were uploaded on Bangladeshi channels. All these videos are recently uploaded though the original incident took place in July 2016.

As most of the videos on YouTube were in Bengali, we did some keyword searches and found multiple websites claiming that the video is almost 4 years old. A Bengali news website in their caption says “Old videos of teachers and students go viral again”, another website by the name tekdeeps.com claims the same. According to Tekdeep, the viral video is of Nurul Haque Sardar, the headmaster of Sonar Bangla Secondary School in Uzirpur upazila of Barisal. He opened a coaching center for female students in a rented room next to the school. This video of sexual harassment of the students who came to study at the coaching center was first spread in the area in June 2016 through the locals.

At the same time, after investigating the incident from the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Education stopped the salary and allowance of teachers from July of that year. He was also expelled from school at the same time.

Conclusion: Videos is neither from Madarsa nor from India. It’s a 4-year-old video from Bangladesh where the incident occurred in the Girl’s only Tuition center. The above claims are misleading.

World: Muslims around the world were left shocked after Nutella USA replied to a twitter user saying their most favorite chocolate spread ‘Nutella’ is not HALAL. Nutella is a product of Nestle which is sold across the world and loved by billions. A Twitter user @imjustsully2 asked Nutella USA if their product is Halal. Tweet here

Nutella USA replied to the user saying “No, they are not Halal”, which got over 10K RT and went viral on social media leaving millions of Nutella lovers in doubt about the product.

After the Nutella’s reply, many Muslims were seen tweeting in favor of Nutella and few of them were seen justifying that why we shouldn’t expect a Chocolate spread to be Halal, as there is no animal meat involved. They felt it doesn’t make sense to demand Halal Nutella.

Guys so nutella isn't Halal.bad for girls 😂😂😂 https://t.co/edjdx16C09

— ســەربـەسـت (@SarbastBotany1) September 21, 2020

What is Halal?

Halal is Arabic for permissible. Halal food is that which adheres to Islamic law, as defined in the Quran. The Islamic form of slaughtering animals or poultry, dhabiha, involves killing through a cut to the jugular vein, carotid artery and windpipe.

Halal Meat, Animals must be alive and healthy at the time of slaughter and all blood is drained from the carcass. During the process, a Muslim will recite a dedication, know as Tamiya or shahada. This is only for Halal meat and not for all Halal products.

In a General sentence, Halal product could be a product that doesn’t include any material which is prohibited in Islam. (ie, Pork, pork meat, or product which is produced with that.)

FactO Check:

We found a tweet by Nutella USA confirming ‘All Nutella sold is suitable for Halal consumption’, they also added that over 90% of their plants producing Nutella are already halal Certified, In response to their own tweet Nutella said, “All Nutella sold worldwide is suitable for Halal consumption. Over 90% of the industrial plants producing Nutella are already Halal certified by a third party and we are in the process of certifying the remaining plants. We apologize for the mistake made in our earlier tweet.”

All Nutella sold worldwide is suitable for Halal consumption. Over 90% of the industrial plants producing Nutella are already Halal certified by a third party and we are in the process of certifying the remaining plants. We apologize for the mistake made in our earlier tweet.

— Nutella (@NutellaUSA) September 14, 2020

In another tweet by Nutella Turkey, they have issued a statement saying Nutella is Halal certified, the same can be accessed on their website,

Daha fazla bilgi için https://t.co/vOwl4zccPw sayfamızı ziyaret edebilirsiniz. pic.twitter.com/tqZeZcpm4v

— Nutella Türkiye (@nutellaturkiye) September 17, 2020

We found the Halal Certificate in their Turkish website, its clearly mentioned all their products, including Nutella, produced in our facilities have Halal Food Certificate. Halal food means food produced in accordance with Islamic rules. All foods are accepted as halal except for the following products, which are stated as haram.

We found a tweet by NIHT (National Independent Halaal Trust), based in Johannesburg, South Africa, that’s the same trust which has provided Halal certificate to Nutella Turkey. The NIHT clarified saying Nutella does not contain any Haram(Prohibited) ingredient.

Nutella does not contain any Haraam ingredients

— NIHT (@HalaalGuide_SA) September 17, 2020

After the outrage, we can see hundreds of tweets by @NutellaUSA responding to all users saying “Nutella sold worldwide is suitable for Halal consumption. We apologize for the mistake made in our earlier tweet.” Nutella confirmed their products are suitable for Halal consumption and apologize for their earlier tweet.

Nutella sold worldwide is suitable for Halal consumption. We apologize for the mistake made in our earlier tweet.

— Nutella (@NutellaUSA) September 16, 2020

Conclusion: In conclusion, we have found Nutella being a Halal product which doesn’t include any of Haram item which is prohibited in Islam.