After thousands protested in India for the arrest of a politician and a preacher over incendiary comments about Muslims, footage of crowds gathered in Mumbai spread in Facebook and X posts that falsely claimed it showed the demonstration. The video in fact shows jubilant crowds celebrating India’s victory in the T20 Cricket World Cup in the Indian financial capital months earlier.
“A sea of devotees of the prophet gathered in Mumbai today in love for their Prophet Mohammad Mustafa,” read a Hindi-language Facebook post that shared the video on September 24.
The post tagged former Indian lawmaker Imtiaz Jaleel, who led a convoy of hundreds of vehicles to Mumbai the previous day calling for the arrest of Hindu preacher Ramgiri Maharaj and Nitesh Rane, a politician from India’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over incendiary remarks about Muslims (archived link).
Rane made death threats against Muslims while defending the preacher who made inflammatory comments about the Prophet Mohammed and his wife.
The protesters were denied entry into Mumbai and turned back after handing a letter with their demands to government representatives.
The video shows a street choked with people and a convoy of vehicles, with an Islamic song added to the clip.
