2016 Video of 4 People Converting to Islam Falsely Linked to FIFA World Cup

This video dates back to 2016 and is from a lecture delivered by Zakir Naik in Qatar.

Fact-check: The video is old and not related to FIFA 2022.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

An old video, which shows four people standing on a stage and repeating Islamic verses along with Islamic evangelist Zakir Naik, is being shared on social media linking it to the ongoing FIFA World Cup, which is being held in Qatar.

If not recent, how old is the video?: The video is from 2016 and was taken during one of his lectures in Doha, Qatar. The lecture concluded with four people converting to Islam.

An archive can be seen here.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

(Similar claims can be seen here, here and here.)

How did we find that out?: We ran a keyword in Arabic and came across a YouTube video from 27 May 2016.

• The video title, which was originally in Arabic, read, "Four people converted to Islam immediately after the end of Zakir Naik's lecture at Katara (sic)."

Any news reports?: We found a longer version of the same video on Aljazeera Mubasher's Facebook account, which is an Arabic channel based in Doha.

• The video was recorded from a different angle, but was live streamed on 27 May 2016.

• It, too, mentioned that it showed four people converting to Islam after Naik's lecture.

Al Jazeera uploaded the longer version of the viral video.

(Source: Altered by The Quint)

What was his lecture on?: We also found a news report by English-language newspaper, Qatar Tribune. The article mentioned that Naik's lecture in Doha was attended by nearly 13,000 people and it was titled 'Does God Exist?'.

Who is Zakir Naik?: He is in an Islamic preacher, who has been wanted in India since he was charged by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for "promoting hatred between religions" and money laundering.

• He fled India in 2016 and his organisation Islamic Research Foundation was banned.

• According to the reports, Naik has been invited to Qatar for the ongoing world cup. However, this is no official confirmation of the same.

Conclusion: An old video of Zakir Naik converting people to Islam is being falsely shared as a recent video from Qatar.

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