Old video from Russia is shared as namaz at Qatar stadium during the FIFA world cup
Claim
Beautiful moment during #QatarWorldCup2022 when #Qatar stadium paused to offer #prayers. #FIFAWorldCup2022 is a fantastic opportunity to showcase to world, importance of peace & compassion in #Islam. #Qatar is doing a great job, highlighting diversity & culture of Islamic states
Rating
Explanation
A video of the crowd in the stadium offering prayers is shared on social media with the claim that it happened in Qatar during the FIFA Worldcup. Mohammad Sarwar, Former Governor of Punjab, Pakistan shared the video as beautiful moment from Qatar FIFA world cup 2022.
A Twitter user ‘Khalida Parveen’ shared this video on her page mentioning ‘Namaz’ in the post following which it was shared with hashtags FIFA world cup thinking of it as visuals from the ongoing football world cup in Qatar. These posts can be seen here, here, here, here, and here.
What is the truth?
When searching one of the video screen-grabs with google lens, it yielded three results out of which two links displayed are of recent posts and one dated 14, November 2022. The FIFA world cup was started on 20, November 2022 in Qatar.
The word ‘KAZAN’ is displayed on the stadium. So when searching further with the keywords ‘Kazan prayer in stadium’, it lists several links proving that it is an old video from Russia.
The oldest among the displayed videos dated 3, June 2019 is a Facebook post by ‘Quran Hadeeth and Sihah Sitta’ mentioning it as ‘Namaz in football stadium in Kazan, Russia’.
With further search, it is found that a Youtube channel ‘Sisile Siddiquia’ seems to have published the viral video with the title ‘Prayers at Kazan stadium, Tatarstan (May 25th, 2019)’.
It is mentioned in the video’s description that Iftar for 2019 was held in Tatarstan, Kazan for 15000 people on May 25th.
A Russian website ‘Metshin’ published an article on 25, May 2019 mentioning that the VII Republican Iftar was held at the stadium “Kazan Arena” on May 25.
Conclusion
It is found that a video of people offering prayer during Iftar in 2019 in Russia’s stadium is shared as prayers offered during FIFA World Cup stadium in Qatar.
