An image of a person sitting near Islam’s holiest shrine, the Kaaba in Saudi Arabia, has been shared repeatedly in multiple posts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and on online blogs. It was shared alongside a claim it shows a lone cleaner who was the only person permitted to sit around the Kaaba during the coronavirus lockdown.
The Indonesian-language’s post translates to English as: “‘The only person allowed to sit here !!, "“Not a king, not a minister, also not a Prince, he is the mosques cleaner. Allah chose him over the others. Money, wealth, status, and family will not help you in the eyes of Allah.", “So get rid of that pride and treat the less fortunate with kindness and affection !! Get rid of your arrogance and learn to be humble !!’ (During Lockdown)”., Below is a screenshot of the misleading post:, The Kaaba, a cube-shaped shrine covered with a black cloth, is located near the centre of the Great Mosque in Mecca and is considered\xa0Islam’s holiest site., The same image was also\xa0shared alongside a similar claim\xa0in other Facebook posts here, here, here and here; on Instagram here; Twitter here and here; and Indonesian media reports here, here and here., The image with a similar English claim\xa0was\xa0also shared on Facebook here, here and here., The claim is\xa0false;\xa0the photo has been doctored to remove two people standing near the\xa0holy shrine and the context of the photo has been misrepresented., A Google reverse image followed by a subsequent keyword search found this original photo published by the Associated Press (AP), dated March 7, 2020., "The AP photo’s caption reads: “A Saudi policeman prays in front of the Kaaba, the cubic building at the Grand Mosque, in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Saturday, March 7, 2020. Saudi Arabia emptied Islams holiest site for what they say sterilization over fears of the new coronavirus.”", Below is a screenshot of the AP photo:, The AP photo also shows two other people near the fence surrounding the Kaaba., Below is a screenshot comparison of the photo in the misleading post (L) and the AP photo (R), with the missing people circled in red by AFP:, Saudi Arabia emptied the Grand Mosque and the Kaaba for sterilisation over fears of the novel coronavirus on May 5, 2020, one day after it suspended the umrah pilgrimage, AFP reported here., The kingdom reopened the area around the Kaaba on March 7, 2020, for “non-umrah performers”., , Copyright © AFP 2017-2020.  All rights reserved.  Users can access and consult this website and use the share features available for personal, private, and non-commercial purposes.  Any other use, in particular any reproduction, communication to the public or distribution of the content of this website, in whole or in part, for any other purpose and/or by any other means, without a specific licence agreement signed with AFP, is strictly prohibited.  The subject matter depicted or included via links within the Fact Checking content is provided to the extent necessary for correct understanding of the verification of the information concerned.  AFP has not obtained any rights from the authors or copyright owners of this third party content and shall incur no liability in this regard.  AFP and its logo are registered trademarks.
This is a doctored photo -- the original image has circulated in reports about a Saudi policeman | AFP Fact Check