A video has been viewed thousands of times in multiple posts on Facebook and YouTube alongside a claim that it shows Chinese citizens converting to Islam as a result of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The video’s Indonesian-language title translates to English as: “Chinese citizens flocked to convert to Islam due to corona”., Below is a screenshot of the misleading post:, As of June 2, 2020, at least\xa084,597\xa0people in China have been infected with COVID-19\xa0and 4,645\xa0people have died, according to this\xa0World Health Organization (WHO)\xa0tally., The same footage, which has been watched more than 13,000 times, was also shared on Facebook here, here, here and here,\xa0alongside a similar claim., The claim is false; the video actually shows an Eid-al-Fitr prayer in the Chinese city of Xining\xa0in 2015., A reverse image search on Google followed by a keyword search found a longer, higher-quality\xa0version of the video\xa0published here\xa0on Baidu Video, a Chinese\xa0video platform., "The\xa0nine-minute\xa027-second videos Chinese-language title\xa0translates to English as: “Spectacular SD aerial video / Eid al-Fitr at Xining Dongguan Mosque”.", Eid-al-Fitr marks the end of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting, which is celebrated by performing communal prayer as well as visiting family and friends., Dongguan Mosque, one of the largest mosques in northwest China, is located in Xining, Qinghai province., At the 11-second\xa0mark, text\xa0superimposed on the video reads: “Xining Dongguan Mosque/2015.7.17”., Below are two\xa0screenshot comparisons of\xa0scenes in the video in the misleading post (L) and the Baidu Video clip\xa0(R):, The logo for\xa0Tencent, a Chinese online video platform, can be seen in\xa0the right-hand corner of both clips., The video has been removed from Tencent, but the Tencent link appears\xa0in\xa0this Weibo post, dated March 3, 2016, with the same video title: “Spectacular SD aerial video / Eid al-Fitr at Xining Dongguan Mosque”., Chinese portal Sina.com also published this report dated July 18, 2015, about Eid-al-Fitr celebrations across China, which fell one day earlier in some parts of the country, including Qinghai., Images of\xa0Dongguan Mosque,\xa0seen on\xa0Google Street View\xa0below, correspond with the video., , , 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 video shows an Eid-al-Fitr prayer in northwest China in 2015 | AFP Fact Check