Fact Check: Video Falsely Claims To Show ‘Islamist Crowd’ Chanting Calls For Violence At German Christmas Market
A TikTok video claims to show a group of Islamists reciting a “war prayer” at a German Christmas Market. The video has been seen more than 537,000 times, and also shared on X.
- The Verdict: False The people in the video are reciting the Islamic proclamation of faith and not a “war prayer”.
The claim
A TikTok video (archived here) claims to show a group of Islamists reciting a “war prayer” at a German Christmas Market.
The video has been seen more than 537,000 times in the six days since it was posted and has also been shared on X (archived here).
However, the chanting does not have anything to do with war or murdering non-Muslims.
What we found
Logically Facts sent the video to Inas Hamdan, an Arabic-speaking journalist at the Swedish newspaper Sydsvenskan who specialises in disinformation and extremism. She confirmed the chanting heard in the video is the Shahadah, the Islamic profession of faith.
According to the BBC, Shahadah is the first of the Five Pillars of Islam — the compulsory duties all practising Muslims must try to carry out. Shahadah is the belief that “there is no God but Allah — and Muhammad is his messenger”. It is recited on several occasions, including during Salah (daily prayers) and in the adhan (call to prayer). It is also whispered to newborn babies.
Mohammad Fazlhashemi, a professor of Islamic theology and philosophy at Uppsala University, also confirmed the people in the video are reciting the Shahadah.
“The only thing I can hear them chanting in this clip is the Islamic creed: ‘There is no deity but God. Muhammad is the messenger of God’,” Fazlhashemi told Logically Facts. “There is nothing here about killing anyone. What has been disseminated is undoubtedly fake news.”
Emin Poljarevic, an associate professor of Islamic theology and philosophy at Uppsala University, agreed.
“Based solely on what is shown [in the video], it cannot be concluded that there is any suggestion of violence,” Poljarevic told Logically Facts. “The profession of faith is something that Muslims generally call out and say silently on many different occasions.”
The video was posted by a new TikTok account claiming to focus on statistics, news, and politics. Its videos exclusively focus on immigration in Europe and generally feature large, loud crowds of people or protesters variously described as asylum seekers, Islamic, Syrian, or others from the Middle East.
Hamdan pointed out that there are currently many ongoing protests in Europe concerning events in the Middle East, which will likely be misrepresented for mis- and disinformation purposes.
“[This includes] Pro-Palestine protests and more recently, due to the development in Syria, people have gathered to celebrate the fall of a dictator. This means there are plenty of videos where people of foreign descent are expressing themselves loudly, which provides excellent material for disinformation actors who want to spread the Great Replacement conspiracy theory,” Hamdan told Logically Facts.
The verdict
The people in the video are reciting the Islamic proclamation of faith and not a “war prayer”, and there is nothing in the video to suggest they are calling for the killing of non-Muslims. Therefore, we have rated the claim as false.
This report first appeared on logicallyfacts.com, and has been republished on ABP Live as part of a special arrangement. Apart from the headline, no changes have been made in the report by ABP Live.
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