On May 4, a video was circulated on Facebook claiming that it was filmed in England. The video shows a group of people, mostly dressed in black, marching on the street. The Instagram account name, JF_AM_20, appears on the video for a few seconds. The post is accompanied by a caption that reads, “Not long ago, Lebanon was also a Christian country. Today it is ruled by Hezbollah.”
In reality, the video was not filmed in the streets of England. Based on several visible details and identical videos found in open sources, it has been determined that the footage was recorded in Iraq, specifically in the city of Samawah, and shows a memorial procession.
The Instagram account name JF_AM_20 can be seen in the video shared on social media. In the profile description, the account owner identifies as a photographer and had posted the identical video on March 23. Notably, in the caption of the video, the account states that it was filmed in the city of Samawah and shows a mourning procession. Samawah is a city in Iraq.
In addition to this Instagram account, the same video filmed from a different angle is available in other open sources. For example, Arabic-language religious Facebook pages shared the video from different angles, stating that it shows a procession of the people of Samawah, held in memory of the martyrdom anniversary of a religious leader.
On March 22, a Facebook page about the city of Samawah published photos of people marching in the streets and noted that the procession was dedicated to the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Ali. This year, the date was observed on the 21st day of Ramadan, which fell on April 21. Most of the visual materials from the procession were published around this period.
Several details in the video shared on social media indicate that it was not filmed in England. For instance, two buildings shown in the video have Iraqi flags raised on them.
Moreover, a police car appears in the footage, which is different from British police vehicles. The car seen in the video is black and likely has a police emblem on it, though it is not clearly visible. In England, law enforcement typically uses multicolored vehicles with a small police badge on the car door. In Iraq, however, police officers often use black vehicles similar to the one shown in the video.
Source: Getty, AP, EPA
Therefore, the claim that the video of the Muslim procession was filmed in England is false. In recent times, Facebook users and some media outlets have frequently shared videos that allegedly show scenes from various European countries. Such visual materials are often used to discredit the West and criticize migration policies. Myth Detector has identified several such videos that were, in fact, not filmed in European countries.
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