Chinese Converting to Islam to Avoid Coronavirus: Fact Check

Story:

Chinese converting to Islam after realizing that no Muslim was affected by Coronavirus COVID-19 in the country

Other Versions

1. Twenty thousand Chinese convert to Islam Star and crescent because corona virus Microbe will never infect a Muslim

2. 20m Chinese converted to Islam after it was proven that the corona epidemic did not afflict Muslims.

(Hindi)
कोरोना वायरस के डर से चीनी इस्लाम अपना रहे

Fact Check:

Various stories online claim to show Thousands of Chinese are Converting to Islam after realizing Coronavirus did not Infect any Muslim. Likewise, the video about one-and-half minute long appears to show a group of people inside hall raising hand and reciting some phrases of Islam. Despite the popularity of the video, the claims are not true and explained here.

Image about Chinese Converting to Islam to Avoid Coronavirus

Not Chinese Converting to Islam to Avoid Coronavirus

The video in question is doing rounds on Twitter, Facebook and other social media and video sharing platforms. Messages like this are spreading on internet space as a result of Coronavirus COVID-19 becoming a global epidemic . Unlike suggested, there’s no study linking Coronavirus with any particular religion or suggesting it is not effecting people following Islam.

On 7th November 2019, the same video in fact appeared on YouTube channel Ummah TV suggesting Hundreds converted to Islam in Philippines. Earlier on 30th July, it appeared on YouTube channel hakam tv with Arabic description suggesting the people entered the religion of Islam.

Couple of days before, the video appeared in a Facebook post in Arabic with similar narrative. So, the people in the video are not Chinese and are most likely Filipinos.

More importantly, the video is an old one from at least July 2019 – much before China reported about the outbreak of new strain of Coronavirus in late December 2019. So, the story in question is just a false narrative connecting the Coronavirus disease to religion. Ever since World Health Organisation declared Coronavirus as global epidemic, internet space is flooded with old and unrelated content leading to more panic and chaos.