{"id":5504,"date":"2020-08-17T14:32:09","date_gmt":"2020-08-17T13:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/?p=5504"},"modified":"2020-08-18T14:59:11","modified_gmt":"2020-08-18T13:59:11","slug":"misleading-photos-used-to-justify-blasphemy-laws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/misleading-photos-used-to-justify-blasphemy-laws\/","title":{"rendered":"Misleading Photos Used To Justify Blasphemy Laws"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify has-cyan-bluish-gray-background-color has-background wp-block-paragraph\">A Nigerian Twitter user, My Deen My Swag, has shared some pictures to defend the death penalty for blasphemy in some states in Northern Nigeria where Sharia (Islamic canonical law) applies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"136\" height=\"59\" data-attachment-id=\"3703\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/what-is-goodluck-jonathans-legacy\/screenshot-2019-10-04-at-17-25-55\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Screenshot-2019-10-04-at-17.25.55.png?fit=136%2C59&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"136,59\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Screenshot-2019-10-04-at-17.25.55\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Screenshot-2019-10-04-at-17.25.55.png?fit=136%2C59&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Screenshot-2019-10-04-at-17.25.55.png?resize=136%2C59\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3703\" title=\"\"><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-background wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"background-color:#7f7e07\">The claim implied in the tweet is misleading as the two pictures do not show incidents of lynching that took place in Nigeria following allegations of petty theft. While evidence indicates that the first one occurred in Nairobi, Kenya, the second took place during an alleged fight and stabbing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>FULL STORY<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A Nigerian Twitter user, My Deen My Swag, has shared some misleading pictures to defend the death penalty for blasphemy in some states in Northern Nigeria where Sharia (Islamic canonical law) applies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhether they steal food or phone, they don&#8217;t deserve to be burnt to dead. They burn people even for stealing N50 to dead [sic], but drag Islam &amp; Kano Sharia Court sentencing an Artist to dead [sic] penalty for blasphemy. We don&#8217;t play with Prophet Muhammad. RT let them see their hypocrisy\u201d he <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AM_Saleeem\/status\/1293116389683855360\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">tweeted<\/a> via his handle @AM_Saleeem on Tuesday.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify wp-block-paragraph\">My Deen My Swag\u2019s tweet, which was shared over a thousand times,&nbsp; was a reaction to the decision of an Upper Sharia Court in Kano which, on Monday, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-africa-53726256#:~:text=A%20musician%20in%20Nigeria&#039;s%20northern,circulated%20via%20WhatsApp%20in%20March.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">sentenced<\/a> Yahaya Sharif-Aminu, a musician, to death for circulating a song, deemed blasphemous to Prophet Mohammed, on WhatsApp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify wp-block-paragraph\">The sentencing triggered an outcry on social media, with many condemning the capital punishment. On the other hand,&nbsp; some backers of the Sharia law justified the decision of the court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/B1M8SRPmIG_3ooBvmysIUBGAi6wPKsRw2Q95Z_fnzYVQjsJacB2I6nRQVqSmiInvtAXCbEOtM5N9N-dM4hF4wNlWoHeJrYxC_jB8l3gIhWoIr9SIUbR6vYtSOiLMO3Su8mNsGohc\" alt=\"\" title=\"\"><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify wp-block-paragraph\">One of those in support of the judgement is Saleeem who attached two pictures to his tweet: one showing two young boys who had been stripped naked, tied, and placed in a big truck tire, and the second showing an object burning beside a tarred road. He seemed to suggest that they show lynching incidents that occurred in non-sharia states in Nigeria because the victims stole some money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify wp-block-paragraph\">Checks show, however, that while the pictures are genuine, the contexts were misplaced. While the first incident took place in Kenya, the second was not retribution for \u201cstealing N50\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Checking the first picture<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify wp-block-paragraph\">Our searches revealed that in one of the earliest postings of the picture of the boys, Yetunde Morenikeji Ajani Raji, on August 8, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/yetundemorenikeji.raji\/posts\/3274887122567774\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">shared<\/a> it on Facebook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify wp-block-paragraph\">Raji, in her caption, copied word-for-word a report from Nairobi News <a href=\"https:\/\/nairobinews.nation.co.ke\/news\/two-young-boys-lynched-after-stealing-mobile-phone\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">published<\/a> earlier on July 5. Nairobi News reported that the boys were \u201cburnt alive in Komarock Estate after they were caught stealing mobile phones from a member of the public\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThey removed part of the motorcycle, bought petrol and used it to end the lives of the two young boys,\u201d one witness had narrated to the news website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify wp-block-paragraph\">Copying directly from Raji, Femi Fani-Kayode, a Nigerian politician, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ffaniKayode\/posts\/10158725666522210\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">shared<\/a> the pictures on his verified Facebook page, where it was then <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lindaikejisblog.com\/2020\/8\/outrage-as-two-boys-are-allegedly-burnt-alive-after-being-accused-of-stealing-mobile-phones.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">picked up<\/a> by the Linda Ikeji Blog as well as <a href=\"https:\/\/igberetvnews.com\/1360895\/two-young-boys-burnt-death-stealing-graphic-photos\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">other<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ofofo.zone\/2020\/08\/two-boys-allegedly-burnt-to-death-after-being-accused-of-stealing-phones-in-kenya\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">local websites<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify wp-block-paragraph\">Our check shows that the first picture, depicting an entirely different incident, was taken in Kenya and not any part of Nigeria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>No link to sharia<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify wp-block-paragraph\">Through a reverse search on Yandex, HumAngle traced the second image in Saleeem\u2019s tweet to a news report <a href=\"https:\/\/wuzupnigeria.com\/jungle-justice-danfo-driver-lynched-for-allegedly-killing-passenger-over-n50-in-lagos-graphic-photos\/amp\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">published<\/a> on December 18, 2018, by Wuzup Nigeria, which contains other pictures from a lynching incident. Wuzup Nigeria referenced the <a href=\"https:\/\/thenationonlineng.net\/driver-lynched-killing-passenger-police-rescue-conductor\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Nation Newspaper<\/a> as source.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify wp-block-paragraph\">In the report as captured by The Nation, \u201ca commercial bus driver was lynched to death by a mob for allegedly stabbing a passenger to death over N50 disagreement on Tuesday.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify wp-block-paragraph\">The incident, it added, took place at Five Star bus stop, along Oshodi-Apapa Expressway in Lagos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAnother account indicated that the driver had boarded the passengers from Ikotun en-route Oshodi but refused to proceed when he got to Aswani,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHe was said to have told the passengers he could not continue the journey and offered to refund N50 from the amount collected so that the passengers can continue their journey. But some of the passengers allegedly refused the condition and insisted that the bus must carry them to Oshodi which led to a scuffle.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify wp-block-paragraph\">Although taken in Nigeria, the second picture had nothing to do with theft as insinuated by the Twitter user.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-justify wp-block-paragraph\">The claim implied in the tweet is misleading as the two pictures do not show incidents of lynching that took place in Nigeria following allegations of petty theft. While evidence indicates that the first one occurred in Nairobi, Kenya, the second took place during an alleged fight and stabbing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>The researcher produced this fact-check per the <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/\" target=\"_blank\">Dubawa<\/a> 2020 <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"http:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/call-for-applications\/\" target=\"_blank\">Fellowship<\/a> partnership with Humangle to facilitate the ethos of \u201ctruth\u201d in journalism and enhance media literacy in the country.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Nigerian Twitter user, My Deen My Swag, has shared some pictures to defend the death penalty for blasphemy in some states in Northern Nigeria where Sharia (Islamic canonical law) applies. The claim implied in the tweet is misleading as the two pictures do not show incidents of lynching that took place in Nigeria following allegations of petty theft. While evidence indicates that the first one occurred in Nairobi, Kenya, the second took place during an alleged fight and stabbing. FULL STORY A Nigerian Twitter user, My Deen My Swag, has shared some misleading pictures to defend the death penalty for blasphemy in some states in Northern Nigeria where Sharia (Islamic canonical law) applies. \u201cWhether they steal food or phone, they don&#8217;t deserve to be burnt to dead. They burn people even for stealing N50 to dead [sic], but drag Islam &amp; Kano Sharia Court sentencing an Artist to dead [sic] penalty for blasphemy. We don&#8217;t play with Prophet Muhammad. RT let them see their hypocrisy\u201d he tweeted via his handle @AM_Saleeem on Tuesday.&nbsp; My Deen My Swag\u2019s tweet, which was shared over a thousand times,&nbsp; was a reaction to the decision of an Upper Sharia Court in Kano which, on Monday, sentenced Yahaya Sharif-Aminu, a musician, to death for circulating a song, deemed blasphemous to Prophet Mohammed, on WhatsApp. The sentencing triggered an outcry on social media, with many condemning the capital punishment. On the other hand,&nbsp; some backers of the Sharia law justified the decision of the court. One of those in support of the judgement is Saleeem who attached two pictures to his tweet: one showing two young boys who had been stripped naked, tied, and placed in a big truck tire, and the second showing an object burning beside a tarred road. He seemed to suggest that they show lynching incidents that occurred in non-sharia states in Nigeria because the victims stole some money. Checks show, however, that while the pictures are genuine, the contexts were misplaced. While the first incident took place in Kenya, the second was not retribution for \u201cstealing N50\u201d. Checking the first picture Our searches revealed that in one of the earliest postings of the picture of the boys, Yetunde Morenikeji Ajani Raji, on August 8, shared it on Facebook. Raji, in her caption, copied word-for-word a report from Nairobi News published earlier on July 5. Nairobi News reported that the boys were \u201cburnt alive in Komarock Estate after they were caught stealing mobile phones from a member of the public\u201d. \u201cThey removed part of the motorcycle, bought petrol and used it to end the lives of the two young boys,\u201d one witness had narrated to the news website. Copying directly from Raji, Femi Fani-Kayode, a Nigerian politician, shared the pictures on his verified Facebook page, where it was then picked up by the Linda Ikeji Blog as well as other local websites. Our check shows that the first picture, depicting an entirely different incident, was taken in Kenya and not any part of Nigeria. No link to sharia Through a reverse search on Yandex, HumAngle traced the second image in Saleeem\u2019s tweet to a news report published on December 18, 2018, by Wuzup Nigeria, which contains other pictures from a lynching incident. Wuzup Nigeria referenced the Nation Newspaper as source. In the report as captured by The Nation, \u201ca commercial bus driver was lynched to death by a mob for allegedly stabbing a passenger to death over N50 disagreement on Tuesday.\u201d&nbsp; The incident, it added, took place at Five Star bus stop, along Oshodi-Apapa Expressway in Lagos. \u201cAnother account indicated that the driver had boarded the passengers from Ikotun en-route Oshodi but refused to proceed when he got to Aswani,\u201d the report said. \u201cHe was said to have told the passengers he could not continue the journey and offered to refund N50 from the amount collected so that the passengers can continue their journey. But some of the passengers allegedly refused the condition and insisted that the bus must carry them to Oshodi which led to a scuffle.\u201d Although taken in Nigeria, the second picture had nothing to do with theft as insinuated by the Twitter user. Conclusion The claim implied in the tweet is misleading as the two pictures do not show incidents of lynching that took place in Nigeria following allegations of petty theft. While evidence indicates that the first one occurred in Nairobi, Kenya, the second took place during an alleged fight and stabbing. The researcher produced this fact-check per the Dubawa 2020 Fellowship partnership with Humangle to facilitate the ethos of \u201ctruth\u201d in journalism and enhance media literacy in the country.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5505,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"hannibal_claim_source":"","hannibal_source_label":"","hannibal_card_color":"blue","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_bluesky_share_type":"","_mastodon_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[4,119],"tags":[1200,347,1199,1198],"verdict":[],"ppma_author":[879],"class_list":["post-5504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-security","tag-fact-checking-2","tag-featured","tag-jungle-justice","tag-sharia-law"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8R6dE-1qM","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":879,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"kunleadebajo","display_name":"Kunle Adebajo","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/485f0ab7cc43a7addf6c6d0c1943961952e0364f483da606e785bfa80042ed8f?s=96&r=g","author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"Adebajo","first_name":"Kunle","job_title":"","description":""}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Jungle-justice.jpg?fit=718%2C414&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5504"},{"taxonomy":"verdict","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/verdict?post=5504"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=5504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}