Not a demand for Sharia, London procession was in support of Palestine
A video has spread on the social media platform Facebook with the claim that it shows a protest procession by Muslims demanding Sharia law in England. However, Dismislab’s fact-check has found that the claim is not true. The video is a scene from a procession held in support of Palestine in London on Nov. 11, 2023.
The 17-second video was posted from a Facebook profile named Sudha Chatterjee. It shows a massive gathering on the banks of the River Thames in London, with thousands of people crossing Vauxhall Bridge. The post read, “Muslims’ protest procession in England demanding Sharia law‼️I fully support this demand‼️”.
By the time this report was published, the video had been viewed more than 42,000 times and shared more than 160 times. In the comments, one person wrote, “China has understood it correctly, Islam is a mental illness!” Another commented, “The West Bengal of tomorrow.”
A keyframe search led to multiple news reports published on Nov. 11, 2023 (1, 2). These video reports, published on the X handles of the news outlets, match the recently spread video exactly. The bridge, the surrounding buildings, and the scene of the gathering visible in the video published by Arab News completely match the spread video.
These video reports reveal that, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine, a protest procession was held in London expressing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. This procession was held at Vauxhall Bridge in London on Nov. 11, 2023, which is what is seen in the spread video.
That is to say, the video is a scene from a procession held in London in support of Palestine, not a protest procession by Muslims demanding Sharia law.
All social media captions, quotations, and news excerpts in this article have been translated into English from the languages in which they were originally posted or published.
