False claim about Sayeedi's funeral circulate with old video
A recent video (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) circulating on Facebook has falsely claimed that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman permitted the absentee funeral prayer (Ghaibana Janaza) of Jamaat leader Delwar Hossain Sayeedi, who was convicted of war crimes, to be conducted at the Kaaba Sharif. However, upon verification, it was discovered that the video is actually from last July, before the death of Delwar Hossain Sayeedi.
The description of the viral video claims that “Allama Delwar Hossain Sayeedi’s Ghaibana Janaza is allowed to be held in Kaaba Sharif.” However, upon further inquiry, it was found that the video was originally a speech from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Summit. Mohammed bin Salman delivered this at the GCC Summit in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on July 19, this year.
Originally, this 15-second clip was extracted from a 2-minute-9-second news report by Al-Akhbariya TV. The video was published on the YouTube channel of Al Akhbariya on July 19. The video’s Arabic title translates to “Gulf Summit with Central Asian Countries. #Crown_Prince’s statement.”
In the video, from 17 seconds to 31 seconds, an automated tool translates Mohammed bin Salman’s Arabic speech, which conveys, “On behalf of King Salman bin Abdulaziz, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, I am pleased to welcome you to your second country. We pray to the Almighty God to grant us success in our summit, which includes the well-being of our nations, who are bound together in a historic bond.”
In essence, the video is outdated and lacks any mention of Delwar Hossain Sayeedi or Ghaibana Janaza.
Prior to this incident, several posts on social media sites (1, 2, 3, 4) claimed that only three people in history had absentee funerals within the premises of the sacred Kaaba Sharif, with Delwar Hossain Sayeedi being one among them.
RumorScanner, a fact-checking organization, has refuted these claims. They stated that there are multiple cases of absentee funerals being held at the Kaaba Sharif under Saudi official directives. The Saudi authorities, however, did not organize an official funeral for Delwar Hossain Sayeedi.
