By: Annie Priya
November 22 2022
Misleading: Worshippers continued to pray in a Mosque in Indonesia when an earthquake struck on November 21, 2022.
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Fact-Check
The Verdict Misleading
The video of a man praying during an earthquake dates back to the 2018 earthquake in Indonesia, not the November 2022 earthquake.
Claim ID ec81f246
Context
After a powerful earthquake in West Java, Indonesia, on November 21, 2022, a video showing a man continuing to pray in a Mosque during an earthquake was shared widely on social media, linking to the recent quake. The post was shared with a comment, "During the #Earthquake in Indonesia, worshipers continued to pray Subhan Allah in the mosque." The video attracted more than 117,000 views on Twitter and was also shared on YouTube channels as a recent incident. However, the video is from August 2018, during an earthquake in Lombok, Indonesia.
In Fact
We conducted a reverse image search and used relevant keywords on YouTube and found a similar video uploaded by the Guardian News YouTube channel on August 6, 2018, titled "Indonesian imam continues prayers in Bali during earthquake." The video description stated the footage showed an imam reciting evening prayers in Bali while a 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck the neighboring island of Lombok, killing at least 98 people on July 29, 2018. The video in question dates back to 2018 and is unrelated to the recent earthquake in Indonesia.
On August 7, 2018, BBC News published an article on this earthquake along with the exact video. According to the article, a spokesman for the Musholla As-Syuhada mosque told BBC News Indonesia that "worshippers heard sounds from the ceiling and the roof like it was going to fall, so we ran. But the imam, named Arafat, stayed as he believed his life was only for God to take, and so the mosque was "the best place to take shelter."
According to Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysical Agency (BMKG), a 5.6-magnitude quake hit the Cianjur region in West Java at a depth of 10 kilometers on November 21, 2022. Reuters reported that Indonesia's disaster mitigation agency (BNPB) said more than 2,200 houses had been damaged and more than 5,300 people had been displaced. Officials were still working to determine the full extent of the damage caused by the quake.
The Verdict
The viral video dates back to 2018 and was taken in Bali, Indonesia, and is not linked to the recent earthquake in Indonesia's Cianjur region in West Java. Therefore, we mark this claim as misleading.