Claim: A video shows a fake Kaaba in Tehran, Iran, where people are forced to perform Hajj.
Fact: The claim is misleading because the 2023 video shows Iranian authorities conducting training sessions on Hajj rituals for pilgrims to avoid mishaps during the annual pilgrimage.
On 29 May 2024, a Facebook user Hazrat Khubaib posted a video with an Urdu caption,
استغفراللہ استغفراللہ
ایران نے اپنے شہر تہران میں جعلی خانہ کعبہ بنا لیا ہے۔ اور دیکھے روافض ابن سبا کی زریت اسکا طواف بھی کر رہے ہیں۔
[Translation: Astaghfirullah, Astaghfirullah. Iran has built a fake Kaaba in its city of Tehran. And look, the R***** (a derogatory term for Shia Muslims), the descendants of Ibn Saba, are also performing tawaf (circumambulation) around it.”]
Soch Fact Check verified the exact translation of the phrase from an expert in Arabic and Urdu.
The 32-second video shows people in white clothes performing the tawaf (circumambulating) around a building which looks like the Kaaba, or the Grand Mosque of Saudi Arabia.
Fact or Fiction?
When Soch Fact Check conducted a reverse image search of the video’s keyframes, the results on Google led us to a YouTube video, uploaded on 22 May 2023, by the Associated Press (AP). The video titled, “Iran trains pilgrims for annual hajj rituals.”
According to the YouTube video’s description, “Thousands of pilgrims gathered in Iran on Tuesday for training ahead of the annual hajj rituals, which will begin in Saudi Arabia in late June. A replica of the Kaaba was set up at Azadi sports hall in Tehran where the actual pilgrimage was simulated to prepare pilgrims for the ritual in Mecca later in the year”. The same footage from the viral clip is featured in the video report.
A Persian Iranian news outlet, Shabestan News, also reported on the training in 2023. According to the news article’s title, “An orientation training conference was held for 10,000 pilgrims from Tehran province” when translated from Persian into English. The article mentions details of the training, adding that, “the training aimed to familiarise and teach pilgrims how to perform Hajj” amid symbols of the Kaaba, Safa and Marah, Hajr Ismail, etc that were placed in the “12,000-seat” Azadi sports hall.
Thus, Soch Fact Check concludes that the video is from Tehran, but it only shows the training of pilgrims to perform Hajj rituals.
Virality
The misleading video on Facebook received 22,000 views, 113 likes and 66 comments. It can also be seen here, here and here.
On TikTok, the misleading video received 900 likes, 175 comments and 94 shares. The archived version can be seen here.
Conclusion: A claim that Iran has built a fake Kaaba is misleading. The video in the claim shows Iranian authorities training pilgrims for Hajj rituals in 2023 to avoid mishaps during the annual pilgrimage.
Background image in cover photo: Unsplash
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