AltNews has been at the forefront of shielding Tablighi Jamaat from all valid criticism. Ever since the Islamic Missionary organisation emerged as the largest vector of the Wuhan Coronavirus, AltNews has been defending them as if their lives depended on it. They lied, twisted facts, misled their audience on the atrocious conduct of Tablighi Jamaat and its members and that of significant sections of the Muslim community. As we have demonstrated in our earlier report, the objective was to simple: to create a false impression that Muslims are being targeted due to their religion. Apart from Pratik Sinha, the other individual who has led the charge is Mohammed Zubair, on of the cofounders of the ‘factchecking’ website.
Even on Saturday, when the dubious Indian Express report claimed that the videos of Maulana Saad were ‘doctored, ‘factchecker’ Zubair was at the forefront peddling it, using it to further his agenda. The report was thoroughly refuted by Delhi Police later on. Although in this particular instance, he was only capitalising on the malice and incompetence of others, he has a history of indulging in crass behaviour on his own.
Zubair, of course, earned his fame through the parody page of Subramanian Swamy he ran on Facebook. The page was called ‘Sususwamy’. The ‘factchecker’ has often lied through that particular page of his to further his agenda. Among the more prominent ones was the lie about BS Yedyurappa, the Chief Minister of Karnataka. Zubair had claimed that the veteran BJP leader had celebrated Tipu Sultan in the past and misled his audience using an image from a completely unrelated event to bolster his claim.
The objective was far too obvious. It was to present Tipu Sultan as a great king who was respected on all sides of the political spectrum until it became beneficial to disrespect him. The truth is that Tipu Sultan was a genocidal maniac who is loathed by vast sections of the Hindu community and the overwhelming majority of BJP leaders, including BS Yedyurappa. On another occasion, Zubair deliberately passed off a massive rally in Mumbai as one in Delhi for his own political motives. He was ultimately to retract his lie by alert users on social media.
Then, there was the occasion on which Zubair shared a cropped video and claimed that some members of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) of Gonda, Uttar Pradesh had raised anti-national slogans during a protest rally against Pakistan in the wake of Pulwama terror attack. He urged his followers to share the video far and wide so that his political agenda would be fulfilled. Ultimately, the Gonda Police had to come forward and issue a statement clarifying that such slogans were never raised and asserted that the video was being used for ‘corrupt’ purposes.
Zubair does not even hesitate to politicise a matter as serious as rape if he could derive some political mileage from it. During the heinous Kathua Rape Case, OpIndia had pointed flaws in the claims being made by the Police and raised valid questions regarding the allegations being made against Vishal Jangotra. For merely asking questions, the Altnews cofounder had insinuated that Opindia was acting as apologists for rapists. Ultimately, however, Vishal Jangotra was acquitted by the Court of all crimes.
More recently, Mohammed Zubair went against BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia. The BJP leader had shared a video to illustrate the manner in which significant sections of the Muslim community was violating social distancing norms and risking the spread of the Wuhan Coronavirus. The AltNews cofounder immediately jumped to the scene and shared some ‘factcheck’ to insinuate that Gaurav Bhatia was spreading fake news under the directions from ‘IT cell’. In reality, the ‘factcheck’ did not disprove the BJP spokesperson’s claim at all and was only confirming his point.
Consider his resolute defence of the radical factions of the Muslim community with the manner in which he treats people of other faiths. He shared a video and claimed that the Mayor of Surat was defying lockdown norms when he was prostrating before a Jain monk. In reality, the video was from a charity event and the Mayor was only performing an act of ritualistic obeisance as is the norm within the Jain community. This is not all. Zubair has gone to the extent of shielding the Islamic terrorists responsible for the brutal massacre in Sri Lanka last year.
Quite clearly, when it comes to ‘factchecking’, Zubair has one standard for himself and his own political ideology and quite another for those he disagrees with. In an earlier article, we have elaborated the manner in which AltNews serves as the propaganda wing of Islamists by lying outright, misleading its audience, whitewashing their crimes, doxxing individuals and allying themselves with global far-left media outlets. In all of this, Mohammed Zubair plays as prominent a part as his colleague Pratik Sinha.
