Old Video From 2015 Circulated As Recent Incident Showing Woman Interrupting Texas Muslim Capitol Day

A viral video of a woman interrupting an event called Texas Muslims Capitol Day is being widely circulated across social media. In the video, a woman can be seen interrupting the event and grabbing the microphone to assert that Islam will never dominate the United States of America and Texas.

The Logical Indian Fact Check Team has examined claims circulated through communal angles and debunked several of them. Recently, we found that a person that was assumed to be a Muslim scholar is actually a person from the Hindu community whose provocative speech went viral across social media. Check this report for more information.

Claim:

In the video, a burqa-clad woman can be seen delivering a speech on a podium that states, 'Texas Muslim Capitol Day.' The woman says, "__Celebrates the 7th Annual Texas Muslim Capitol Day. We are honoured…" Applause breaks out and the woman stops her speech to let the people applaud.

Another woman approaches from the back of the podium and grabs the microphone to say, "I proclaim, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I stand against Islam and the false prophet Mohammed. Islam will never dominate the United States, and by the grace of God, it will not dominate Texas." The woman then walks off stage as people approach her.

Subramanian Swamy, the former Cabinet Minister, shared the video claiming that the video could potentially indicate an oncoming "clash of civilisations."

Right-leaning page KreatleyMedia which is known for peddling fake news, tweeted this video and wrote, "कट्टरपंथ के खिलाफ अमरीकी जनता में गुस्सा बढ़ रहा है."

[English Translation: American public anger against radicalization is growing.]

Netizens applauded the actions of the woman who stormed the stage and questioned the idea of 'Texas Muslim Capitol Day.'

Fact Check:

The Logical Indian fact check team verified the viral claim and found it to be misleading. The viral video is from 2015.

We used InVid's Keyframe Analysis Tool to isolate the keyframes of a viral video. After isolating the keyframes, we conducted a reverse image search on the isolated keyframes which led us to this Facebook video published on March 2, 2015. It contained the same video as the viral video. The caption of the video reads, "Christine Weick interrupts Texas Muslim Capitol Day speaker in a way full of Anger , Hate and Intolerance - I wonder what Jesus would do if he was there."

Taking this as a cue, we conducted a keyword search with the terms, 'Texas Muslim Capitol Day' and 'Christine Weick'. We found that Texas Muslim Capitol Day is a bi-annual event celebrated by the Muslim community in Texas, as per information on CAIR.

In our Fact Check, we found the viral video in this report uploaded by FOX 7 Austin on January 30, 2015. The description reads, "Controversial activist Christine Weick interrupts a speaker at Texas Muslim Capitol Day." FOX 7 Austin is a part of the Fox Network.

We also found another video uploaded by the Austin American-Statesman, a news outlet delivering news about Austin, the capital city of Texas. The video was uploaded on August 18, 2018, which shows the incident from another angle.

In our investigation, we also came across another report by FOX 7 Austin which provided more details regarding the interruption at Texas Muslim Capitol Day. In the video uploaded on February 7, 2015, the woman giving the speech is identified as Ruth Nasrullah, a member of the Council on American Islamic Relations. In the video, Nasrullah can be heard saying, "It saddens me to see people protesting against a religion when freedom is what we are all about here."

We came across this report by The Dallas Morning News published on January 29, 2015. The report detailed how Christine Weick interrupted the speech by Nasrullah. The report states that 200 individuals attended the event, which was organised by the Texas branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. In the report, it is mentioned that the event was organised to express the concerns of the local Muslim community to the legislators.

We also came across reports by USA Today, and New Straits Times published on January 30, 2015. These reports gave further details about the interruption, containing images from the incident showing Christine Weick. The report quotes the Texas Department of Public Safety stating that no arrests were made at the event.

We also found this report by the Texas Tribune published on January 31, 2017, which documented how the participants in the 2017 edition of the Texas Muslim Capitol Day were protected by a human circle made up of at least 1,000 supporters.

Conclusion:

In our Fact Check, we came across several news reports which carried details about the incident. We found that the event actually took place in January 2015. In the incident, controversial protestor, Christine Weick, interrupted Ruth Nasrullah, a member of the Council on American Islamic Relations. The event was organised by CAIR to express the concerns of the local Muslim community to the legislators which was interrupted by anti-Muslim protestors.

Following the 2015 incident, the participants were protected by supporters of their event. Thus, we can conclude that an incident from 2015 was circulated as a recent one. Hence, the viral claim is misleading.

If you have any news that you believe needs to be fact-checked, please email us at factcheck@thelogicalindian.com or WhatsApp at 6364000343.

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