Did a Muslim man whose picture is being widely shared in a meme say that "Jihad will continue until all the Hindus, Christians, Buddhists, Atheists are killed"? No, that's not true: This is a made-up quote that has previously been debunked, and it's being used now to smear Muslims in the U.S. Congress.
The quote originated from a meme (archived here) published by Blood Red Patriots on February 20, 2019. It opened:
Jihad will continue until all the Hindus, Christians, Buddhists, Atheists are killed. Your secularism & tolerance can not change our ideology. Quran does NOT permit survival of Non-Muslims.
Users on social media saw this:
The meme has a couple of variations making the rounds, and one being shared included a comment pasted underneath from Randy McDaniels. It said:
Keep this in mind as new members of Congress who are Muslim are sworn into office on this book of death and inequality.
Another version included the caption:
After the New Zealand's shootings, Abdullah Zuber while responding to BBC questions affirmed.
AFP fact-checked the claim that Zuber made these comments on the BBC. The broadcaster said it checked its databases, and the guest never made an appearance on its air. AFP concluded:
A meme combining a photo of a bearded man with a quote saying: "jihad will continue until all the Hindus, Christians, Buddhists, Atheists are killed" has been shared thousands of times on Facebook alongside a claim the man in the image made the statement to the BBC after the New Zealand mosque shootings in March, 2019. The claim is false; the meme has circulated online since at least 2017; the photo shows a man who was reportedly acquitted on an unrelated terror charge in India in 2014, and the BBC told AFP it did not interview him after the Christchurch attacks.
AFP traced the photo back to a non-profit Indian news site, TwoCircles.net, which took the photo of Zuber. A September 27, 2017, article on TwoCircles (archived here) detailed how the photo was lifted from its site and used to malign an innocent man. It noted the man, whose last name was spelled Juber, was acquitted on February 26, 2014, by a court in Kolkata, India. He had been falsely accused of terrorism charges and spent eight years in prison. It wrote:
But even after getting freedom from all the charges after spending eight years behind the bars, Juber's image has become another pawn at the hands of Hindutva trolls in their attempts to portray Muslims as violent fanatics.
Juber's photograph which was exclusively captured by TwoCircles.net is being photoshopped and being circulated online with a quote which Juber never said.
Another Indian website, altnews.in, said it found the meme in a fake quote "factory" online. The story linked to a December 1, 2017, tweet sharing the meme in Hindi. Lead Stories has located an earlier version, in English, dating back to October 3, 2017, though it's likely not the first known version.
As to the claim in the meme that the Quran is a book of death that does not permit the survival of non-Muslims, the Independent newspaper in London observed in 2017, "Anyone who says the Quran advocates terrorism obviously hasn't read its lessons on violence."
Either way, the quote was fabricated. It is now being shared to malign Muslim members of Congress who may have chosen to take the oath of office on the Quran.
