The Tamil Nadu government on the occasion of 26th January, Republic Day presented the Kottai Ameer Communal Harmony Award to Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair who is known for spreading fake news and false information in the name of fact-checking.
The video of the ceremony was shared on social media by some of his followers. “Tamil Nadu Govt felicitate Fact Checker and Alt news co-founder Mohammed Zubair with Kottai Ameer Communal Harmony Award. Congrats!! Hope that unbiased Fact-check continues at Alt News against all Fake News peddlers across all parties!” the tweet by one of the users read.
FACT CHECKERS GETTING THEIR DUE RECOGNITION!!
— AAP Ka Mehta 🇮🇳 (@DaaruBaazMehta) January 26, 2024
Tamil Nadu Govt felicitate Fact Checker and @AltNews Co Founder @zoo_bear with Kottai Ameer Communal Harmony Award
Congrats!! Hope that unbiased Fact-check continues at Alt News against all Fake News peddlers across all parties!! pic.twitter.com/iBoQWdPZQ0
In the 75th Republic Day celebrations, CM @mkstalin presented The Kottai Ameer award for Communal Harmony to @zoo_bear of Alt News for his efforts to bust fake news regarding alleged attack on North Indian migrant workers in state. Congratulations @zoo_bear pic.twitter.com/37ArGvqqbB
— மு.குணசேகரன் M.Gunasekaran (@GunasekaranMu) January 26, 2024
Another similar tweet was shared by a ‘journalist’ named Arvind Gunasekar who is associated with the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). He shared the official document revealing that Zubair had been felicitated for his work through the website Alt News.
“Zubair has created a website called Alt News and has been analyzing the veracity of the news coming out on social media and posting only the real news on his website. His work helps to prevent the occurrence of violence in society likely to be caused by fake news,” the document read.
It further added that Zubair played a major role in ‘debunking’ the lies that were being spread against the state in March 2023. “In March 2023, there was a rapid spread on social media that migrant workers were being attacked in Tamil Nadu. After verifying the authenticity of the video footage, he published on his website Alt News that the footage in the video was posted on social media and had not actually taken place in Tamil Nadu. His report stopped the spread of rumours against Tamil Nadu and acted to prevent violence caused by caste, religion, race, and language in Tamil Nadu,” the document read.
Tamil Nadu Government presents fact-checker @zoo_bear with ‘Kottai Ameer Communal Harmony Award’ for the year 2024. pic.twitter.com/NaD7WwLZaG
— Arvind Gunasekar (@arvindgunasekar) January 26, 2024
In March last year, a report was published by several media outlets that stated that several migrant labourers from Bihar working in Tamil Nadu were attacked and that more than a dozen of them had lost their lives. The article published in the Hindi daily on 2 March 2023 claimed that as many as 15 Hindi-speaking migrant labourers lost their lives in “Talibani” style attacks in Tamil Nadu. As a result of these attacks, the labourers were fleeing from the state.
Later, Zubair who is known for spreading false information and provoking the Muslim community against the Hindus, is said to have published on his website that the incident had not taken place in Tamil Nadu. However, Zubair failed to highlight several such incidents from Tamil Nadu in which the migrant workers were discriminated against.
DMK tactics to spread hatred against North Indians
While the incidents mentioned in the Hindi media, in this case, were questioned, the multiple instances of discrimination against North Indians could be seen as a result of the DMK leaders’ ongoing hate campaign, which includes several Ministers, Seeman’s Naam Tamilar Katchi, Dravidian Stock YouTube channels, and other fringe elements. Slurs such as ‘Vadakkan’, ‘Paani Puri wala’, and ‘Panparag vaayan’ have been normalized by DMK officials and supporters on social media. Previously, the DMK used racist language to spread hatred towards North Indians.
In the run-up to the 2021 Assembly elections, the DMK launched political advertisements in which young people claimed that the Edappadi Palaniswami government was giving Tamil Nadu jobs to north Indians. Full-page advertisements were distributed, claiming that Hindi-speaking north Indians were taking Tamil jobs.
DMK wanting to ‘eradicate Sanatan Dharma’
The DMK and its ministers, and supporters have also made derogatory comments about the Hindu faith and Sanatan Dharma time and again. Recently, in September 2023, DMK Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin spewed venom and made a vitriolic speech against Hinduism and its followers. He opined that ‘Eradicating Sanatan Dharma’ was much more apt than opposing it.
“Mosquitoes, dengue, flu, malaria, corona – we should not oppose these things. They’ve to be eradicated completely. The same is the case with Santanam (Hinduism). Our first work should be to abolish/eradicate Sanatanam instead of opposing it,” he was quoted as saying. The video of the incident had also massively gone viral over the internet.
கொசு, டெங்கு, கொரோனா இவற்றையெல்லாம் நாம் எதிர்க்ககூடாது ஒழித்து கட்ட வேண்டும், அதைப்போல தான் இந்த சனாதனமும் அதை எதிர்க்க கூடாது ஒழிக்க வேண்டும்! – அமைச்சர் உதயநிதி ஸ்டாலின்! #UdhayanidhiStalin #Sanatana pic.twitter.com/0MKe3ORPdq
— DMK Updates (@DMK_Updates) September 2, 2023
It is pertinent to note that earlier he used to claim that he was an atheist but recently he identified himself as a proud Christian.
Interestingly, the selective ‘fact-checker’ did not comment on the genocidal comments by the DMK leaders against Hindus.
Zubair and the DMK govt act as confidants to each other
In such a scenario, the DMK government lauding and praising ‘fact-checker’ Mohammed Zubair does not come as a surprise. Both, the DMK ministers and supporters and Zubair are widely known for making anti-Hindu statements and opposing the Hindu faith. They both seem to see Hinduism and Sanatan Dharma as their adversaries.
Mohammed Zubair has a history of spreading false information and propaganda against Hindus. Alt-News and its co-founders Mohammed Zubair and Pratik Sinha have been accused of peddling erroneous, false, and purposefully controversial information in the past, as documented here and here.
Zubair was the one who shared an altered clip of former BJP leader Nupur Sharma’s statements, which sparked a targeted echo of ‘Sar Tan Se Juda’ slogans around the country, with mobs calling for Nupur Sharma’s death. It also resulted in the deaths of countless innocent Hindus who backed Nupur Sharma, tailor Kanhaiya Lal for example, who was beheaded by Jihadis.
Mohammed Zubair and the aftermath of his dog whistle against Nupur Sharma
In May 2021, ex-BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma found herself at the centre of a raging storm after Islamists, egged on by the likes of AltNews co-founder Mohammed Zubair, issued multiple threats against her and her family for expressing her views on Prophet Muhammad and Islam.
Sharma was part of a debate panel on Times Now, discussing the finding of Shivling in the Gyanvapi complex and the subsequent mockery of the Hindu Gods and Goddesses that followed in the wake of the discovery.
Islamists had claimed that the Shivling discovered inside the wuzukhana of the Gyanvapi disputed structure was not a Shivling but a fountain. Across social media platforms, detractors had repeated ad nauseam that the Shivling found inside the Gyanvapi premises was a fountain and not an idol of a Hindu God.
In response to the contempt and scorn poured over Hindu Gods and Goddesses, BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma asked them to refrain from insulting Hindu Gods and cited Islamic scriptures to substantiate her remarks on Prophet Muhammad and Islam.
Zubair shared an incomplete video of the debate, touching off Sar Tan Se Juda protests all over the country. While Islamists went on a rampage on the streets in many cities across the country, it was essentially Mohammed Zubair who was responsible for kindling a fire that had gone on to assume uncontrollable proportions.
It was Zubair’s dog whistle that made a mountain out of a molehill and painted a target behind the back of Nupur Sharma and anyone and everyone who came out in her support. It is pertinent to note that despite claiming to be a fact-checker, Mohammad Zubair or his portal Altnews never bothered to fact-check the statements made by Nupur Sharma.
The ominous hounding of Nupur Sharma prompted many to extend their support to her. Kanhaiya Lal from Udaipur, Umesh Kolhe in Amravati, and many others extended their solidarity with the beleaguered leader, voicing their support for her amid the death threats from Islamists.
And so, Lal was a marked man the moment he came out in support of Nupur Sharma. Islamists, provoked by Mohammed Zubair, dished out death threats to him for what they considered an unpardonable sin committed against the Prophet.
And days later, the Hindu man was killed for something as trivial as just sharing a social media post in support of Nupur Sharma.
A similar fate befell Umesh Kolhe, a chemist living in Maharashtra’s Amravati, who was murdered by four Muslim assailants while he was returning from his pharmacy on the night of June 22, 2022. Kolhe, too, was murdered for his social media post supporting Nupur Sharma.
Opindia had reported in detail cases of murders and assaults faced by the Hindu community for extending their support to the former BJP spokesperson.
This makes Mohammed Zubair guilty of ‘stochastic terrorism’, a concept defined as the public demonization of a person or group resulting in the incitement of a violent act, which is statistically probable but whose specifics cannot be predicted.
How AltNews works as an Islamic propaganda website using shield of fact check
Propaganda website AltNews has been largely peddled as an authentic source of fact-checks by the entire Left cabal. Their articles are peddled by any anti-government, anti-Hindu riffraff that the ecosystem has to offer and they often claim that their method is rather elaborate and authentic. With patrons like Arundhati Roy, who regularly speaks in a language that can only be called one that resonates with Naxals and every element that wishes to tear India apart, AltNews has gained a reputation amongst right-thinking individuals as a mouthpiece of Islamists. The so-called fact-checking website regularly furthers fake news, obfuscates the truth, concocts details to shield Islamists and sometimes, even creates fake news simply to fact check it later.
In their quest to exonerate perpetrators from the Muslim community, AltNews has employed several methods over the years. Their methods, have now almost become predictable and standardised. While subtly peddling Islamic propaganda, AltNews keeps up the veneer of fact-checking to make their propaganda far more palatable to their already gullible readers, and that, they have the help of the entire ecosystem for their nefarious plans certainly helps move things along.
There have been numerous occasions when they have whitewashed the crimes of Islamists or falsely accused Hindus of guilt. They tried to whitewash the crime of Zahid and Aslam who murdered a three-year-old in Aligarh last year. They spread misinformation about the Hindu Swastika. They were even caught shielding the Islamists who committed the brutal terror attack in Sri Lanka. It would be difficult to find an Islamist crime which AltNews hasn’t played its propaganda over. From spreading downright lies to deliberately misleading their readers, whitewashing deplorable Islamist crimes, doxxing Hindus on social media and collaborating with global Jihadis and Leftists, AltNews employs every tactic in the book to downplay crimes against Hindus and act as an Islamist mouthpiece.
