What was claimed
A video shows a group of Muslim people praying on a London Underground train.
Our verdict
False. The video is AI-generated.
AAP FACTCHECK - A video purporting to show Muslim men praying on the London Underground and blocking commuters is AI-generated.
The clip contains common visual and logical errors found in content generated by artificial intelligence (AI) tools.
One post on an Indian Facebook page, which has been shared in Australia, purportedly shows commuters looking on as more than a dozen Muslim men kneel on prayer mats inside the carriage.
Some of the men are wearing a traditional Islamic robe called a thawb.
Commuters express frustration at the Muslim men throughout the clip, with one saying, “Come on, we can’t get off,” and another saying, “This is ridiculous”.
The footage has spread across multiple online platforms, however it is fake.
Google searches returned no credible reports of the supposed incident. The footage also contains several AI errors.
Fingers belonging to the kneeling men appear bent, warped or unnaturally long.
At the 13-second mark, a female commuter standing against the carriage wall appears to be missing a shoe.
Behind her, two people appear to have their arms unnaturally intertwined.
The text on the signage inside the carriage is also blurry and garbled - a common sign it has been created with AI.
The clip contains other visual clues that indicate it is digitally fabricated.
Throughout the video, the praying men are arranged in two opposing rows and appear to face one another.
However, this arrangement contradicts standard Islamic practice.
During Islamic daily prayer, worshippers face a single direction known as the Qibla, which points toward the Kaaba in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
The London Underground also does not appear to use the red-and-yellow grab poles depicted in the video.
Google searches of carriage interiors found no examples matching this design.
Historical images published in The Guardian show London Underground carriages with different grab pole designs, including yellow poles in 2008 and blue poles in 2012.
Transport for London also published images in 2021 showing a carriage fitted with grey grab poles.
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