The fake claim that groups of Muslims are responsible for setting fire to five churches in France over the course of a single day has been circulating online. The acts supposedly took place on October 17 when violence erupted across several French cities, marring a series of planned peaceful demonstrations. The claim has mainly been propagated by accounts known for anti-immigrant and islamophobic rhetoric, some of which have exploited footage of previous protests, taking them out of context.
Americanconspiracy theorist and podcasterAlex Jonesmade the claim originally viaa post on X on October 25. It included a video purporting to be of one of the churches on fire, but the FRANCE 24 Observers team was able to geolocate the video to confirm in reality it actually showed a rubbish bin on fire in front of anapartment building in Lyon. In early October, Jones also made the unsubstanciated allegation that Catholic priests had been set alight during the protest led by French high schoolers.
The images above are screengrabs of the video shared by Alex Jones, which he claimed show one of the five French churches burned by Muslims in a single day. It turns out, however, that this video was filmed in Lyon (check out the screengrab from Google Street View below) and depicts a rubbish bin on fire in front of an apartment building, not a church. Geocoordinates: 45.75102032331061, 4.844504657577997. © Photo montage by the FRANCE 24 Observers "European heritage and history will soon be nothing but ashes without Remigration",reada post by a pro-Trump account, MAGA Nation 47, on X.
The post featured a video of the Saint-Michel Church in Bordeaux, appearing to be on fire. But this post also used out-of-context images to deceive viewers. The video was actually filmed back in July and it shows a fire that started ata homeless encampment– which did not reach the church.
Several media outletsmisreported the false claims. And such stories haven’t just come from the American far-right. The FRANCE 24 Observers team found one of the most widely shared posts to derive from an Italy-based account.
In a Facebook post from October 23, a social media user claiming to be Catholic and with a history ofIslamophobic posts – Mauro D.– declared five churches had been set on fire the day prior “by Muslims who want to destroy Christianity”. While he didn't specify details around the location of the churches, his post was shared nearly 10,000 times. His post featured an image of a fire at the Parisian church of Saint-Sulpice.
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