Do you think UNESCO declared Islam as the most peaceful religion of the world?
Bangalore: The most peaceful religion– For the past week many Facebook users and Twitterati have been sharing a news with lots of pride & that is
UNESCO declares Islam as the most peaceful religion of the world.
This is followed by a more authentic looking “certificate” purportedly issued by none other than UNESCO!
We were intrigued by this and decided to check the source of the claim. We have found that the “news” was first published in http://www.juntakareporter.com/ which is a satire website, on 4th July. This website has long been publishing satirical articles. They have a very clear disclaimer for those innocent souls who can’t differentiate between news and satire by just reading them.
Still unfortunately many fell prey to this satire. Within a week the article was proudly shared by scores of people that it has prompted the UNESCO to issue a clarification stating that they have made no such announcement or certificate!
In future if you are overwhelmed by any news and want to share, please check if it is real or a satire. There are many satirical websites, FB pages, Twitter handles which are so popular that you may believe whatever they share to be true.