A video is being widely circulated on social media with sensational claims that people in Iran are abandoning Islam. The posts further allege that more than 10 tons of copies of the Holy Quran were thrown into a river and that over 50,000 mosques have been closed across the country.
Sharing the video, a user named Manoj Srivastava wrote: “Goodbye Islam. Thousands of copies of the Quran weighing more than ten tons were thrown into a river in Iran. More than 50,000 mosques have been shut down.“
Quoting the same post, another user identified as Pandit Er L K Niranjan Yaduvanshi (Bade Bhaiya) wrote:
“When the people of Iran have abandoned the path of terror for the sake of peace and harmony in their country, why does the infidel government of India not realize that it should also put an end to terrorism in India?”
Fact Check
Times Headline investigated the viral claim and found it to be misleading. The circulating video is neither recent nor related to any anti-Islam campaign, mass abandonment of Islam, or the closure of thousands of mosques in Iran.
To verify the claim, keyframes from the viral video were extracted and subjected to a reverse image search. This led to an Instagram post published by fasiribnews.ir on October 26, 2020, confirming that the footage is approximately six years old.
According to the report, the video is linked to an incident at Tangab Dam in Firozabad, Iran, where several old and worn copies of the Quran were found along the shoreline after images of them went viral online. Following the incident, Rouhollah Belouri, Head of the Islamic Propagation Department in Firozabad, visited the site and conducted a preliminary inquiry.
Belouri stated that the damaged copies of the Quran appeared to have been disposed of in accordance with a traditional religious practice. Due to the movement of the water, the copies later drifted to the edge of the reservoir. In Islamic tradition, old or unusable copies of the Quran are sometimes respectfully buried or placed in flowing water when they can no longer be used.
Further keyword-based research led to reports published by Hamshahri Online and Tabnak Fars. Citing the Iranian state news agency IRNA, Hamshahri Online reported that the incident was not an act of desecration. Belouri clarified that anyone intending to insult the Quran would not have left the copies floating in water. Instead, he described the incident as the result of a lack of awareness regarding the proper disposal of worn religious books.
Similarly, Tabnak Fars, citing the Iranian Broadcasting Corporation (IBC), reported that around 50 worn copies of the Quran along with several old prayer books were recovered from the banks of Tangab Dam. Authorities subsequently advised mosque caretakers to hand over unusable copies of the Quran to the Endowments and Charity Affairs Department rather than disposing of them independently.
In addition, Times Headline contacted well-known independent Iranian journalist Hassan Zaidi, who confirmed that the video dates back to 2020. He stated that the incident involved the improper disposal of worn religious books and had no connection with any anti-Islam campaign, mass conversion, or closure of mosques in Iran.
Conclusion
The investigation by Times Headline found the viral claim to be false and misleading. The circulating footage is from 2020 and shows an incident at Tangab Dam in Firozabad, Iran, where approximately 50 worn copies of the Quran and several old prayer books were found after being disposed of through a traditional practice and later washing ashore.
There is no evidence to support the claims that thousands of copies of the Quran were deliberately thrown into a river, that more than 50,000 mosques have been shut down in Iran, or that people are abandoning Islam on a large scale. Therefore, the viral social media posts are misleading and unsupported by the available evidence.