Fake Posts Claim President’s Father Was a Muslim! - Fact Crescendo Sri Lanka

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දිනපතා සත්‍ය කරුණු දැන ගැනීමට අපගේ WhatsApp චැනලයට මෙතනින් එකතුවන්න.

Social media platforms are sometimes used to spread false claims and opinions that harm or insult individuals. This article presents a fact-check conducted on a post shared on social media that misleads the public regarding the personal life of the Sri Lankan President, Anura Kumara Dissanayake.

The social media post includes photographs of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, his mother, and another individual portrayed as a Muslim man, along with an insulting caption. Through this post, an attempt is made to suggest that the President’s father was a Muslim, thereby misleading the public.

Another Facebook post uses the same photograph, identifies the person as Imthiyas Nana, and attempts to claim that the President is his son, further promoting the misleading narrative.

The post attracted a wide range of reactions, and it was also shared by a considerable number of users. Accordingly, we took steps to examine the accuracy of the claims made in these Facebook posts.

We first checked the official website of the President’s Office, which contains verified information about the current President of Sri Lanka, Anura Kumara Dissanayake.

According to the website, his full name is Dissanayake Mudiyanselage Anura Kumara Dissanayake. It also clearly states that his father was Dissanayake Mudiyanselage Ranbanda, a former assistant officer in the Survey Department, and that his mother is Dissanayake Mudiyanselage Seelawathi.

We also examined several media reports detailing President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s early life and personal history. One such report, published by the Sunday Times on September 29, 2024, was based on an interview with the President’s mother and his elder sister, Sriyalatha Dissanayake. The report also included information about the President’s father. According to the article, quoting the President’s mother, his father worked in the Minindoru Department and passed away in 1992.

A report published in Lankadeepa under the theme “ Stories About Presidential Candidate Anura by the Locals of His Hometown” included information about the President’s early life, stating that his father worked in the Survey Department.

We also consulted the Presidential Media Division regarding the social media posts circulating with the claim that a Muslim man shown in a photograph is the President’s father. The division confirmed that these posts are completely false. They clarified that Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s father, Dissanayake Mudiyanselage Ranbanda, is no longer alive and was a Buddhist.

Who is the person in the Facebook posts?

To verify the identity of the person shown in the Facebook posts claiming to be the President’s father, we conducted a Google Reverse Image search. This revealed that the individual is actually an Indian Muslim, whose photograph had been uploaded to the website Flickr about 12 years ago and later appeared on Pinterest .

This shows that the social media posts claiming the person in the photo is President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s father were actually created using the image of an Indian Muslim man.

Previously, fake posts making the same claim had also circulated. For example, a misleading video titled “The joy of his father when his son Anura Kumara Dissanayake won the presidential election” spread widely after the 2024 election, particularly among Tamil-speaking audiences. Fact Crescendo conducted a fact-check of this video in Tamil, which can be found here .

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Our investigation shows that social media posts claiming President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s father was a Muslim are false. The President’s father, who is no longer alive, was a Buddhist, and the photograph used in the fake posts actually shows an Indian Muslim man.

Title: Fake Posts Claim President’s Father Was a Muslim!

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