Alleged statement of Shahbaz Gill calling those opposing US official Richard Grenell for his sexuality being “ignorant”

Rating Justification

The iVerify Pakistan team has reviewed this content and determined that it is false.

To reach this conclusion, the iVerify Pakistan team conducted a keyword search and investigated whether PTI leader Shahbaz Gill ever uttered the alleged statement attributed to him.

Posts from several users on social media platform X on December 17, 2024, shared an image with an alleged statement attributed to Gill voicing support for US official Richard Grenell’s sexual orientation and character. However, the graphic is fake and Gill never uttered such remarks.

On November 26, Grenell, who is US President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for presidential envoy for special missions, made a post on X saying: “Release Imran Khan!” while sharing a news report on PTI’s D-Chowk protest.

Leading Pakistani news outlets Geo News Urdu subsequently reported on his post and mentioned that he was the first openly “gay cabinet member in US history”.

That led to Gill calling out the news outlet for allegedly “launching a vicious smear campaign” against the US official.

HOW IT STARTED

On Dec 17, a user, who appeared to be a PTI critic based on past posts, shared an image that featured a quote from Gill saying, “To criticise someone in this era just because they are homosexual is ignorance. Richard Grenell is a great person.”

The post’s caption said, “Shahbaz Gill has called these verses of the Holy Quran ignorant today. Read them yourself. These are the words of the Quran itself,” and shared verses 80 and 81 from the Holy Quran that pertain to homosexuality and the nation of Sodom.

The image itself used the logos and visuals of digital media platform Siasat.pk. The post gained 81,400 views.

Similar posts alleging Gill’s supposed disrespect of the Holy Quran’s stance on the issue with his remarks were shared by other users as can be seen here, here, including by a PML-N supporter and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl supporter — with the latter calling for Gill to be brought to “justice”.

The image with the quote was also shared by other users on X and Facebook without allegations of Gill disrespecting the Holy Quran, as can be seen here, here and here.

METHODOLOGY

A fact-check was initiated to verify the claim due to its virality and the serious nature of the allegation being made at the PTI leader concerning the Holy Quran. Such allegations could potentially lead to real-world harm and consequences since past instances of online incitement regarding alleged disrespect of the Holy Quran have led to mob violence and lynchings before.

Analysing and comparing the design format of the image under investigation with that of Siasat.pk‘s previous quote posts showed no discernable discrepancies or differences i.e. the watermark in the background, the logo in the left bottom corner and the quotation mark in the top right corner.

However, further scrolling through the digital media platform’s X posts for comparisons yielded a Dec 17 post saying: “This is a fake image misusing our logo. Shehbaz Gill has made no such statement. Please verify before sharing and rely only on our official handle for authentic updates. All our official images include a source link.”

To corroborate the platform’s assertion of the PTI leader having never made any such remark, his publicly available posts on his social media profiles were checked for any post containing the alleged statement and although there were many supporting or praising Grenell, there were none that called those who opposed the US official as “ignorant”.

The PTI leader’s publicly available video statements and vlogs on the issue from Dec 17 on his YouTube account were also checked but no such remark or statement was found in them.

FACT-CHECK STATUS: FALSE

The claim regarding a visual of a digital media platform with an alleged statement attributed to PTI leader Shahbaz Gill about those opposing US official Richard Grenell for his sexuality being “ignorant” is false.

A thorough investigation of his social media platforms and recent posts and videos showed no such statement while the digital media platform that was being impersonated itself denounced the viral image as a fake.

Evidence and References

December 17, 2024, Siasat.pk X post:
https://perma.cc/P6P8-6LN6