AI-Generated Video Falsely Depicts Muslim Woman Instructing British Children in Islamic Prayer

A fabricated video circulating on social media falsely portrays a woman wearing a hijab instructing white British schoolchildren to bow and say “Allahu Akbar” (meaning “God is greater”). The deceptive content, which began spreading in early November, has been confirmed as an artificial intelligence-generated fabrication designed to stoke religious and racial tensions.

The video, filmed from what appears to be a surveillance-camera angle, was shared widely on platforms including X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, and YouTube. One X user who posted the clip on November 7 added the inflammatory caption: “Young, white children are being indoctrinated into Islam. They raise their hands in the air and chant Allah Akbar. This has to stop.”

Digital forensic analysis reveals numerous telltale signs of AI generation. The woman’s face appears severely disfigured—a common artifact in AI-generated imagery when rendering distant subjects. The video also contains spatial inconsistencies, including a prayer rug (sajjada) that appears disconnected from the children supposedly using it. Additionally, the woman appears to sit on an invisible object when demonstrating prayer postures.

The earliest posting of the video was traced to the “British Scope – UK” Facebook page, which has recently begun publishing numerous short, AI-generated videos targeting Muslims and migrants. The page’s content portfolio includes fabricated scenes of Black migrants in small boats, people of Islamic faith claiming the UK will belong to them, and other inflammatory scenarios designed to provoke fear and resentment.

When confronted about the artificial nature of their content, page administrators doubled down, posting on November 7: “Think these videos are just AI? They’re not. They show a reality you can’t see—and by the time you do, it’ll be too late.” However, this claim was directly contradicted when one of their videos was discovered to contain a watermark from “MindVideo AI,” a video generation website, proving its artificial origin.

The emergence of these fabricated videos coincides with recent polling suggesting heightened tensions between British citizens and immigrant communities. Social media experts warn that AI-generated disinformation presents a growing challenge for platforms struggling to identify and remove increasingly sophisticated fake content.

The rise of such targeted disinformation comes amid a broader trend of AI-generated content being weaponized to inflame social divisions. Similar fabricated videos from the same Facebook page include scenes of Black migrants supposedly stalking women at their front doors, military and police personnel claiming powerlessness to stop immigration, and young white girls expressing fear of migrants.

Social media platforms have struggled to develop effective mechanisms for identifying and removing AI-generated disinformation, particularly when it crosses the line into hate speech or targeted harassment of religious and ethnic minorities. Content moderation policies often lag behind rapidly evolving AI generation capabilities.

Media literacy experts recommend that social media users look for common signs of AI-generated content, including unnatural facial features, spatial inconsistencies, and implausible scenarios. Verifying information through trusted news sources before sharing is essential in preventing the spread of such fabricated content.

This incident highlights the growing challenge of distinguishing between authentic and artificially generated content in an era when AI tools can create increasingly convincing fake videos designed to manipulate public opinion and exacerbate social tensions.