Claim: No Muslim Working in my government
Verdict: Manipulated and Misleading, the Voice of America do not have an audio of Boakai on who will be appointed in his government nor the New Republic newspaper Monday edition is; “No Muslim working in my government.”
Full Text: A social media blog identified as SAPA TV posted this on Sunday, October 23, that Unity Party standard-bearer Joseph Boakai told the VOA that Muslims will not be appointed if elected as president.
Boakai is the leading opposition candidate who is to face incumbent Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) President George Weah in a run-off election following the official announcement by the election body on Tuesday, October 24.
The duo is expected to face off after neither of them accumulated 50%+1 in the October 10 elections as required by the constitution.
The SAPA TV post attracted 310 comments and 104 reactions.
Also, the New Republic newspaper with the headline “No Muslim working in my government” is seen with a Boakai image circulated on social media.
The publication of the newspaper is seen here, here, it was also posted by Deputy Information Minister David Kolleh.
Islam is the next most popular religion, and Muslims account for 12.2% of the population, according to the 2008 Population Census in the US 2020 States report. The 2023 census report has not been fully published, so there is no data on the population of Muslims in Liberia.
Verification: We checked the VOA website and found out that the news agency hasn’t spoken to Boakai, but the chairperson of the UP and CDC campaign chairs spoke about the election process.
Therefore, the claim that Boakai spoke on the VOA, stating that no Muslim will work in his government, is misleading.
We also checked if the newspaper published the article. On the virally spread newspaper, it is seen that the date is Monday, October 23, but in the upper right-hand corner, Tuesday is vividly seen.
The newspaper publisher, Alphonso Toweh, said the circulated newspaper is fake because the paper did not publish such an article in its Monday, October 23, edition.
This is what the newspaper published today
Conclusion: With the research done, there is no record on VOA that Boakai said no Muslim would be appointed to his government when elected. Additionally, the circulated newspaper is manipulated, and it is meant to mislead the public and target a specific religion in Liberia.
