A graphic being circulated shows a collapsed building and claims a theater in the U.S. broke into two pieces just prior to showing the controversial anti-Muslim film. Is there any truth to this story?
The story and the photo are not real.
The photo has been circulated with the following text:
“…an earthquake hit the cinema of the abusing movie to Prophet Mohammed. The whole cinema is smashed.”
Various descriptions of the photo go into more detail, such as this one:
A picture of a cinema in America that was going to play the film of the Prophet Sep 18 at noon.An earthquake hit that area that caused the building into two pieces.The Americans are so shocked at the miracle that they didn’t allow full media coverage on the topic and that’s why you didn’t hear about it on the news today!
Let’s take a look at the photo and the story to see if there is any truth to this account.
The photoThe photograph being circulated was actually taken from a
news story in 2010 about an earthquake in Chile. The actual photo’s caption reads:
Residents look at a collapsed building in Concepcion, Chile, Saturday Feb. 27, 2010 after an 8.8-magnitude struck central Chile. The epicenter was 70 miles (115 kilometers) from Concepcion, Chile’s second-largest city.
The Earthquake
According to the US Geological Service, the
most recent *significant* earthquake in the United States came on September 7, which was a small 3.4 magnitude tremor in Beverly Hills, California. No damage was reported from this quake. You can peruse all earthquakes
here, and you’ll see that nothing in the U.S. on September 18 resembles the quake as represented in this story.
It should also be noted that as of this writing, no public screenings of the film are known due to security risks.
Bottom Line
There is no evidence that this event ever occurred.
Note: This is a sensitive topic. Please try to be respectful of others’ opinions and beliefs, and please refrain from posting threatening comments.