A video shows Pakistan’s flag flying from Westminster Abbey during Holy Week.
The clip shows the Pakistani flag being flown from the abbey on 22 March 2024, two days before Holy Week began on 24 March, to mark Pakistan’s national day. The St Peter flag was the only flag flown from the building during Holy Week and Easter that year.
A video being shared on Facebook claims to show the Pakistani flag being flown from Westminster Abbey “during Holy week”, which is the week before Easter in the Gregorian Christian calendar. But this is not correct.
The video zooms in on the Pakistani flag—a white star and crescent moon on a green background with a white stripe by the flagpole—flying from a tower of Westminster Abbey. The caption says: “Pakistani flag flies over Westminster Abbey during Holy week. London is under Isla /mist [sic] occupation!”
The clip was shared on 22 March 2024, and shows the flag hoisted the day before Pakistan Day, which is on 23 March. This was not during Holy Week, which began on Palm Sunday on 24 March and ended on Easter Sunday on 31 March that year.
A spokesperson for Westminster Abbey told reporters at Reuters that there was no flag flown during Holy Week until the eve of Easter Sunday on 30 March, when the St Peter flag was flown.
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Westminster Abbey’s website says: “A National Flag is flown on the day when the High Commission of a Commonwealth member state is represented at Evensong.” Evensong is a service that includes choral music, scripture readings and prayers.
The Pakistan flag was flown from Westminster Abbey in 2024 when representatives from the High Commission of Pakistan were invited to attend Evensong there.
A spokesperson for the High Commission of Pakistan in London told reporters at Reuters last year that “a representative from the High Commission of Pakistan attended Evensong on Friday 22nd March in advance of Pakistan Day on Saturday 23rd March. And, as per tradition the Pakistan national flag was flown.”
The High Commission’s website says: “special prayers were offered for the progress and prosperity of Pakistan and its people as well as for the continued friendship between the two countries”, and that the “highlight of the occasion was that Pakistan’s Flag kept flying for the whole day on the north tower of Westminster Abbey.”
But a spokesperson for the High Commission told Full Fact: “This privilege is accorded to all Commonwealth members on their respective National Days and is not exclusive to Pakistan only.”
Other countries’ flags have been flown on similar occasions, including those of Jamaica, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Trinidad and Tobago.
This is not the first time we’ve debunked claims relating to Islam in the UK, including that Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, pledged to build 46,000 new homes “just for Muslims”, and that all UK schools are only serving halal meat, among other claims.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as missing context because Pakistan’s flag was flown from Westminster Abbey on 22 March 2024, before Holy Week began on 24 March. The St Peter flag was the only flag flown from the building during Holy Week and Easter that year.
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