What was claimed
The Mayor of Rotherham has stated that Britain can only be made great again, or saved, by implementing Sharia law.
Our verdict
False. We could find no evidence that the former Mayor of Rotherham for 2025/26, Councillor Rukhsana Ismail, pictured with the posts, had said that Britain needs to implement Sharia law. There’s no evidence the new Mayor of Rotherham made these comments either.
False claims that the Mayor of Rotherham said that Britain “can only become great again by implementing Sharia law” have been circulating again on social media.
Many posts on Facebook attributing the comments to the politician, or making similarly worded claims, include an image of Councillor Rukhsana Ismail, who served as the Mayor of Rotherham for the 2025/26 municipal year. The posts have gained thousands of reactions and comments between them.
But we could find no evidence that Councillor Ismail ever said this.
We debunked the same bogus claims earlier this year, when they were shared alongside a video of Councillor Ismail speaking in Arabic.
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This clip was taken from a longer message, in which she also spoke in English, with a message for Ramadan. But this video made no reference to Sharia law or calling for any such legal system to be implemented in the UK, and we couldn’t find any evidence that she’s made any such comments elsewhere.
Additionally, Councillor Ismail is no longer Rotherham’s mayor. Councillor Haroon Rashid has taken up the chains of office as Mayor of Rotherham for 2026/27. We could find no evidence he’d made such comments either.
We have contacted Councillor Ismail and Councillor Rashid about the claims, and will update this article if they respond.
Before sharing claims like this which you see on social media, it’s important to consider whether it comes from a trustworthy and verifiable source before sharing. Our Full Fact misinformation toolkit and guides can help you do this.
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 false because the former Mayor of Rotherham, Councillor Rukhsana Ismail, has not said that Britain needs to implement Sharia law to be made great again and neither has the current mayor.
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