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On 21 April 2017, the web site HelloChristian published an report that claimed that a group of lions had fortuitously interrupted Islamic militants in the process of stoning Christian missionaries to death. Superficially, the claim looked like a typical fake news item, due to its subversion of a long-held belief that early Christians were thrown to the lions as capital punishment in early Rome. However, research suggests the trope is not an accurate reflection of history: Nevertheless, HelloChristian reported: That outlet cited the web site WND, which in turn referenced a 17 April 2017 blog post published by Bibles4Mideast.com. The claim originated on that date and web site in a post titled Stoned by terrorists, protected by a lion!: A linked article referenced Bangladesh, presumably the site of the attacks. There is little dispute that lion numbers are on a steady decline. The vast majority of lions exist in Sub-Saharan Africa, with a minute proportion confined to a small area of India: With such a small amount of detail, the claim that lions saved a group of Christian missionaries from stoning is difficult to verify. The writer of the original source material demurred when directly asked where the April 2017 incident took place, hinting that it happened in Bangladesh (where a zoo reportedly threw a wedding party for two lions in 2016, complete with a meat cake, in order to try to get them to mate). We found no evidence that any of it took place.
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