Jewish/Muslim couple video goes viral
Actors dressed up as mixed Jewish/Muslim couples walk hand in hand in the streets of New York and receive insults, abuse but some find it 'highly liberating'.
A new YouTube video in which actors dressed as mixed Jewish/Muslim couples walking hand-in-hand in the streets of New York caused quite a storm online and got more than a million hits in only two weeks.
The two couples, a Jewish man with a Muslim woman and a Muslim man with a Jewish woman, walked about in clothing that clearly identified their religious afiliations. While quite a few people reacted positively upon seeing the couples, many expressed their anger with aggression and hostility, throwing bottles and insulting them—all in front of the camera.
The video, uploaded on the page called "Are We Famous Now", under the title "Muslim/Jewish Marriage Experiment" went viral and was viewed more than 1.2 million times. The video's maker, New Yorker Karim Metwaly, 28, was stunned by the huge amount of comments the video received but even more so by the "abuse" the actors received.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Metwaly said, 'I feel very surprised and did not expect that, but was really happy when there were those few who ran to us to say what we were doing was great or who we came to and asked about how they felt.'
Metwaly said that the actors were "really scared" and that "we didn't feel like we ever want to do it again."
At firstת the man posing as a Jew and the woman posing as a Muslim walk around in a predominantly Muslim neighborhood, where many passersby were riveted by the sight. After being cursed at by a woman, one man said, "This is so wrong on so many levels. What do you mean hand in hand?...That's a war. Try this in Brooklyn." Another person in the group says to the woman, "You're making Islam look bad".
They then go to a Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn where the reactions were even more aggressive. They were insulted and cursed at. At one point, the man playing an Arab was called a terrorist. Coffee cups and bottles were thrown in their direction.
Another passerby when asked "What do you think of a Muslim guy and a Jewish girl walking together?" said, "I see it (as) highly liberating."
Many commenters of the Youtube video thought that it was "moving" and "heartwarming", while others said it was a "childish experiment" that was "manipulative".
