Florida Muslims Fight Hate with Humor
“My friend Ahmad and I were reading it and we were cracking up it was hilarious," Nicolas Armero, one of the video producers, told ABC Action News on Thursday, May 7.
"As disturbing as it is these comments are kind of funny because these people are so detracted from reality."
Armero is a member of a Muslim group that decided to fight injustice and discrimination by a peaceful massage.
Titled "Muslims Read Hate Comment", the video features the reactions of Muslim youth on Islamophobic comments following the arson attack on the daycare section of the Islamic Society of Tampa.
Last month, a blaze at the Islamic centre destroyed four classrooms, leading to several children being evacuated.
Inspired by "celebrities read mean tweets" videos, people in the video read the comments on YouTube video that "some people left alongside their names and faces".
"Burn them all down and deport them all," was Cynthia Gallagher's comment, to which one of the Muslims in the film asked: "I was born here. To where am I going to get deported?" 9 News reported.
"This is what happens when you have a student falling asleep in a Islamic IED class. They blow themselves up," one of the offenders wrote.
"Do they know it's a building of, like a daycare, like kids?" one of the young Americans asked.
"We Are Americans"
Besides countering hate, the video aims to show the true Muslim nature by mocking misconceptions about the faith.
“We are not animals, we are not bomb squads, we not terrorist," Hashim Armashi happily volunteered to show what’s on the other side of the screen.
"We are people, we are Americans, we go to school, and we go to work,” said Armashi.
According to Armero, the video was done in order to make peace come across.
“We want to make entertaining content that spreads, people want to share it but it has a message about injustice, discrimination,” said Armero.
With the recent murder of three young Muslim students in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, the burning of an Islamic Center in Houston, Texas, which authorities ruled as arson, and the numerous reports of personal harassment, Muslims feel they are targeted in the States.
Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23 his wife Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, 21 and her sister Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19, were found dead at a condominium complex off campus in February.
Another Muslim, Ahmed Al-Jumaili, 36, was shot dead while taking photos of snow in Dallas.
An Economist/YouGov poll found that a large majority of Americans believe that US Muslims are victims of discrimination amid recent attacks against the community.
