A social experiment conducted in Birmingham saw a thief robbing a man as he prayed and recording the reactions of witnesses.
The two men, close family friends, filmed the hoax in New Street, Millennium Pont and Victoria Square.
Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTA_3ePJ46A&feature=youtu.be
Muath, 22, said:
“It was a really mixed response. Some people just watched and did nothing as I stole Idris’s bag as he prayed. We have to approach people for permission to publish the video and many refused.
“However, as you can see from the video there was some great responses. While some shouted at me, others chased after me and right at the end of the video at Millennium Point a man runs after me and in the heat of the moment does punch me.
“He was just so angry with what I did and I can understand why he reacted like that. I tried to explain what we were doing but by then it was too late. There is no hard feelings it was great that he reacted to the situation.
“There was also fantastic responses from homeless people in the city centre.”
In a clip filmed on New Street, Muath is even approached by police.
The video has since going viral, having reached 418,000 view already.
- We decided to speak to Muath to find out what inspired him to do this.
What made you decide to do the social experiment?
What made me do the social experiment was that Muslims were going through a tough time in the media and in Birmingham, especially at the time I released the video. A few months ago there were protests outside a mosque in the Sheldon area in Birmingham and there was a lot of physical abuse in buses that was being shown online and in the news.
Not to mention the verbal abuse on social media as well. So I thought to myself what would happen if a Muslim persons bag was stolen while praying in public? What would the Birmingham locals do? Would they stand there and watch? Would we be safe praying in public? That’s why I did the social experiment.
What is your opinion on crime levels in Birmingham?
My opinion on the crime levels in Birmingham are that I feel like it’s rising more than ever. If you see the Birmingham Mail newspaper, they’re always broadcasting new shootings all the time. But also in terms of islamophobia, there’s also crimes all the time. There’s racial abuse in the town centres and local areas that you wont hear about on the news so I feel like it’s rising.
Do you have any ideas for future social experiments?
I have plenty of ideas for social experiments. They will be based on problems happening in our local areas such as theft, racism, islamophobia and harassment etc. The reason for this is to see reactions from the public and to know whether we would be safe in our city or not.
