Video: Canadians stand up to Islamophobia in wake of Ottowa shooting

    A social experiment that ended with an actor posing as an Islamophobe getting punched in the face has shown that Canadians are prepared to defend Muslims in the face of overt racist abuse in the wake of a recent terror attack.

    In an attempt to test whether Canadians feel safe in the presence of Muslims following the fatal shooting of Corporal Nathan Cirillo by an extremist last week, director Omar Al-Bach conducted the experiment in Cirillo’s home town of Hamilton to see how many people would defend a supposed Muslim from verbal abuse.

    At the start of the video, Al-Bach introduces two actors, “Devin” as an outspoken racist and “Zack” dressed in a traditional Islamic kaftan with a white cap.

    The video shows members of the public standing up for the victim – with one even prepared to punch the racist in the face after Devin accuses Zack of being a potential terrorist because of the way he looks.

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