A social experiment is gaining traction online. This one takes on Islamophobia by having a blindfolded Muslim man stand at the corner of young and done-disc asking strangers to hug him. I'm joined by Asumi J in Ottawa as well as Omar Albaish. Now both of you have produced similar types of videos. I'm wondering Omar if we can start with you, tell me why do you think it was necessary to produce such a video? Well I've said this before in many interviews. There were speculations going around that time that the perpetrator of the Ottawa shooting was a Muslim or linked to Islam. So I wanted to show Canadians that even though there was this event that happened, it doesn't change the public's opinion or the civilian's opinion and despite what media might have said or might have tried to say. Now assume your video was incredibly emotional. Now tell me about how long you were shooting and sort of the process for people coming up and hugging this man. So we were shooting the video for about half an hour. It was minus 25 degrees that day so it was pretty cold. We tried to do it quick and at the beginning people were hesitant to approach. They saw a man with a bear just blindfolded and they weren't very keen on approaching but then like the bystander effect they're always waiting for someone else to initiate. And as soon as they saw others coming up to Mustafa the actor, everyone began coming up, hugging, giving him words of encouragement and support, taking pictures. And to the point that even after he left and he was on the bus going home, two girls have seen this picture on the internet and they asked if he was a man who was standing and done to square and when he let them know that it was him, they started hugging him and apologizing for the things that he might have gone through because of Islamophobia and they let him know that they have, he has their full support. So tell me what is it like today to be a young Muslim? Why do you think that there's this need for this video? What's it like for each of you? Personally, I see that although there, you know, the videos that Assume and I, the two different videos that we produce that shows the tolerance of Muslims across or Muslims in Canada, I believe that there's also a lot of intolerance and Islamophobia that is spreading around most recent events yesterday, the shooting that happened where three Muslims were murdered in cold blood. You're talking about a North Carolina, where three young individuals. Now let's talk about that for a little bit because originally we thought it was a dispute over parking. It's now coming to light that this individual, the culprit who is non-Muslim, may have had shared some messages of hate on Facebook. Do you think Assume that this would have played out differently in the media had they culprit been Muslim instead of a non-Muslim? Yes, for sure. The story would have had more coverage. They would have blamed it on Islam and not the individual as we have seen with the Jesuit Charli campaign, where such news stations like CNN and Fox News have made tweets saying that it was a Muslim terrorist or this is the actions of Islamic terrorism, whereas when they covered the story for what has happened the other day at Chapel Hill, the merely said it was an individual or just a man. They did not blame it on his religion or his ethnicity. Okay, so I want to, this is, we've seen a couple of these videos before. I want to play you a clip from the York University president for the Muslim Students Association to see about, he's talking about the benefit of these sort of videos. Take a listen to this. I think that there are a few people, you know, that might see this video and be like, okay, you know, this is a good example of how Canadians love Muslims, right? But I think that these videos for that reason are very beneficial and they relay a lot of positivity, but I don't know if they're the perfect example of what would be considered a long-term solution to red discrimination or Islamophobia. So, assuming, hearing that what's the purpose of these sort of videos, what do you hope comes of it? Well, these sort of videos is to gain attention to spread awareness, for example, of video that we did. It's to show non-Muslims how we are made to feel in our own countries. We are made to feel as if we're outsiders, as if we're not welcome. And again, we're trying to get people to think for themselves. We don't want people to believe in these preconceived notions that have been created. We want them to go and actually learn about Islam. If they really keen on wanting to know what Islam teaches, we want them to go think for themselves, learn for themselves instead of listening to man's word or believing everything they've seen in the media. And Omar, what do you think? Because we did see so many people going up to the actor and hugging him and talking to him. Does that show you that maybe the majority of Canadians are accepting and that it's a vocal minority? Well, I agree with what the president of New York said or the president of the MSA said that, yeah, although it's showing peace in the videos and it was heartwarming or whatever, but it's not really a long-term solution. When I did the social experiment in Ottawa, it was simply a social experiment. I did not really expect Canadians to be tolerant to the extent that they were tolerant. So it is a social experiment. We're not saying this is a long-term plan. Obviously, the whole system needs to be changed. People's ideologies need to be changed. A lot of change needs to happen for a long-term solution. All right. Omar Albaş, thank you very much. Assume you, Jay. Thank you for your time today. Thank you for having me.