‘You filled cemeteries with our children’: Anti-terrorist Ramadan video goes viral on YouTube
A video in Arabic calling for the worship of Allah “with love, not terror” has gone viral on YouTube, with over two million views in four days. Released at the start of Ramadan, it slams terrorists for “filling cemeteries with children.”
The video, featuring Hussain Al Jassmi, an Arabic-language singer from the United Arab Emirates, was released on YouTube by Kuwaiti mobile telecommunications company Zain on Friday.
The release coincided with the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which started on May 26 this year.
The video starts with impassioned lines from a child who addresses terrorists: “I will tell God everything. That you’ve filled the cemeteries with our children and emptied our school desks…”
As the child speaks, the video shows a man preparing a suicide-belt.
The person then enters a bus which he is apparently planning to bomb, but is confronted by the people on board, including a man holding a child, saying that Allah “is the creator of life,” while terrorists bring death.
The video then shows a young boy who resembles the ash-covered child in Aleppo, whose image went viral across the globe in August 2016.
Several attacks carried out by either Al-Qaeda or Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) in recent years are mentioned in the clip, including a 2015 Kuwait mosque bombing that killed at least 27 people, and the 2016 Karrada bombing in Baghdad which resulted in over 300 deaths.
A 2005 wedding bombing in Amman, Jordan, which killed at least 60, is also featured in the video.
A group of people – students, teachers, people at the wedding, and bus passengers – then approach the terrified suicide bomber, asking him to “worship your God with love. With love, not terror.”
“Confront your enemy with peace, nor war… Let’s bomb extremism for a better life,” Al Jassmi sings.
The video ends on a positive note, with a happy wedding and joyful children, while the would-be terrorist abandons his plans.
“We will encounter their attacks of hatred with songs of love. From now until happiness,” a caption on a black background reads.
The video has gathered over 2.3 million views on YouTube since Friday. People on social media hailed it as “a very nice, positive message of love.”
“We need more love in this world. Great work,” and “This song has great meaning terrorists aren’t Muslim because Muslims don't think that way,” some of the comments read.
One person even wished that this video would reach everyone in the world, and they would see that “clearly not everyone who believes in Allah, is ‘extremist in Islam.’”
