Summary The video was created by Kuwaiti telecommunications company Zain, and deals with terrorism.
(Web desk) – Kuwaiti telecommunications company Zain has ripped up a storm on social media after it came up with a television commercial aimed at promoting peace and tolerance.
The television giant recently came up with a video featuring pop star Hussain al-Jassmi. The video has garnered more than 2.7 million views on Zain’s official Youtube channel. The video aims to give a message of tolerance and features images from bombings in the Middle East.
However, viewers of the video have been divided over the message that the video intends to send out. The cause for criticism has been a scene in the video of a boy injured by the bombing, who looks similar to the 5-year-old Syrian boy, Omran Daqneesh, who became the centre of world attention when he was photographed in a confused condition with bloodied clothes after a bombing. Omran was the victim of a strike reportedly carried out by Russian or Syrian planes, and the image of him sitting in an ambulance had caused a frenzy on social media, with many people severely criticizing Assad and Putin for their role in the conflict in Syria.
However, the video shows the kid as a victim of an attack by Daesh militants. This is exactly what sparked the criticism on social media and resulted in a hashtag (in Arabic) on Twitter; #zaindistortsthetruth. Users criticised Zain for portraying the kid as the victim of an attack by Daesh when he was in actuality a victim of Syrian or Russian airstrike.
A Twitter user, Ahmed Abazeid, wrote, “The Zain advert uses the child Omran’s picture as a victim of a jihadist group, thereby hiding the crimes of Assad and the regime and exploiting the image of victims to benefit their murderer. This ad is with terror not against it.”
Another user, Lina Shamy said that the television company was exploiting the suffering of the Syrian people and had forgotten about the main terrorist, “the man wearing a suit”. Her comment was a reference to state officials who have been equally responsible for the bloodshed in the country. She added, “If you only want to see bearded men as terrorists in Syria that’s up to you. But for you to use the image of Omran is an additional crime… We demand that Zain apologizes publicly and officially to the Syrian people who have suffered so much in their quest for freedom.”
Moreover, a news producer from Dubai, Zakaria Nassani, demanded that the video be taken down and said, “Omran, like thousands of children, is a victim of Assad terror and not ISIS.”
The video did received praise from many viewers, with many commending the peaceful message of the video, especially the scene central to the video, in which a believer confronts a suicide bomber with the message, “Worship your God with love, not terror.”
An Egyptian journalist, Kareem Shaheen, adequately summed up the reactions to the add and said, “I think it’s a bit simplistic and I don’t think they made the right call creatively with some elements of the ad and the dramatization of Omran Daqneesh (though I think the criticism based on the fact that he was wounded in a regime attack and not an attack by a terror group doesn’t make sense to me — I’m sure the team behind the ad knows this and made a deliberate point to equate all forms of terrorism against civilians).”
Here is the video:
The articile originally appeared on arabnews.com
