'Do you trust me?': Blindfolded Muslim man in Mumbai asks strangers for hugs

On one hand, there are some people like Mohammad Naved, the terrorist captured after the Udhampur attack on Wednesday, who worsen the stereotype against Muslims and say that they terrorise people because “ it's fun doing this .” On the other hand, there are people like Mazim Milla, who simply want to encourage peace and love and work to abolish the stereotypes against their minority community. At around 4 pm on Thursday, a blindfolded Milla stood at Chowpatty in Mumbai with a sign which read: “I’m Muslim and I trust you. Do you trust me enough for a hug?” An image of Milla at Chowpatty was shared by Mid-Day editor Sachin Kalbag on Twitter.

A Muslim man stood at Chowpatty (in Mumbai) on Thursday and asked for trust and hugs. Mumbai trusted and hugged. pic.twitter.com/9Rz96VNAV8

— Sachin Kalbag (@SachinKalbag) August 7, 2015

Mid-Day also reported that while some people just stared silently at Milla, there were some others who hugged him and even talked to him. Milla also said that he did this as an experiment to observe people’s reactions. [caption id=“attachment_2383658” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] Milla’s experiment was inspired from a similar experiment done earlier in February this year, when Canadian Muslim Mustafa Mawla took part in the ‘Blind Trust Project’, which was the brainchild of 24-year-old Canadian Muslim Assma Galuta. “We’re conducting an experiment to address the rise of Islamophobia in North America and Europe to show our community how Muslims are made to feel in their own communities. Our message to the world is that we wish to break down barriers and eliminate the fear and ignorance that’s projected towards Muslims and Islam and to make an effort to eliminate stereotypes and Islamophobia,” Galuta says in a video of the experiment. In an interview to Huffington Post, Galuta also said that the reason for blindfolding Mawla in the experiment was to show the extent to which he was willing to trust absolute strangers. “He’s giving people his full trust and he wants to see if people trust him enough to give him a hug,” she said. You can watch the entire video here: