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A shocking video shows a man mocking Muslims by ‘praying to Aladdin’ while rocking back and forth on a prayer mat and imitating Arabic.

The footage, shared on Facebook, shows the man in what appears to be an Islamic prayer room, as he ridicules the religion as his friend films it laughing.

It was uploaded onto social media last week by Terence Howarth – who is believed to appear in the video.

In the video he wears a topi – a cap worn by Muslims as a sign of respect – and kept his shoes on throughout in another sign of disrespect.


Posters can be seen in the background in the room saying: ‘Friday Prayer.’



Encouraged by his friend, the man kneels on the mat and pretends to speak Arabic as he calls for the Disney character to ‘fly me away’.

The man can be seen in the footage rocking back and forth (Picture: Terence Howarth/Deadline)

The video shows him pretending to pray and calling for ‘Aladdin’ (Picture: Terence Howarth/Deadline)

It is not known exactly where the incident was filmed but it is understood to have happened in Bolton, Greater Manchester.

Greater Manchester Police said it had launched an investigation into a ‘hate incident after being made aware of videos circulating online’.

The footage shows the man wearing a jacket and trainers energetically bowing on the mat in front of a ‘holy book’.

Slapping the book, he says: ‘Hum yah, ooh ah, boo bah. Aladdin, take me away.’

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The topi falls off his head as he rocks back and forth, flailing his arms in the air.

He bursts out laughing and his friend filming the scene says: ‘Take it again.’

A second clip shows him with the cap back on, kneeling on the mat as he chants: ‘Aladdin, fly me away. Aladdin, fly me away.’

Looking up at the ceiling he says: ‘May Jesus be with you now leave me alone as I fly on my magic carpet.

‘[Where] are you Aladdin come and rub my lamp.’

His friend can be heard laughing in the background (Picture: Terence Howarth/Deadline)

He then sticks out his tongue to the camera and walks off.

Many have taken to social media to call the videos ‘racist’ and said his actions were a ‘hate crime’.

One wrote: ‘This needs to be shared with his employer and he needs to be fired. Or this needs to be shared for awareness and the video taken down for offensive material.

‘You cannot mock someone else’s religion for fun and laughter in the UK when there are equality laws. This can be considered as a hate crime.’

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Another said: ‘It’s out of order and I think it’s wrong people find this funny.’

One user said the video was racist, to which Howarth replied: ‘What’s racist about that? I think you will find religion is not a race so get your facts right.’

Chief Inspector John Charlton of GMP said: ‘Those who think they can hide behind a keyboard and disseminate this kind of harmful material should expect to be investigated.

‘Any type of hate crime will not be tolerated in Greater Manchester and we encourage anyone who has been a victim of or witnessed a hate crime to report it immediately.’

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