YouTube star posts terror spoof day after Orlando massacre | New York Post

Critics are blasting a YouTube star from Staten Island who created a video posted a day after the Orlando massacre that he claimed was meant to gauge people’s reactions to an “Islamic” terrorist compared to a “Christian” one.

The video by Joseph Saladino, known by fans as Joey Salads, shows a man in traditional Arab garb yelling “Allahu akbar!” – meaning “God is great!” – as he throws a silver case at people’s feet.

Their horrified reactions are in stark contrast to those of folks seeing a man wearing a T-shirt and jeans doing the same thing while shouting “Praise Jesus!”

“This isn’t a social experiment, this is stupidity in its purest form,” YouTube user Kurt Arevalo posted.

The video’s “likes” and “dislikes” function was eventually turned off the offending video — which has been viewed more than 670,000 times — after the backlash about the stereotypical depiction.

“You’re doing this at a time where people are still mourning. It hasn’t even (been) a week, but let me get these views up and make some money,” PharmD2be1 wrote.

Salads, whose real name is Joseph Saladino, 22, according to SILive.com, defended the video.“Seems people are disliking before understanding the concept of this video. This video shouldn’t offend anyone, it simply opens up a dialogue to a tragedy. This video will raise questions to why certain things happen, watch the WHOLE video to understand,” he claimed.

He gave a mea culpa on Facebook.

“I apologize if it was too soon cause of the Orlando Shooting, but I had this video filmed for months and I figured now is a relevant time for this topic of discussion,” he wrote.

“It was not an attack on Islam, I was comparing how people react to Islam Extremists vs Christian Extremists. Key word EXTREMISTS, not ALL,” he added.

Source: YouTube star posts terror spoof day after Orlando massacre | New York Post