Zenga-Zenga Now Has An Edited Version That You Can Show Your Muslim Mother

So just how popular has the YouTube video become?

Popular enough that Noy Alooshe, who created the video has put out an edited version without the dancing girls--at the request of Muslims who want to be able to show the video to their parents:




The New York Times reports on the popularity of the video among Muslims who don't care that its creator is an Israeli:

Mr. Alooshe, who at first did not identify himself on the clip as an Israeli, started receiving enthusiastic messages from all around the Arab world. Web surfers soon discovered that he was a Jewish Israeli from his Facebook profile — Mr. Alooshe plays in a band called Hovevey Zion, or the Lovers of Zion — and some of the accolades turned to curses. A few also found the video distasteful.

But the reactions have largely been positive, including a message Mr. Alooshe said he received from someone he assumed to be from the Libyan opposition saying that if and when the Qaddafi regime fell, “We will dance to ‘Zenga-Zenga’ in the square.”

...As one surfer wrote in an Arabic talkback early Sunday, “What’s the problem if he’s an Israeli? The video is still funny.” He signed off with the internationally recognized “Hahaha.”

It looks like humor, especially poking fun at a detested dictator can unite even Arabs and Israelis.

However, Roland Shirk of Jihad Watch strikes a cautionary note:

This microcosm of Muslim-Western relations tells us what we have to expect from the whole ongoing Arab revolution—initial, surface embrace of Western innovations and rhetoric, followed by xenophobia, resentment, and hypocritical Islamic puritanism... and the fact that the truth will be spun by the New York Times in the most pro-Islamic manner possible. It's almost enough to ruin the fun of watching the video. But not quite, so go ahead, enjoy:

So, go ahead and enjoy the video.

Hat tip: Jim Geraghty

Technorati Tag: Zenga-Zenga and Noy Alooshe and Libya.