When an Egyptian student walked around Milan for five hours, dressed in a traditional Islamic outfit and holding the Koran, how did people react?
The five-hour walk made by Hamdy Mahisen, 30 was a social experiment conducted by the Italian newspaper La Repubblica into the growth of Islamophobia in Italy.
There were people who ignored him and simply walked on by, while others stared, possibly out of fear or curiosity. Some reportedly hissed angrily at him while others visibly moved away when he would come near, the newspaper reported.
"Guys, you missed the imam!" a young boy told his friends.
A mother pushing a pram shouted "Taliban!" as Mahisen calmly walked past her while another passer-by made the comment, "S**t, have you seen the ISIS?"
While Mahisen was waiting for a bus, someone said, "Look, he's got the Koran. Think if he's got a gun under his tunic."
Mahisen is not the only one who has suffered from prejudice and racial discrimination in Italy, a country that is currently on high alert for a possible Islamic terror attack.
Aicha Mesrar, a 45-year-old Moroccan-born politician, even fled Italy after living there for 23 years after her family received a series of death threats, The Independent reported.
But Muslims are not the only ones to suffer from religious discrimination in Europe. Jewish journalist Zvika Klein conducted his own social experiment earlier this week and walked around Paris for 10 hours wearing a kippah, or yarmulke.
"Paris: 10 hours, silent walking as a Jew. I got spit at, cursed and threatened. Unfortunatley, this is France-2015," the journalist tweeted.
A Twitter user named @MGKaleem responded to his post, saying that things are the same in England. "I recently intervened when a few youths started shouting & swearing @ a Jewish man, here in England. (It's) disgusting & very sad!" he wrote.
Others Twitter users told him to "walk with your head held high" and lamented how the "stupidity of people is worldwide."
