Salaam,
I’m wondering if you can advise further on whether the following is halal?
I’m considering opening a social media channel (YouTube) which involves recording any mistreatment/Islamophobia of myself as a mystery shopper (conservative Muslim).
I aim to blur out faces so individuals are not exposed, rather than companies.
Would this be permissible as it may be considered spying?
Jazakhalah Khairan.
Wasalam
May Allah bless you.
I wouldn’t call it exactly spying as what you are recording is what everyone see already, and usually these shops have CCTV in place.
However, how will you be exposing a Islamophobic mistreatment? What does it mean to be a conservative Muslim shopper? You need to think about how you will be achieving your aim of exposing real case of Islamophobia.
And on this point I will say that some Muslims in the West, feel that they should have special treatments at all time, and under any circumstances. As an example, few years ago, and despite having a prayer room in a shopping mall, a Muslim woman decided to put down her prayer mat and started her salah right in the middle of an aisle in H&M. This is not taqwa, but pure stupidity that creates or feeds Islamophobic sentiment.
May Allah protect us and all Muslims from being oppressed, and may He also make the light of Islam shine through our good behaviour in society.
Kind regards