The viral video craze affectionately known as the “Harlem Shake”, may seem like a relatively innocuous (if not annoying) Internet trend here in the U.S., but the dance-video has taken on a strange new life in the Middle East. It all seems to have started when conservative Salafist Muslims in Tunisia tried to stop students from making their own “Harlem Shake” videos. At several colleges across the country, students clashed with authorities and riot police, who see the dance craze as potentially immoral.
In Egypt, another “Harlem Shake” video has caused a stir, after an influential member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s online community (the group closely tied to Egyptian President Mohammad Morsi) released a video mocking an opposition group. This comes just a week after 70 individuals made a “Harlem Shake” protest video in front of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Cairo headquarters …
