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Trending: Facing the Taliban: Videos call out religious extremism in Pakistan

Jibran Nasir

10/01/2015

Facing the Taliban: Videos call out religious extremism in Pakistan

BBC World Service - Trending, Facing the Taliban: Videos call out religious extremism in Pakistan

Showing ‘face’ from China to Pakistan in the video challenges trending this week

Showing ‘face’: from drinking three litres of alcohol in China to calling out the Taliban in Pakistan, BBC Trending gets behind the video challenges trending this week.

Facing the Taliban

Facebook is all about showing your face. But would you show your face online to call out clerics who defend militants? In Pakistan, weeks after the school attack in Peshawar, this is what’s happening in a sombre version of the ice bucket challenge. 

The challenge targets Maulana Abdul Aziz, a cleric who leads prayers at the Red Mosque in Islamabad, which is known for its radicalism and Taliban links. While he played no role in the school attacks his refusal to condemn them angered ordinary Pakistanis. 

The campaign #ArrestAbdulAziz is led by the activist Jibran Nasir and asks people to post videos online calling for the arrest of the cleric and nominating their friends to follow suit. We talk to him as well as others who took part.

The Baijiu Challenge

Thousands of videos have sprung up across China showing people sipping, drinking and downing the traditional Chinese spirit Baijiu. The trend really got going when a man known as Three Litre Brother drank, you guessed it, three litres in under ten minutes. With some people consuming dangerous amounts state media and the police have stepped in with their own warnings. We find out how the Confucian theory of ‘face’ is driving competitive social drinking in China.

(Photo: One of Jibran Nasir’s videos calling out religious extremism. Credit: Jibran Nasir)

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