What began as an ice-breaker often culminated in close and enduring friendships.įrom left: Sonya Gerstel from Ferny Grove State High School, Amna Zia Chaudhry from the Islamic College of Brisbane and Martina Vitale from Mount Alvernia Catholic College became firm friends during filming. Matching each participating student with a “buddy” from a different school proved a wise move. No wonder Kadri’s biggest fear was that instead of building bridges, his experiment might inadvertently blow them up. “The intensity of your desires will determine how many days you need to fast,” he explains. Meanwhile, atheist Sonya bristles at the imam’s insistence upon dietary abstinence as a tool to suppress hormonal passions. To assume that all of Isaac’s Muslim peers endorse this edict is wrong: many admit to enjoying rap, R&B and Korean pop themselves. Dismayed by the growing “silos” of his adopted country, he devised a novel exercise: over the course of one term, he’d allow a dozen secondary students and their families (a mix of atheist, Muslim and Catholic boys and girls) to immerse themselves in each other’s schools, homes and cultures.Īli Kadri, the architect of SBS’s The Swap and CEO of the Islamic College of Brisbane. “If you never engage with people who are different, that leads to division, mistrust and conflict.”Īn imam’s warning that some music can ‘incite carnal desires’ divides the students – including many Muslims.īorn and raised in India, Kadri emigrated to Australia to escape the sectarian violence and anti-Muslim riots that killed his first cousin and many friends. “Australia likes to pretend we’re a multicultural melting pot but we all live in our own silos,” says Ali Kadri, the experiment’s creator and CEO of the Islamic College of Brisbane (commonly referred to as ICB). When it comes to cultural cliches, the teenage participants in SBS’s provocative three-part social experiment The Swap offer some doozies – even if they don’t hold these views themselves. Muslims are secretive, sexist and dangerous Catholic priests cast “spells” using sticks bearing the figure of a dying martyr and secular white Australians are alcoholic bogans who believe footwear in public is optional. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size
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