Jewish and Muslim BFFs Dress as Superhero Team ‘the Juslims’ for Halloween

With the election just days away, many people saw Halloween as an opportunity to display their political leanings. Yet two teenagers, neither of whom wore Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump costumes, made the ultimate statement with their nonpartisan message of peace and acceptance.

Jeff Pearlman’s 13-year-old daughter, Casey, who is Jewish, and her friend and classmate Yasmin, who is Muslim, dressed as “a superhero team: The Juslims” for the holiday, the proud father shared. He took a picture and posted it to Twitter where it went viral, receiving more 50,000 retweets and over 100,000 likes.

Funny enough though, the girls didn’t set out to say anything with their looks. “This was not a political statement or a social statement or a stance on the presidential election. They weren’t doing it in the name of religious pride or America’s diversity or equality for all. Nope, they decided to be the Juslims simply because it was funny,” Pearlman detailed in a blog post.

He noted that the middle schoolers are just like any other teens who share common interests, as their religious and cultural differences do not play a role in their relationship. “My daughter and her pal are, simply, friends. They talk about music and clothes and scary movies and boys and school,” he wrote. “They are two people who moved to Southern California in the same month two years ago, and they share a bond. That’s it. That’s all. No deep religious debates. No conflicts over prayer or the meaning behind ancient texts.”

This seems like a refreshingly simple take to such a unintentionally loaded costume. At the end of the post he urges people to look past the factors that divide us and act as “Juslims.”

“Despite what we’ve been hearing late in the national dialogue, there need not be this division based upon skin color, based upon place of birth, based upon … trivial bulls***. We’re all just people. We’re all Juslims,” he concludes.

The post received some backlash from users on Twitter, one who even mocked the idea that their friendship could survive. “Enjoy it while it lasts in their childhood. They will grow apart when they buy into propagandists,” one user wrote. Pearlman shot the user down with an amazing response.

The girls are hoping to bring their story to an ever wider audience on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

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