Madonna posts an image of Jewish and Muslim men kissing
Madonna has posted an image of a Jewish man and a Muslim man kissing, sparking a furore on her Instagram page
Madonna's Instagram page includes this image of a Jewish man and a Muslim man about to kiss
By Harriet Alexander
11:32AM BST 19 May 2015
Madonna has stirred controversy by posting a photo on Instagram of an Jewish man and a Muslim man leaning towards each other to kiss.
The soft-focus picture shows a man in what Haaretz termed a "large white knitted kippah of the Breslover Hasidic movement" and an Arab man wearing a traditional keffiyeh. She posted the picture with the caption: "This image is 100. #RebelHearts".
Rebel Hearts is the name of her new album. The photo, posted on Sunday, has so far been "liked" almost 75,000 times.
The vast majority of the comments on the photo were positive, with people praising her for "breaking boundaries and opening the conversation".
"Love is love my friends – doesn't matter if you are Jewish or Muslim or whatever," said one.
"Live life as you can," said another.
But not all of her 3.9 million followers approved. "You do not know at all what is happening here in Israel. Do not post such a picture here again," wrote one.
"Disgusting," said another, while yet another criticised the image for being doctored.
"While I do admire the strength of Madonna in an attempt to portray a meaningful message, I do think the photo should at least be an undoctored one," he said.
"I say this because as a Hasidic Jew myself, the side curls in the photo are without a doubt fake; secondly being someone from that 'sect' the head covering is never worn like that.
"So again, as much as I admire the message, I wish it would have been done in a tasteful manner and truly genuine."
In April the 56-year-old singer posted a series of topless photographs of herself on the site, which were deleted by Instagram.
She then criticised the decision, stating: "Why is it OK to show a** but not breasts? Drowning in the hypocrisy of social media."
