A group of Muslim comedians are touring the US, hoping to use humor to combat the negative stereotypes that Muslims have here. They have made a documentary of their experiences. Here is the trailer.
For the record -- & despite what some FTB commenters wrongly think of me -- I do know that most Muslims are okay people who aren’t out to harm others -- its the few who are that create a real problem for everyone.
Thing is when people turn on the TVs pick up the papers or just hear the news from almost any source its regularly full of various Jihadist terrorist atrocities. (just this year -- Boston marathon bombing, Kenyan shopping mall massacre, the brutal murder and near beheading of Drummer Lee Rigby by machete-wielding Jihadist madmen, bombings regularly in Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Church burnings and persecution of Christians by Islamists in Africa, attacks on Coptic Christians in Egypt, attacks on Hindu’s in India, ad infinitum ad nauseam) People also see and hear regularly the rants and raves of angry ayatollah’s and imams and learn of sectarian wars within Islam (eg. Syria, Iraq, Lebanon ) and wars and jihads and fatwahs against this that and the other. (Eg. Salman Rushdie’,’s book, Danish cartoons, a teddy bear being named Mohammad etc ..)
With all this tide of appalling and true information constantly in the news its always going to be difficult to convince most people that most Muslims are really peaceful. Its awfully hard for any pro-Muslims comedy to change stereotypes and make Islam seem all soft’n’fuzzy and okay.
Islam has earned its bad reputation over a long period for very good reasons and it will take a long time to fix. The first step has to be that Jihadist terrorist attacks and broader Muslim intolerance and disproportionately OTT furious overreactions to criticism, satire and stuff other people do that they dislike stops and stays stopped.
No more Jihads, no more fatwahs and most of all no more Islamic terrorism and wars and threats of violence at every silly thing that upsets them.
Muslim comedians can get some good laughs and make some good jokes, the rest of their community especially their unsmiling puritanical religious authorities who’ve often whipped up rage at at things that really aren’t that important needs to learn to take a joke and laugh along at others jokes and stuff or at least just shrug their shoulders rather than reaching for their swords every time they hear something they dislike.
In my humble Opinion anyhow.
sailor1031says
I don’t think the issue is going to be how this goes down with non-muslims. It’s going to be can these comics survive the torrents of rage, threats and violent abuse that will be directed at them by the imams and fundie muslims? With, of course, silent acquiescence from everyone else. Allons voir.
Al Dentesays
StevoR @1
For the record – & despite what some FTB commenters wrongly think of me – I do know that most Muslims are okay people who aren’t out to harm others – its the few who are that create a real problem for everyone.
We understand that you don’t advocate nuking all Muslims. You just want to exterminate those you disapprove of, like the ones in the Middle East, North Africa, Pakistan, etc.
StevoR : Free West Papua, free Tibet, let the Chagossians return!says
Wrong.
I don’t want anyone exterminated.
I just don’t think Jihadists should be allowed to exterminate anyone else. That’s all.
StevoR : Free West Papua, free Tibet, let the Chagossians return!says
BTW. Al Dente -- Way to miss and totally fail to address my actual point about a few Muslim comedians versus the reality that people see in the news too many days regarding acts of Jihadist terrorism, sectarian wars within Muslim nations and wars waged by Muslim nations against non-Muslim nations, globe-wide, et cetera.
Way to deny global reality dude!
StevoR : Free West Papua, free Tibet, let the Chagossians return!says
PS. Al Dente if you had to deal with Al Quaida, the Taliban or Hamas what would *you* do?
Piss your pants, offer them everything they demanded in abject surrender and still get your head chopped off I’d say at a guess.
Why are you focusing on Muslim violence? What about the overwhelming Christian violence in the US? What about the Orthodox Catholics in Russia? What about the Christian “Kill the Gays” Uganda violence? What about the Hindu violence in India and Nepal?
What about the violence that makes up the vast majority of societal harm, the non-sectarian dick-wad violence?
Or do you seriously think the Western new media is covering stories of violence with fairness so that if 80% of violence is by “native” white Americans, 80% of the news on violence will be about white people? That you are not allowing social bias to color your perception of what it means to be an Arab?
The lady asked the Muslims, “How do you feel about 9/11?” I imagine the same way I feel about Oklahoma City or Newtown or Aurora: What the fuck does it have to do with me? Believe it or not, most white male Americans don’t want to go on murderous rampages.
StevoR : Free West Papua, free Tibet, let the Chagossians return!says
@Donovan :
Why are you focusing on Muslim violence? (1) What about the overwhelming Christian violence in the US? (2) What about the Orthodox Catholics in Russia? (3) What about the Christian “Kill the Gays” Uganda violence? (4) What about the Hindu violence in India and Nepal? (5)What about the violence that makes up the vast majority of societal harm, the non-sectarian dick-wad violence?
Numbers added for reference here :
1. Huh? What Christian violence? It certainly ain’t terrorism like homicide-suicide car bombs are.
2. I think you’ll find they’re Russian Orthodox there not Catholic -- see above same applies.
3. Horrendous and I condemn it unequivocally. It is tho’ limited to Uganda whereas Jihadism is worldwide.
4. Not heard of any. Citations needed.
5. That comes under the category of general crime. I think we need to be tough on that where there are victims potential and actual. But see (1) and note its a seperate issue.
Or do you seriously think the Western new media is covering stories of violence with fairness so that if 80% of violence is by “native” white Americans, 80% of the news on violence will be about white people? That you are not allowing social bias to color your perception of what it means to be an Arab?
Well, its certainly possible that media bias has some effect but that doesn’t change the reality of what the Jihadists do and say and what counter-terrorist experts suggest we do about it. JIhadists attacks after all cannot be reported if they aren’t happening.
he lady asked the Muslims, “How do you feel about 9/11?” I imagine the same way I feel about Oklahoma City or Newtown or Aurora: What the fuck does it have to do with me? Believe it or not, most white male Americans don’t want to go on murderous rampages.
You miss the point here. “White male” isn’t a religio-political ideology that motivating terrorism and isn’t being used as an excuse or rationale for violence but Jihadists do use their religion as a a motivating factor and an “excuse” for their actions. There is no connection -- no shared ideology or belief system -- with any other unrelated white males and the Aurora killer who killed because he was a mentally ill criminal. There is a shared religious ideology tho’ with Islam albeit at a broader level i.e. most Muslims don’t belong to Jihadist groups but all Jiihadists are extreme Muslims.
There was a perhaps similar thing on Aussie ABC TV called ‘Fear of a Brown Planet’ a week or so ago :
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/programs/fear-of-a-brown-planet/
For the record -- & despite what some FTB commenters wrongly think of me -- I do know that most Muslims are okay people who aren’t out to harm others -- its the few who are that create a real problem for everyone.
Thing is when people turn on the TVs pick up the papers or just hear the news from almost any source its regularly full of various Jihadist terrorist atrocities. (just this year -- Boston marathon bombing, Kenyan shopping mall massacre, the brutal murder and near beheading of Drummer Lee Rigby by machete-wielding Jihadist madmen, bombings regularly in Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Church burnings and persecution of Christians by Islamists in Africa, attacks on Coptic Christians in Egypt, attacks on Hindu’s in India, ad infinitum ad nauseam) People also see and hear regularly the rants and raves of angry ayatollah’s and imams and learn of sectarian wars within Islam (eg. Syria, Iraq, Lebanon ) and wars and jihads and fatwahs against this that and the other. (Eg. Salman Rushdie’,’s book, Danish cartoons, a teddy bear being named Mohammad etc ..)
With all this tide of appalling and true information constantly in the news its always going to be difficult to convince most people that most Muslims are really peaceful. Its awfully hard for any pro-Muslims comedy to change stereotypes and make Islam seem all soft’n’fuzzy and okay.
Islam has earned its bad reputation over a long period for very good reasons and it will take a long time to fix. The first step has to be that Jihadist terrorist attacks and broader Muslim intolerance and disproportionately OTT furious overreactions to criticism, satire and stuff other people do that they dislike stops and stays stopped.
No more Jihads, no more fatwahs and most of all no more Islamic terrorism and wars and threats of violence at every silly thing that upsets them.
Muslim comedians can get some good laughs and make some good jokes, the rest of their community especially their unsmiling puritanical religious authorities who’ve often whipped up rage at at things that really aren’t that important needs to learn to take a joke and laugh along at others jokes and stuff or at least just shrug their shoulders rather than reaching for their swords every time they hear something they dislike.
In my humble Opinion anyhow.
I don’t think the issue is going to be how this goes down with non-muslims. It’s going to be can these comics survive the torrents of rage, threats and violent abuse that will be directed at them by the imams and fundie muslims? With, of course, silent acquiescence from everyone else. Allons voir.
StevoR @1
We understand that you don’t advocate nuking all Muslims. You just want to exterminate those you disapprove of, like the ones in the Middle East, North Africa, Pakistan, etc.
Wrong.
I don’t want anyone exterminated.
I just don’t think Jihadists should be allowed to exterminate anyone else. That’s all.
BTW. Al Dente -- Way to miss and totally fail to address my actual point about a few Muslim comedians versus the reality that people see in the news too many days regarding acts of Jihadist terrorism, sectarian wars within Muslim nations and wars waged by Muslim nations against non-Muslim nations, globe-wide, et cetera.
Way to deny global reality dude!
PS. Al Dente if you had to deal with Al Quaida, the Taliban or Hamas what would *you* do?
Piss your pants, offer them everything they demanded in abject surrender and still get your head chopped off I’d say at a guess.
Why are you focusing on Muslim violence? What about the overwhelming Christian violence in the US? What about the Orthodox Catholics in Russia? What about the Christian “Kill the Gays” Uganda violence? What about the Hindu violence in India and Nepal?
What about the violence that makes up the vast majority of societal harm, the non-sectarian dick-wad violence?
Or do you seriously think the Western new media is covering stories of violence with fairness so that if 80% of violence is by “native” white Americans, 80% of the news on violence will be about white people? That you are not allowing social bias to color your perception of what it means to be an Arab?
The lady asked the Muslims, “How do you feel about 9/11?” I imagine the same way I feel about Oklahoma City or Newtown or Aurora: What the fuck does it have to do with me? Believe it or not, most white male Americans don’t want to go on murderous rampages.
@Donovan :
Numbers added for reference here :
1. Huh? What Christian violence? It certainly ain’t terrorism like homicide-suicide car bombs are.
2. I think you’ll find they’re Russian Orthodox there not Catholic -- see above same applies.
3. Horrendous and I condemn it unequivocally. It is tho’ limited to Uganda whereas Jihadism is worldwide.
4. Not heard of any. Citations needed.
5. That comes under the category of general crime. I think we need to be tough on that where there are victims potential and actual. But see (1) and note its a seperate issue.
Well, its certainly possible that media bias has some effect but that doesn’t change the reality of what the Jihadists do and say and what counter-terrorist experts suggest we do about it. JIhadists attacks after all cannot be reported if they aren’t happening.
You miss the point here. “White male” isn’t a religio-political ideology that motivating terrorism and isn’t being used as an excuse or rationale for violence but Jihadists do use their religion as a a motivating factor and an “excuse” for their actions. There is no connection -- no shared ideology or belief system -- with any other unrelated white males and the Aurora killer who killed because he was a mentally ill criminal. There is a shared religious ideology tho’ with Islam albeit at a broader level i.e. most Muslims don’t belong to Jihadist groups but all Jiihadists are extreme Muslims.