September 06-13
A new film comes out this month that its directors hope will put a dent in the wave of Islamophobia washing over the United States.
Titled, “The Muslims Are Coming,” the film tracks a group of Muslim-American standup comics as they perform across the country — and tackle stereotypes about Muslims.
Negin Farsad and Dean Obeidallah are the co-directors of the movie. Farsad was born in the United States of Iranian parents. She has worked for Comedy Central and was named one of the “Fifty Funniest Women” by the Huffington Post in 2011. Obeidallah is the American-born son of a Sicilian mother and a Palestinian father. He often entertains Arab-American groups, both with his humor and with his horrific mangling of the Arabic language.
Farsad explained what drives the two filmmakers. “Around the election of Barack Obama and the controversy regarding a mosque near the World Trade Center, we were both kind of struck to the extent to which being Muslim was such an accusation. And I think that it continues for some people, five years later.”
Obeidallah says they want to “counter those who are preaching hate and those who don’t know about Muslims.”
The two have some powerful friends in their corner; the film features cameos from such comedic notables as Jon Stewart, David Cross, Janeane Garofalo, Colin Quinn, Lewis Black and Aasif Mandvi.
“I think comedy is a great vehicle to reach out to people,” Obeidallah said. “I think comedy has been used since the
1960s — with people like Lenny Bruce, Chris Rock, George Carlin, Richard Pryor and, today, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert — using stand up comedy to entertain and educate people.”
“It just disarms people,” Farsad said. “It stops them in their tracks.”
The two are keenly aware, however, of the thin line they walk in their comedy.
“I think there’s always this kind of battle with comedians between poking fun at our societal tendency to stereotype and perpetuating stereotypes,” Farsad said. “You have to be careful that you’re not perpetuating the stereotype and that, instead, you’re trying to undo the stereotype.”
The film opens in theaters September 12.
Obeidallah said, ”I believe overwhelmingly that people are open minded in this country and tolerant and want to learn about other cultures. Yet, some, for their own political agenda, both demonize Muslims—like they demonized Jews in the past, or Catholics—and fear monger for political points to make it a political wedge issue.”
Cable news doesn’t always help, either.
“We wanted to reach people that were, like, ‘I read, I heard on Fox News that Muslims are totally violent!’” Farsad said. “And so we wanted to reach that person because that person is a reasonable person, they just don’t have that much access to information. They’re flooded with negative images of Muslims walking in the desert with crusty faces. … They’re not given any other information. And so those are the people we want to reach.”
