By Prem Calvin Prashad
Two Muslim comedians are on a mission – to make New Yorkers laugh.
Comedians Dean Obeidallah and Negin Farsad have crowdfunded a campaign to respond to anti-Muslim advertisements posted on mass transit with humorous advertisements of their own.
The latest batch of “anti-jihad” advertisements, spearheaded by Long Island native Pamela Geller and her “American Freedom Defense Initiative,” recently won a legal battle against the MTA, which had refused to post this iteration of their ads on MTA advertising space.
Farsad and Obeidallah previously directed and produced “The Muslims Are Coming!,” a documentary that features a number of Muslim comedians visiting locations across America, such as Murfreesboro, Tenn., to engage local residents through gimmicks such as an “Ask a Muslim” booth, as well as put on stand-up shows. The documentary also features commentary from such prominent media and comedy personalities as Jon Stewart and Lewis Black.
The counter campaign, called Fighting-Bigotry-with-Delightful-Posters, is looking to reach, as Farsad puts it, “the swing hater.” “Maybe they’ve heard some negative things about Muslims,” she says, “but they’re not sure.” In comparison, Obeidallah frames Geller’s campaign as for “her own base of people, who hate Muslims.” “This is more a PR campaign for Pamela Geller,” he continued.
Geller and her “anti-Islamization” efforts rose to prominence over her posting of controversial images of Mohammed on her blog, as well as her opposition to the Park 51 Islamic Center, commonly known by the “Ground Zero Mega Mosque” misnomer, despite being neither located at “Ground Zero” nor a mosque.
Obeidallah notes that though the message in AFDI ads will fall flat with most New Yorkers, “for her, is it wasted money when so many news outlets cover it nationally? Who knows what kind of effect that message is having on the country?” he said.
Previous AFDI advertisements have posed the Palestine-Israel issue as a struggle between “the civilized man” and “savages,” and another juxtaposed images of the burning World Trade Center with a quote from the Quran.
On its face, the group claims to be informing Americans and confronting the threat of “radical Islam,” but it has done so by attacking organizations and personalities that ostensibly represent moderate Muslims in America, painting them as part of an “anti-American conspiracy.”
Prominent civil rights and Jewish groups, including the Anti-Defamation League, Southern Poverty Law Center and Jewish Council for Public Affairs, have condemned the advertisements, which have also run in Philadelphia and San Francisco. The Southern Poverty Law Center has noted that groups such as the AFDI seek to “paint moderate Muslims as radical terrorists” through propaganda, blurring the lines between fringe radical terrorists abroad and Muslims living in America.
While the images are offensive, the AFDI has managed to skirt overt hate speech through ambiguous wording and imagery, while couching their position as one of “free speech.” Yet, Farsad believes the issue is not that of free speech, but is one of a cultural nature.
“I’m totally a fan of the First Amendment, I’m really glad that crazy people are allowed to put up crazy opinions, because that’s what the First Amendment protects,” she said.
Both hope that the ads will serve as a cultural counter to AFDI’s ads. “Culturally, it’s not okay to put up images of a Sambo … [or] a hook-nosed, miserly, Jewish person,” Farsad said. “These things are not okay and not culturally acceptable; and we got to this place because of entertainers such as Seinfeld and Woody Allen.”
Both comedians note that at $15,000, they will have spent a fraction of what Geller and the AFDI have spent, but hope that the campaign generates as much media coverage. “That will drive her (Geller) crazy,” Obeidallah joked. The campaign was set to begin April 28, comprised of 144 posters in 140 stations.
To see the posters to be used in the campaign, as well as learn more about “The Muslims Are Coming!” visit: themu
