Is comedy the best way to counter bigotry and hatred? Perhaps. At least that appears to be the strategy of two comedians in the US, Negin Farsad and Dean Obeidallah, who are responsible for a documentary which aims to break down negative stereotypes of Muslims.
The movie’s production company recently won a lawsuit against New York’s transit authority which ruled that they would be allowed to display ads on the subway promoting their film. Issues arose when the authority banned the ads, citing political speech, which is not allowed on public transportation.
The court ruled that Islam was, in fact, a religion and not a political movement.
“All we wanted to do was put up this 'Fighting Bigotry with Delightful Posters' campaign where we were spreading hilarious messages about Muslims while promoting 'The Muslims Are Coming!' It was supposed to be no big deal. And the MTA decided to ban the poster campaign, citing political speech.
“So we decided to turn our 'Fighting Bigotry with Delightful Posters' campaign into fighting 'Fighting Bigotry with a Delightful Lawsuit' campaign. We sued the MTA,” Farsad said.
One of the posters says: “The Ugly Truth About Muslims: Muslims have great frittata recipes.”
“The point of the movie is just to show Muslims in a positive light, to build a bridge with mainstream Americans. Muslim-Americans can be super hilarious and that's kind of just what we want to show people,” Farsad said of the movie.
