CAIRO – As Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump continues to pursue anti-Muslim rhetoric, American Muslims are resorting to satire to spoof increasing hate.
“It’s funny, I’ve been dealing with the Trump stuff a lot,” New York comedian Negin Farsad told Christian Science Monitor.
Farsad has been using satire recently to combat anti-Muslim tirades led by Trump.
Last January, when Trump first suggested a “complete shutdown” of all Muslims coming into the United States, she went to Washington Square in Manhattan to film an ironic commentary.
She asked people if they were Muslim or not, and if someone said, no, she’d say: “Prove it!” and ask them to eat from a plate of bacon, which is forbidden in Islam.
A week earlier, humorous ads of a satiric documentary by her and fellow comedian Dean Obeidallah, “The Muslims are Coming!”, went up in New York subways.
In its tongue-and cheek “Facts About Muslims,” one poster claims: “Muslims invented Justin Timberlake.”
“It makes you laugh,” Madihha Ahussain, staff attorney with Muslim Advocates in Oakland, California, said.
“And what it can do, is that it can really change preexisting perceptions that many people have of what a Muslim is. And we are thrilled that these ads are going up because we think it means a lot to the community right now, for them to be able to walk into a subway station and see that those ads have a right to be there – it’s not political to be Muslim.”
Support
Trump’s latest comments to the CNN saying: “I think Islam hates us” were the latest in a long list of anti-Muslim tirades.
In February, President Obama made his first visit to a US mosque, decrying the “inexcusable political rhetoric” during the presidential campaign and assuring Muslims that “You fit in here.”
On Wednesday, Trump suggested the opposite. “We have to be very vigilant,” he told CNN’s Anderson Cooper. “We have to be very careful. And we can’t allow people coming into this country who have this hatred of the United States.”
“He’s wrong, he’s very wrong,” Pastor Bob Roberts, head of the 3,000-member NorthWood Church, an evangelical congregation in Keller, Texas, said of Trump.
“He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He’s just wrong, and what he’s doing is dangerous. He’s spewing fire, and he’s doing exactly ISIS would want,” he added, using another acronym to refer to the so-called Islamic State, or ISIL.
Building ties with the Muslim community, Pastor Roberts warned that such comments might spark anti-Muslim violence.
“They’re watching out for the Christians who are there, and we’re watching out for Islamophobia here,” he said.
“But in my conversations here and overseas, they feel like Trump is stirring up a lot of negative feelings.”
Ahussain shared similar concerns.
“It’s frightening when rhetoric being spoken on a national platform can actually translate into actual acts of violence against people,” she said.
Though laughing off Trump comments, Farsad could not hide concerns.
“Maybe somebody someday will say something nice about Muslims, and that will be major news!” she said.
“But we’re not at that point yet in our political history.”