zahracomedy-blog

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On behalf of 1.7 Muslims and growing, you’re welcome.

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These are the best, most joyful, and most savage protest signs from this weekend’s multi-city resistance to Trump’s Muslim ban

While we’re still trying to make sense of it all, we can’t help but appreciate the passion that’s gone into so many of these messages. When little kids are getting in on it, you know people are mobilizing. (One dog’s protest sign was especially good.)

Photos: Twitter

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I’ve been watching Vox’s Secret life of Muslims videos

@vox

And I’ve been reading the comments.

For some of the videos, the comments have been overwhelmingly negative (”Don’t flatter yourself, I hate all religions,” “Fucking muslims, bringing sharia law to america.” “Lol, but you are barbaric” “Go home terrorist”)

But for others, usually the ones with just one person going into detail about being a muslim person, the comments have been mostly positive. (”we need this right now,” “keep doing this good work vox” “OMG I grew up there too!!!!!”)

And one of the vidoes, this guy comments “I am a white christian man. And I stand with you, muslims,” and I started crying (not easy to do btw). There is something about such a simple and sweet statement that makes me feel like maybe there’s hope that I will be accepted here one day. Because being an American muslim is hard, and living in the South sure as hell doesn’t help. 

We always have someone we put in the bottom in America. There is always someone that it’s apparently ok to be blatantly racist to. Muslims have been turned into such an “other” that it’s apparently now ok to say whatever the hell you want about them, with little to no consequence.

“I stand with you,” is the best thing you can say to anyone who’s ever felt like they had the whole world turn it’s back on their people. So to the stranger on youtube, thank you. You’ve just made me a lot less angry, and a lot more emotional.

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Muslim NYPD Chaplain On Faith, Fear And Getting Stopped By Airport Security

Khalid Latif is one of the people profiled in The Secret Life of Muslims, a digital series about Islamophobia. He is also the first Muslim chaplain at New York University.

Listen to this interview.

“I think a lot of Muslims are very scared, and I think they’re valid in that fear. The reality, unfortunately, is such that even leading into the elections we saw a gross increase in anti-Muslim bias and incidents. In New York City, where I live, leading into the elections, just in a matter of weeks you had two imams – religious leaders of a Muslim community in Queens – who were shot in the back of their head and passed away subsequently. Following afternoon prayers, a 60-year-old woman of Bengali descent was walking home one evening in Queens as well with her husband who is asthmatic, and she had moved a few blocks ahead of him to get home quicker to get dinner ready. And he said later at a press conference that I was at that he heard her screaming and came upon her and found her stabbed and had eventually succumbed to the wounds just a couple of blocks away from their home. There was two mothers strolling their babies in Brooklyn who had been assaulted. A woman wearing a headscarf in Midtown Manhattan had been set on fire. These were all things that happened prior to the election.

Post the election, you know, I think what hit me hard, being at New York University, we have various prayer rooms that Muslim students use on our campus. And the day after the election in our school of engineering in Brooklyn, Muslim students walked into their prayer room to find the entrance with the word Trump written across it and an exclamation point. About a week later, there was Jewish students who on their dorm room door found swastikas, the words ‘make America great again,’ 'white pride,’ 'make America white again’ on their doorways. And these were realities that I think evoked a lot of different emotions understandably.”

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After Trump’s Election, A Non-Practicing Muslim Returns To Prayer

Comedian Zahra Noorbakhsh often jokes about being a “pork-eating, alcohol-drinking, married-to-an-atheist” Muslim. But lately she finds herself wanting to connect with her religious traditions.

Photo by Andria Lo

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@mutinousmindstate, check you out!

SPECIAL EPISODE: SHORT PERSONAL HISTORIES OF ORGANIZING WHILE BROWN (FT. TAZ AHMED)

Sheela interviews Tanzila Ahmed (@TazzyStar) about her history in politics, organizing, Sri Lanka, and self expression. You should definitely tune into her wonderful podcast, #GoodMuslimBadMuslim. 

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What does it mean to be Muslim? There are 1.7 billion answers.

This episode of The Secret Life of Muslims features Aman Ali, Wajahat Ali, Amani Al-Khatahtbeh, Reza Aslan, Negin Farsad, Mona Haydar, Maz Jobrani, Ibtihaj Muhammad, Zahra Noorbakhsh, Omar Regan, Sebastian Robins, Linda Sarsour, Layla Shaikley, Dena Takruri, and Iqbal Theba.

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Zahra Noorbakhsh’s family was told point blank that an American jury would be biased against them because of their religion. 

watch Zahra’s full video and check out more #BeyondTheWall stories of immigration, identity, and diversity on gobeyondthewall.org

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I think what’s been at the heart of my work is how I’ve been on a journey of trying to figure out what it means to be a Muslim, South Asian, woman in America—when I was growing up, I didn’t have any example to pull from as examples of what that meant. There was nothing to aspire to and nothing to help me better define myself for myself. I think what you see in this “pulling of diversity” is just that—it’s our discovery of realizing how complicated the world is, and how the worlds that Zahra and I were raised in didn’t expose us to a lot of variety of what it means to be “Muslim American.”

PODCATCHER #5: #GoodMuslimBadMuslim (via therumpus)

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#FlashBackFriday! Loved having you there, Jenny!

Congrats to my sisters in art and activism, OCA-GLA Rising Star 2016 Image Award winners #GoodMuslimBadMuslim podcast team @tazzystar and @zahracomedy!!! I got to intro them and tell this Chinese banquet room how AWESOME THEY ARRRRE. 📸:@tazzystar (at Ocean Star Seafood 美麗華大酒樓)

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Hey, that’s me! Thanks for the feature. 

ZAHRA NOORBAKHSH (@zahracomedy) born 1980 is an Iranian-American comedian, writer, actor and Feminist Muslim, Her one woman show, “All Atheists are Muslim” was directed by W. Kamau Bell and was dubbed a highlight of the Int'l New York City Fringe Theater Festival by the New Yorker Magazine. She is a contributor to the NY Times Featured anthology, “Love Inshallah: The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women,” and keeps a monthly column entitled, “My Infidel Husband.” A segment of her newest one woman show, “Hijab and Hammerpants,” debuted at Snap Judgment’s anniversary show, LIVE at the Paramount Theater. Noorbakhsh is also cohost of the internationally acclaimed podcast, #GoodMuslimBadMuslim, which was recently invited to record at the White House and deemed a “must listen” by #OprahMagazine She and cohost, Taz Ahmed, have been awarded the OCLA Rising Star Image Award for the podcast. As a comedian, Noorbakhsh has performed with renowned comics, W. Kamau Bell, Hari Kondabolu, and Maz Jobrani. She was a featured comic at the Muslim Funny Fest’s Comedy All Stars showcase at NYC’s Comic Strip. This summer Noorbakhsh was invited to attend the Sundance Creative Change Retreat, where she workshopped her comedy special, “On Behalf of All Muslims,” set to tour this year. As an author, Zahra has been published in the anthology Love, Inshallah: The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women.

Noorbakhsh grew up in Dansville, California and is a graduate of University of California at Berkeley with a degree in Theatre & Performance Studies. She is a member of the SF Writer’s Grotto where she currently teaches courses in comedy writing and storytelling. Bio from: www.zahracomedy.com

#inspiringwomen #iranianamerican #proudpersian #femalecomedian #zahranoorbaksh #heforshe #feminist #comedyfest

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The #GoodMuslimBadMuslim guide to voting from @thisisfusion is up and it's hilarious. Don't let Trump goons keep you from your right to creep Sharia all over those poll-watchers. @mutinousmindstate and I had an awesome time.

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I had a ludicrous amount of fun with @mutinousmindstate last night. Thank you Dan Ilic, the @thisisfusion team, and YouTube Space LA! We've now officially recorded across from the oval office, twice. Only, one of the office ovals had a greenroom.

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Zahra Noorbakhsh’s family was told point blank that an American jury would be biased against them because of their religion. 

watch Zahra’s full video and check out more #BeyondTheWall stories of immigration, identity, and diversity on gobeyondthewall.org

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Um...BUCKET LIST ✅.

I play cohost on this week's Politically Re-Active with W. Kamau Bell while Hari Kondabolu films his new pilot. Don't worry, you get your Hari fix: he & Kamau interview my buddies, Las Cafeteras!

It's a beautiful thing, it's tremendous. Mooozlems love it and Putin's into it, BIGLY. Enjoy and share. 📢

From First Look Media, it's Politically Reactive: https://megaphone.link/FL3401310757

Special thanks to The Opportunity Agenda for bringing us all together at Sundance.

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"There is no judge or jury that is gonna side with you with that thing around your head against an American doctor."

Watch my story on @mtv‘s #BeyondTheWall.

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TODAY: I talk with Nadia Manzoor and Zarqa Nawaz on @ajstream-blog-blog! Join the conversation on Twitter with #AJStream or @AJStream. To send a video comment or question, head over here: www.stream.aljazeera.com/join.