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Arts & Entertainment

"The Muslims Are Coming!" to Lawrenceville

A stand-up comedy tour featuring Muslim-American comedians is coming to Lawrenceville, to provide fun and laughs with a message of understanding.

Attention, Lawrenceville: The Muslims are coming! They're here to make you laugh, as they challenge misconceptions about their religion.

The Aurora Theatre will host “The Muslims Are Coming!”, a stand-up comedy show produced by comedians Negin Farsad and Dean Obeidallah, who are creating a documentary of the same name.

“The goal is to try to reach people, have a good time with comedy, and get to know people,” Obeidallah said. “It'll run the gamut from jokes about us to jokes about dating, politics and pop culture. It's just a comedy show that happens to have a message, but it's a subtle message.”

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Farsad and Obeidallah have worked together before, and this project was born out of a desire to spark interactions between Muslims and non-Muslims to foster understanding.

“Frankly, something needs to be done to address the growing anti-Muslim sentiment,” Obeidallah said. “And we're comedians, so that's our way to do that.”

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Obeidallah, who writes blog posts and opinion columns for CNN.com, said he's heard from readers who worry about Muslims imposing their beliefs on American law.

“I get angry emails from people who hate Muslims,” he said. “I try to respond to some of them...When you go past the surface, you find out they might be a little more nuanced.”

Their tour will take them throughout the Southeast, including stops in Georgia, Florida, Alabama and Tennessee, to reach “mainstream Americans,” Obeidallah said.

The comedians chose to stop in Gwinnett because of the “small ,” Farsad said.

They will stop in Gainesville, Florida, partly because of the city's reputation after Terry Jones, pastor of a small church, threatened to burn copies of the Quran, Islam's holy book.

But, “Gainesville is a liberal hotbed, so let's pick that as a place that has had such a dichotomous attitude,” Farsad said.

The tour will also stop in Birmingham, Alabama, the site of mob violence against the Freedom Riders during the civil rights movement of the 1960s; Columbus, Georgia, home of Fort Benning military base; Murfreesboro, Tennessee, which is facing a controversy about constructing a mosque; and Nashville, Tennessee, “a true piece of Americana,” Farsad said.

The tour will be free to audiences, the comedians said, to reach people who are uncomfortable or unsure about attending.

In addition to Farsad and Obeidallah's comedy performances, the show will feature comedians Omar Elba, Maysoon Zayid and Gwinnett-based Gilbert Lawand, all of whom have different backgrounds, Farsad said.

“I'm pretty secular,” said Farsad, who grew up in a liberal community. “I drink, I eat pork, I talk about dudes.”

In addition to the comedy performances on the tour, Farsad and Obeidallah are working on a documentary, also called “The Muslims are Coming!”, to reach more people than they could with only the live tour.

“We're really trying to put ourselves out there, and document that,” Farsad said.

The tour will include other street events that will be filmed for the documentary. The comedians will set up an “Ask a Muslim” table in each city during the day to interact one-on-one with curious passersby.

“We want the average person's questions, even the tough ones,” Obeidallah said. “It has to be directly addressed.”

Farsad and Obeidallah will also do man-on-the-street interviews and have a “name this religion game” where people guess the source of quotes from the New Testament, the Old Testament, and the Quran.

“Ultimately, these are going to be funny shows,” Farsad said. “There's a lot of ideology and activism that's going into it, but there's a lot of just pure comedy.”

 

"The Muslims are Coming!" Stand-Up Comedy Tour

Aurora Theatre

Tuesday, August 9 at 8 p.m.

Free, but reservations highly recommended

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