Muslim Youth Try Humor to Rout Stereotypes

    Young Muslims born and residing in the US are taking conventional humor to counter false American stereotypes of Islam and Muslims. Calgary, Canada born Obaida Abdul-Rahim, who lives in Gainesville, Florida, runs one of several Middle-Eastern themed t-shirt business that have sprung up to retort anti-Muslim sentiment. Such slogans printed on the t-shirts include “100 percent Randomly Searched at the Following Airports” and “Allah’s Little Angel.” The target audience of the t-shirts are diverse; “I’d like Muslims to know that it’s okay to laugh, and non-Muslims to know that we have a sense of humor,” says Abdul-Rahim. Shabbir Chaudury, a student at Fordham University of Law of Bangladeshi descent began creating shirts with a badge that said “Salam, My Name is, not that hard to pronounce” — borrowing from the common Hello, my name is […] stickers. These shirts demonstrate that Muslims are assimilating into the Western culture and are embracing it as their own, despite popular belief, said Shabbir.

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