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A ‘fun-raiser’ in Sacramento
The Sacramento Area League of Associated Muslims (Salam) held its annual fundraiser at its facility on College Oak Drive in California’s State Capital region. And if one wanted to be pleasantly surprised, this was the place to be on the evening of June 19, as a new twist of sorts enhanced the usual programme.
With the introduction of American-Muslim Comedian, Azhar Usman, the idea of donating money for an Islamic organization also became a whole lot of fun. And in the US these days, when a Muslim comedian gets to be introduced on stage by someone named Osama, things had to get quite interesting.
Osama Hassoun, from the Sacramento area, is a formidable funny man himself, which he proved at this event last year. Standing next to Azhar Usman, both the physical and the witty presence of these two individuals tastefully kicked off the entertainment segment.
Azhar does not let his community get off the hook in his comedy act. The practice of keeping cell phones turned on inside mosques, specially during prayers, gets his attention
Azhar Usman is a lawyer by profession who has taken up the tough task of making people laugh amidst difficult times, specially for American Muslims. His stand up routine has already found acclaim in the press in North America and Britain. His family is originally from Patna, Bihar (India) but he grew up in the US and has been influenced mainly by African American and Hispanic comedians, along with those from India and Pakistan (Johnny Lever and Moin Akhtar, respectively). He has recently teamed up with fellow comedians Preacher Moss and Azeem in an act called Allah Made Me Funny: The Official Muslim Comedy Tour, currently performing all over this country. We were lucky to catch his act in Sacramento at the fundraiser which he effectively turned into a ‘fun-raiser’.
He started off by making comparisons of how various ethnic groups pronounce Muslim greetings. The Pakistani-Indian desi version got a very strong response. Azhar also commented on the late start of most South-Asian events. He linked it to some of the confusion created by the Urdu language where the word kal means both yesterday and tomorrow, and the word parsoon translates to both the day after tomorrow and the day before yesterday (certainly leading to an impact on our lack of punctuality). And he did not stop here. He made jabs at many South-Asian traits, accents and cultural oddities which make us all uniquely funny as well.
He also delved into political and social issues, and the upcoming US Presidential Elections where the economy and foreign policy will both be of prime concern to the Muslim voter as well. Again, the unique thought processes that some of our community cannot let go of appeared prominently. A personal favourite was about what Muslim conferences talk about year after year and Muslim participation in the American political process. Azhar quotes one passionate individual who makes a strong speech, in which he says: ‘We need more Muslim politicians. We need more Muslims in the media. We need more Muslim policy-makers.’
Someone asks this speaker: ‘What about you, Uncle. You have three sons. What do they do?’
The speaker replies: ‘Masha-Allah, they are all doctors!’
Azhar Usman also comments on Muslims flying on planes here these days. People are really scared. “Imagine me walking on a plane. It’s not a pretty sight. People give me some dirty looks, man. As if I was responsible for 9/11. Can you believe that? 7/11 maybe, ....
“I am sick and tired of being ethnically profiled,” said Azhar. “And I’m talking about the Muslim community.”
On airports and security these days: “I don’t know if you guys heard. Some Arab kids got picked up at the airport, just because they had a Geometry textbook, some rulers and a stencil. Yeah, charged with possessing Weapons of Math Instruction (WMI).
On Azhar riding a taxi in Chicago driven by a surprised white guy: “I’m sorry man, nobody told you? Today is opposite day.”
On Black people complaining that a Black man can never get a fair trial in America: “These days Arabs and Muslims are walking around saying ‘We can’t even get a trial in America, man.”
“We get blamed in the media for things that we didn’t even do,” says Azhar, relating to the supposed imprint of the Middle East on the Oklahoma City bombing.
Azhar does not let his community get off the hook in his comedy act. The practice of keeping cell phones turned on inside mosques, specially during prayers, gets his attention.
One has to commend Azhar Usman and other Muslim comedians working in the United States these days. These are grim times with nothing really funny in the headlines. And caught between the bombing and the beheading of innocent people in the War on Terror is the American Muslim community.
It is left to us to show our neighbours that we are peaceful, vibrant and progressive people who love a good laugh. Laughter is also a mirror that we can show to ourselves and count it as another blessing from God. It can also be looked at as a sign of inner strength.
Azhar Usman is a great stand-up comic. While religion is never the subject of his jokes, the followers of a religion often are. Personally, I was extremely amazed at how well our Muslim-American children related to his act. Maybe, just maybe, in their laughter, we, too, can learn more about how to deal with this very trying time in our lives.
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