|
Comedians rile up crowd for civil rights |
|
|
|
By RAS H. SIDDIQUI, Guest Writer
|
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Long-haired comedian Azhar Usman asked if any Barack Obama fans were in the hall, and the crowd responded with thunderous applause.
“Any Republicans make it to the show?” he asked, resulting in silence.
Usman and his two partners of the “Allah Made Me Funny” group lit up the northern California community with their performance at a fundraising event hosted by the Council on American Islamic Relations-Sacramento Valley on March 9.
The crowd was peppered with people in local mainstream political circles. Former Phoenix Suns star, Sacramento native and current mayoral candidate Kevin Johnson was present.
Current Sacramento Mayor Heather Fargo has also benefited from local Muslim support in her previous campaigns.
Other political figures attending, including Assembly Member Dave Jones, several officials of the CAPITAL organization, along with members of the Japanese American Citizens League who said they do not want to see their own World War II experience to be repeated in America.
CAIR-SV Executive Director Basim Elkarra opened the evening.
“Be proud that you are Muslim and American,” Elkarra said at the start of what was to be quite an entertainment evening for guests.
The trio in the comedy group represent the three largest ethnicities of the American followers of Islam, namely the South Asian Muslims via Usman, the African American community through Preacher Moss and the Arab-American voice represented by Mohammed Amer.
Following Usman on stage was the most senior member of the group, Preacher Moss.
His main message to the American Muslim community was to ‘think black.”
He said he had the best of both worlds – he was Black and Muslim.
He said that a group called “Al-Hide-A” and one man in a cave (in Afghanistan) could possibly cause many terrible events because he has seen all the problems that one man in a White House can cause.
On the issue of Islam allowing four wives, he had an interesting observation. “I’m a black man. I never had four of anything.”
Amer is a Palestinian who came to the United States from Kuwait and is now a Texan.
“Mohammed is the most popular name in the world,” he said. “I went to Disneyland. Not one keychain with my name on it!”
|
