JavaScript is off. Please enable to view full site.

Prove you are a Muslim, get into Brooklyn comedy club for free

Prove you are a Muslim, get into Brooklyn comedy club for free

Saturday, December 12, 2015, 09:13 GMT+7

Donald Trump may want to block all Muslims from entering the United States, but a Brooklyn comedy club is welcoming them into its shows free of charge.

The club is aiming to make a serious statement about the Republican presidential hopeful's proposed ban - and possibly to win some new customers.

While Trump has yet to spell out how he intends to prove someone is Muslim, The Experiment Comedy Gallery has a simple working formula:

"1) Face Mecca. 2) Recite 'The Fatiha.' 3.) Laugh for free, all night long," the club says on its website, referring to the opening passage of the Koran.

Mo Fathelbab, general manager and a stand-up comic himself, sees the offer as the light-hearted way for a comedy club to express outrage over the proposal by Trump, the Republican front-runner in opinion polls ahead of the November 2016 U.S. presidential election.

"I'm a Muslim-American and I'm tired of the rampant Islamophobia overtaking the campaign," Fathelbab told Reuters in an email on Friday.

"And until Muslim Mel Brooks appears on the scene to comically knock down Trump with our version of 'The Producers,' this is the next best thing."

A representative of the Trump campaign could not be immediately reached for comment.

Fathelbab said asking someone to prove that he or she is a Muslim is "a very silly idea to begin".

He does not expect too many people to be able to recite the surah and gain free entry into the club, located in the New York City's hip Williamsburg neighborhood in the borough of Brooklyn, one of New York City's most diverse.

The comic, who was born in Brooklyn and raised by Muslim parents who emigrated from Egypt, said he attended a Catholic school in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood and dated "outside my religion and ethnicity."

Trump floated his proposal days after a husband-and-wife team of suspected Islamist militants gunned down 14 people at a San Bernardino, California, holiday party, police say.

The shooting has ratcheted up concerns about the U.S. government's ability to protect Americans from future jihadist attacks.

Fathelbab admitted that the offer of free admission to Muslims was in part a bid for publicity, but it was mostly about "sticking it to the man."

"I'd rather confront Trump and his mentality now instead of when he becomes president," he said. 

REUTERS

More

Read more

;

Photos

VIDEOS

‘Taste of Australia’ gala dinner held in Ho Chi Minh City after 2-year hiatus

Taste of Australia Gala Reception has returned to the Park Hyatt Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City's District 1 after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic

Vietnamese woman gives unconditional love to hundreds of adopted children

Despite her own immense hardship, she has taken in and cared for hundreds of orphans over the past three decades.

Vietnam’s Mekong Delta celebrates spring with ‘hat boi’ performances

The art form is so popular that it attracts people from all ages in the Mekong Delta

Vietnamese youngster travels back in time with clay miniatures

Each work is a scene caught by Dung and kept in his memories through his journeys across Vietnam

Latest news