Comments on: Classic Humor — Step Two

By: Daniel

Daniel — Fri, 02 May 2008 06:21:22 +0000

I couldn’t understand some parts of this article ic Humor — Step Two at Yaser M. Haddara, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.

By: Ayman Khafagi

Ayman Khafagi — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 02:05:51 +0000

Thanks Suleiman for recovering Noha’s comment. It is a great addition to the discussion. I would like to agree with Noha that there is zero percent chance that Ryanne would wear a wig or that Fatima would wear that apron (it was so funny though, lol). However, I think that all Canadians (assuming that canadians are as smart as everybody else :) ) thought the same thing. What are the odds that a conservative christian Canadian would wear a wig and dance in her chapel to push away a convert. What are the odds of a very conservative old lady from the priarie wearing that apron that Fatima wore. It is zero percent chance as well :) This scene was meant to be rediculous and everyone would, I guess, feel that way.
Again I feel that we as muslims are not in touch with main stream culture and therefore many of the hints and gestures are taken too innocently. In a previous blog entry Yaser assumed that Ryanne was offended that Ammar was checking her out when she was actually offended he claimed that he wasn’t distracted. Again Noha, assumed that Ryanne, because conservative, didn’t like her parents’ PDA when she said “get a room” or “disgusting”. In my opinion, she was just making the same comments any Canadian who is not a muslim would make sarcastically in the same situation. Am I the only one seeing it this way? :)

By: Munir

Munir — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 07:03:29 +0000

Salam ya sidi,

inta imta 7atigi hina li rooh ‘albak, Bay Area?

seebak min Canada wi bardaha, ta3ala hina li shams al-huriya.

tahya masr ;-)

munir

By: Suleiman

Suleiman — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 22:31:20 +0000

Salaam Noha,

I will work to recover your lost comment insh’Allah :)

By: Noha

Noha — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 13:58:11 +0000

Woohoo!!!! JAK Dr. Yaser. Very cool. At one point, I hope to post my own two-cents (or likely two-billion dollars, considering how long-winded I tend to be) on LM in a post on my own blog… Until then, I await more of your input :D

By: yaser

yaser — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 00:21:48 +0000

Noha

I just realized now that your comment, as you mention, is not there any more. for what it’s worth i read it just before the site went down (and then i had to go out of town so not sure when the site came back up). i will inshaa Allah get back to posting things here later tonight and i will add you to the blogroll here. More on LM later inshaa Allah.

By: Noha

Noha — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 23:18:03 +0000

Sadly, I left this massive comment on this post a couple of hours before the site went for maintenance and then when the site was back, my comment was gone! Either I said something offensive that needed to be “moderated”, or the server ate it :(
The gist of my comment was that I have mixed feelings about LM, but that I believe the benefits FAR outway the negatives here. Same as Hadeel said, I think we’re much more approachable when we seem to have a sense of humour… JAK for the great insight Dr. Yaser, and I can’t wait to read post #3 on this topic (p.s. I’ve put you in my blogroll; hope that’s okay)

By: Samir

Samir — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 12:20:48 +0000

Assalamualaikum

For Abdul:

http://www.ghazali.org/site/ihya.htm

The whole english translation is there.

By: Hadeel

Hadeel — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 22:38:16 +0000

“Back then we were mostly graduate students and all male. Many of us were overweight, most were either foreign students or had lived overseas long enough to have thick accents, and almost all had healthy beards ”

Basically you were a bunch of FOBs is that what you’re really saying?

Muslims need to lighten up. For me, humour the best method for dawa; non-Muslims find it much easier to approach me with their wierd (do you wear that thing in the shower?) when they realize I can be funny and laid back about being Muslim. A little cheekiness never killed anyone…. right?

By: Noha

Noha — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 16:26:44 +0000

Salaams Dr. Yaser,
I stumbled upon your blog from Hadeel’s blogroll (I’m there too) and enjoyed reading the Little Mosque and the Humour commentary…
I am somewhat struggling in my opinion of Little Mosque with regards to the “racy” humour… (I’m thinking of writing a post on this, but haven’t gotten around to it yet…) basically, it’s not so much the “appropriateness” of it that’s bugging me, for so many reasons, including the fact that I realize that the primary audience for the show is actually the majority of Canadian society and not just the muslim population…. and reading Zarqa Nawaz’s Q and A was helpful as well…. but…
Well, let me start off by saying that I unequivocally think the show is a good thing. I think it’s important, I think it’s necessary, and I think that the goal I feel it sets out to achieve (portraying muslims as human beings, regular people, etc.) is much greater than any harm it does along the way. Not to mention, it really is healthy to laugh at ourselves.
I guess my issue is really more to do with the fact that if the goal is to portray Muslims accurately and show that there are so many variations, then it’s not necessarily being done very well… Take the “convert” episode. I can believe that the businessman and his wife (can’t remember either of their names) would do the whole “party” and “vice” thing to try to scare away the very annoying marlon, and I can believe that Rayanne’s character would rebuff when he tells her she’d make an obedient wife, but really, what are the chances that Rayanne’s character, who wears full hijab and has shown her distaste for her parents’ pda in the past, would put on a blonde wig and dance in front of non-mahrams to scare the guy away? What are the chances that Fatima’s character would wear the apron she wore and make the joke she made? I don’t think either of those was at all true to character, and it bothers me because if we’re trying to portray the diaspora of REALISTIC muslims, then Rayanne’s character, who is supposed to represent the young, practicing, but “with the times” muslimah, is now doing something out of character, and Fatima, who is supposed to represent the “conservative, from another country” muslimah, is WAAAAAAY out of character… and non-Muslims are getting their cues from this show as to what our norms are and what is beyond what we consider “acceptable”…
Whew! Okay, that was quite the rant… I should get going, but I’ll wait patiently for your next commentary on LM and humour in Islam…
Take care (and I’ll be adding you to my blogroll if you don’t mind. And I’d love to be added here if you don’t mind as well)…
wassalaam,
Noha