On November lst, I attended a talk held by comedian Maysoon Zayid at the University of Colorado Boulder. Maysoon is extremely decorated as a comedian, has had starring roles in comedic movies, been featured on Comedy Central as well as five other major television networks, and is currently working on a web series and screenwriting. Although I was not familiar with Maysoon previous to the talk, she quickly informed the audience about her Palestinian background, Muslim upbringing, and struggle with cerebral palsy. While most of her talk revolved around her struggle with cerebral palsy and her career path as a disabled woman of minority, she brought up some points about modern-day religion that we have not had the chance to study in class, but are relevant as we continue to live in a religious society and study modern religion in the news, especially the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Hawaiian Thirty Foot Telescope cases One topic of religion that she touches heavily on was her upbringing as a Muslim in America.
Her parents were born and met in Palestine- in fact, they are first cousins. This was shocking to me, but she seemed very nonchalant about it, and explained that this was very typical culture for Palestinians and Palestinian muslims. Growing up on the “Jersey shore”, Zayid claims that she faced no oppression or scrutiny from her peers or classmates, and is still very good friends with her childhood companions. However, her family was the only Muslim family in the town. She remembers her friend humorously saying, “Maysoon is from where Jesus came from”. Maysoon makes a point in emphasizing how trivial her Muslim heritage was as a role in her social life because once she was an adult and gained popularity, she started noticing a exponentially growing Islamophobia within the United States.
She toured the Arab world doing stand up comedy and was in fact the first stand up comedian ever to tour the Arab world and loved the experience. She said people supported her heritage, gender, and cerebral palsy. She performed with her hair uncovered, and never faced any criticism or opposition. She freely expressed her opinions and talents and was praised for it, and is even currently filming her new web series throughout the Arab world, But when she got on social media and returned to America, she would frequently be heckled by people at her shows or threatened (sometimes to the extremity of death threats) on Twitter and Facebook The relevance of this juxtaposition is extreme, especially with Islamophobia rising at alarming ratesi. There is an American stigma about minority religions, or any other religion other than Christianity. If we look at cases such as the Hawaiian Thirty Foot Telescope and the Dakota Access Pipeline, we see examples of this.
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Tribal religions are not respected by the general public, media, or federal or state governments. Similarly, Muslims face a huge amount of oppression on a daily basis, especially after the acts of some fringe extremist groups such as Al Qaeda and Isisi Zayid said in her speech that she will not tolerate to be associated with these groups “I am not responsible for a fringe minority”, she proclaimed in anguish when thinking about this widespread injustices i found it interesting that during her childhood she experienced little to none of this religious-based threat and oppression, and only after the rise of social media did this emerge She brought up that it may just be easier to hide behind a screen and use hateful language, but this use of technology is perpetuating this stigma about Muslims and the ability to communicate harshly is maximizing safety for the verbal attacker and harm for the target.
As evidenced by the Dakota Access Pipeline case, technology can also be used to destigmatize religious practices Zayid’s unintentional emphasis of this small factor inspired me to think about the consequence of technology when applied to such an ancient tradition as religion. Her message is one that resonates with me and that I hope to keep in mind in my studies of religion and throughout life. Zayid stressed, “Equality for all, not for some”. Religious intolerance plagues the US, and other nations, unfairly oppressing those who just wish to express their religious beliefs. Perhaps people are misinformed about a religion or are bombarded by stereotypes of a certain religion, but this is not something that I or Zayid feels should be a social norm or disregarded as trivial, Maysoon Zayid delivered a powerful, funny, heartwarming, and socially effective speech and I‘m so glad that I had to opportunity to attend it.
During her closing Q St A session, Zayid was questioned about her religion and how being Muslim has affected her career. She voiced considerable distress about the hate that she had gotten recently, especially with the upcoming election and tensions constantly on the rise. She encouraged students and voters to be educated about other religions before passing judgement. Personally, speaking as someone who is Christian and has been raised in a tight Christian community, I am often shocked at how undereducated my fellow. Christian peers are, and how much they lack the drive to be educated about other religions, Studying these other religions is vital to understanding religion as an American citizen, and accepting other cultures and religions even if they differ from our own personal beliefs. However, Maysoon said it best; “As an American citizen I have a right to my faith, and if you don’t like it, you leave, not me”.
