New York Muslims Like to Have Fun

A reader and commenter from upstate New York often sends us things he’s written to others. He has a mailing list – or perhaps several, since he deals with a number of topics. For example, I don’t read his math emails; they would be wasted on me but the Baron gets them. To each his own...

However this epistle came in the other day and I enjoyed it so much I asked his permission to share with our readers. [It would've been up earlier had we not experienced our second DSL disconnect. Looks like we're going to have to resurrect our old dial-up workaround.]

To say that MS has a deadpan sense of humor is putting it mildly.

Enjoy, including the joke at the end…

Dear Western New York Muslims,

Here is something that will fit right in with your mission statement “To share with the American Public about the diverse and religious traditions and customs of Muslims so as to overcome stereotypes and prejudices within the Western New York Region and beyond.”

One stereotype to overcome is the idea that Muslims have no sense of humor. This prejudice that sees Muslims as blowhard killjoys probably stems from thirty years ago, when the Grand Mullah of Iran (known as the Ayatollah Khomeini; ever heard of him?) said “Allah did not create man so that he could have fun. The aim of creation was for mankind to be put to the test through hardship and prayer. An Islamic regime must be serious in every field. There are no jokes in Islam. There is no humor in Islam. There is no fun in Islam. There can be no fun and joy in whatever is serious.”

“No humor in Islam”, huh? Well, fun-loving Muslims are doing their best to prove this Shiite sourpuss wrong.

Just take a look at Islam-QA.com.

This is a “Dear Abby” website maintained by Muslims (probably Sunni) with a very “dry” sense of humor. Most non-Muslims who stumble upon this website, lacking the background to appreciate the subtle wit, will think it is for real, and will merely puzzle over it. But we Muslims who are in the know will appreciate its inside-joke clerical mimicry, with references that will go over the head of those who do not know the relevant hadiths...

Actually, some Islam-savvy non-Muslims really do appreciate the very subtle, dry humor of Islam-QA.com . See Irrational Islam.

Have fun exploring.

— MS

P.S. Oh, speaking of Islamic humor, here’s a riddle (from the set-up, you can probably guess what the punch-line is going to be):

“What did the Hawaiian jihadi say when he pressed the button on his suicide vest?”

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“Aloha Akhbar!”

Don’t look at that punch line too long. I learned the hard way that it’s like one of those old TV commercials - a brain-sticker which you'll find difficult to erase.