North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival to Screen THE MUSLIMS ARE COMING, 2/7

n Partnership with the UNC Center for the Study of the American South, Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations, UNC's Department of American Studies, and Muslim Life at Duke, the North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival is presenting a screening of the new comedy documentary, The Muslims Are Coming, at 7 p.m. on Friday, February 7. The screening will be at the FedEx Global Education Center Nelson Mandela Auditorium on the campus of UNC. Tickets are free. Tickets and more information can be found at www.nccomedyarts.com.

The screening of The Muslims Are Coming will be followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers. This comedy documentary follows a band of Muslim-American comedians as they visit big cities, small towns, rural villages, and everything in between to combat Islamophobia! These comedians not only perform standup at each tour stop but create ridiculous interventions in unsuspecting town squares, like the ol' classic, "Ask a Muslim Booth" and "Name That Religion."

Throughout the film, comedy icons like The Daily Show's Jon Stewart, David Cross, Janeane Garofalo, Colin Quinn, Lewis Black, Aasif Mandvi and media heavy weights like Rachel Maddow, Russell Simmons, Soledad O'Brien, Ali Velshi and Congressman Keith Ellison comment on the power of comedy and the political scope of bigotry. The film is truly about freedom of religion in America for people all faiths. The film won the Audience Award at the 2012 Austin Film Festival.

The film is co-directed/co-produced by Negin Farsad and Dean Obeidallah. Farsad, also a comic, will be in town for the Q&A. She will be joined by Abdullah Antepli, the Muslim chaplain at Duke University, and Michael Muhammad Knight, a PhD student in Religious Studies at UNC, a celebrated author and something of a founder of the Muslim Punk Movement.

"Laughing together creates a bond, one that can supersede barriers of gender, race, religion. The filmmakers and comics of The Muslims Are Coming! use that truism to attack serious societal prejudices. I'm so excited for this opportunity to connect with community partners and promote diversity," said Associate Producer Ashley Melzer. "Education has been the mission of NC Comedy Arts since its beginnings in 2001 and it's heartening to extend the conversation in such a meaningful way."

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