Comedians Zahra Barri, and Aatif Nawaz will be performing at this year's Leicester Comedy Festival, as well as many other Islamic and Middle Eastern comics, compared to before.
Zahra Barri comically replied to the reason why there is a rise in Muslim comedians. She said, “I blame Donald Trump. If you repress a culture, that culture gets funny. You only have to look at the calibre of Jewish comics to see that.”
About British comedy, Aatif Nawaz said, “Comedy, particularly British comedy, has always been a fantastic forum for social discussion and political awareness. Stand-up gives you a unique opportunity to subvert the prevailing opinions and expose their absurdity for all to see. And Islamophobia in 2016 is certainly an absurdity.”
Regarding his show, Nawaz said, “Islam is very much in people's consciousness at the moment. Everyone seems to have an opinion and, certainly within the Muslim community, there is a dissatisfaction with the way Muslims are portrayed in the mainstream. I can't speak for other comics, but I wrote my show for a non-Muslim audience.”
