MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry characterized the beheading of a woman in an Oklahoma food plant last week as “workplace violence” and tossed aside the possibility that Alton Nolen’s conversion to Islam was a factor when he allegedly carried out the murder.
“It is a story that I read as a workplace violence story,” Harris-Perry said during her Saturday morning show, adding that Nolen’s Muslim faith is no more importance in this case than what she ate for “breakfast that morning.”
Image source: MSNBC via MRC-TV
Image source: MSNBC via MRC-TV
Helping out the host during the segment were two Muslim comedians, Dean Obeidallah and Negin Farsad, both of whom agreed with Harris-Perry and added their own retorts to critics of Islam.
Obeidallah hammered the “right-wing media” whom he said is “continuing the narrative” that Islam is to blame.
Image source: MSNBC via MRC-TV
Image source: MSNBC via MRC-TV
Farsad encouraged Muslims to help change their perceived image in America by adopting humor. “We’ve gone on and on and on creating this language between Muslims and violence and we need to have a counter-narrative,” Farsad said. “And we don’t.”
Image source: MSNBC via MRC-TV
Image source: MSNBC via MRC-TV
Then she pushed for her fellow believers to get an image makeover: “Muslims are funny,” Farsad declared. “That’s the new stereotype. Pass it around. Muslims are hilarious.”
(H/T: Newsbusters)