A British media production company has recently launched an online comedy series called, Living with the Infidels. This is how the producers describe it: "The series centres around a bumbling, Bradford-based terror cell. Initially set on a path to martyrdom, Yorkshire's jihadi warriors discover the West isn't as bad as it seems. Tempted by the likes of Man U, cable TV and ample Abi upstairs, what's a man to do? Will they find Paradise in the arms of seventy-two virgins, or is Shangri-La [utopia] closer to home, propped up at the bar in The Dog and Duck?"  I'm sure many Muslims will find this kind of sting comedy quite stereotypical and even of poor taste, but self-deprecating humor has historically helped countless minorities in even more precarious situations integrate better in their societies.
The Infidels series follows a number of comedic acts by Muslims in the West in the wake of 9/11. Salam Cafe in Australia, the Axis of Evil Comedy Tour, Maz Jobrani, Allah Made Me Funny in the US, Omid Djalili (well, he's a Bahai, but all his lines are about the Middle East and Muslims) and Shazia Mirza in Britain, and apartcatoutvabien in France. When you're facing formidable negative scrutiny of your religion and/or ethnic group and it becomes quite daunting to resist, humor can be liberating, but there is a fine line to walk between the need for integration and permanent stereotyping. Jews and blacks in America have used ironic comedy and cynicism extremely well, and while humor helped them, it also permanently created disparaging associations that still shape the way the larger society perceives them. Muslim comedians have to tread carefully and learn from the experiences of a Richard Pryor, an Eddie Murphy or a Lenny Bruce. They also have to learn how to quickly evolve past the religious joke and adopt a more durable career of a social critic and perhaps even a moralist. And that requires more talent than solely cracking jokes about the burqa and a sleeper cell in a London apartment. This may be a good start for Muslim comedy, but it must lose its exclusive religious label if it wishes to endure and produce the integrative effect Muslims so badly need in Western societies.