The Clarion Project has an
article about the satirical
website Mufti News:
MuftiNews.com is a satirical website which lampoons the Muslim world. It is run by satirists from Muslim majority backgrounds around the world who enjoy a good laugh and has enjoyed explosive growth on social media this year.
Two of the writers graciously agreed to speak with Clarion Project Dialogue Coordinator Elliot Friedland about their work.
For security reasons, they declined to be named, and will be refered to only as R and M.
Clarion Project: How did you start Mufti News?
R: Mufti News was started by one or two friends, who added people they knew on social media, people who they liked the tone, and formed a group of writers. We have a main group of writers/editors, and then a group of contributors who give ideas. We all have our own heterodox ideas about religion, but we're from Muslim backgrounds with greater and lesser degrees of faith.
We are from all over, some from the West and some from Muslim countries. Obviously the fact that we can't be up front about who we are is a big part of the problem. We haven't had any serious death threats yet. We do get rape threats though. We have gotten more rape threats from radical Hindus than Muslims.
M: I actually joined Mufti News after getting kicked off a Facebook group for making a joke about Naziphobia. An admin misread it and thought that I was a Nazi, and some in that group didn't like the joke (even after getting that it was a joke). One of the creators of Mufti News saw it and liked it, and asked me to become a writer for his new page. Back then, it was just him and two others. At first I declined the offer, as I am a guy who doesn't like having responsibilities. So I told him I that I'll be a guest writer who will send articles to him from time to time. We later turned the Naziphobia joke into an article. At the moment it is all on a volunteer basis, though we are looking at ways to generate revenue. We're a couple of writers with a sense of humor, knowledge of Islam, and the desire to make change.
Clarion: What inspired you to become satirists?
M: There's no particular thing that inspired me. I have always been a sarcastic asshole. It runs in the family I guess. It's one way to deal with a shitty life. As for the ideas used for some of the jokes, I think the biggest inspiration was South Park. I love their brand of humour that is extreme yet has embedded messages.
R: I love the Onion and Clickhole. Always have. I think they're very effective putting stupid ideas on notice. And telling them "we see you, stupid idea. We see you, and your time has come. And we're going to make fun of you till you go away."
Satire doesn't grow in a vacuum. It happens when a debate gets really stupid and one or both sides stop hearing each other. When it gets so absurd, grows organically in that space. Nothing "inspired" me to write satire.
M: I have two plans for the satire: Some are just dumb fun, with some social commentary, not just about Muslims, but against Social Justice Warriors (left wing extremists), and others, too. Then there is my other plan: educational satire aimed at Muslims. I write articles containing the most messed up ayats and hadith (with links to genuine unbiased hadith/Quran sites), to show the ignorant moderates how messed up their religion really is. But I want to catch them off guard. Hence why we sometimes post memes and jokes that Muslims will like.
Clarion: Where are you having the most success?
R: In the beginning it was kind of a small but loyal following who would post the articles in different spots on social media. The best part was when they would post comments and chats with readers. And Mufti would interact with the readers in a very deadpan way. Mufti was and is an equal opportunity offender. He is very "serious", so a lot of people can't tell he's joking, and he will get both Muslims who agree with his crazy things, and also atheists that yell at him for saying such offensive things.
M: But most of the audience knows Mufti is joking and enjoys the back and forth. And people eventually catch on.
Now we have a big following in Pakistan, in Malaysia, in Egypt, as well as in the US and the UK and several other countries I don't want to mention.
Clarion: How you see the place of satire in the Muslim world right now?
R: So, as the US-based guy, I'm kind of PC and I'm kind of the conscience of the group. I'm the one who's most often saying: "guys, are we not crossing the line a bit here?" But it's the guys in the Muslim countries in our group that will say: "bro, give us some credit. We are not all zombies out here. We can take a joke." And that has proven to be true.
M: We do feel that there is a tremendous groundswell of demand for this kind of content in Muslim countries because, understandably, it does not exist. Some people get offended and leave. But a lot are thrilled at being trolled like that and happy that someone has a sense of humor about Islam in that way. There are still many confused followers who still don't know what we are about. I love them. I think the importance of humor cannot be overstated. It disarms people. It exposes things that maybe need to be rethought. In the Muslim world, I really think there is so much bottled up, because the stuff we joke about is not to be joked about. I don't know if satire in particular is going to take off, and we would be quite happy to remain the premier site on that topic, but there is definitely a renaissance in creativity it seems exploring Islam from many angles.
R: Even the conservatives are turning to music, poetry, and comedy to get their message out. While I don't agree with their message, I still think it positive they're communicating in that way.
M: Meanwhile on the liberal side, it's really seemed like a groundswell of people who are writing poetry, comedy, music, short stories and personal accounts, of their questions and skepticism of "orthodox" Islam.
Our satire is just one kind of creativity in that vein.
Clarion: Do you see your role as political?
M: Not me, though I can't speak for the others. I just want people like me to laugh, and Muslims to think.
R: I think it's just people living...
Rico says these guys are playing with fire... (And good luck to them.)
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