Dean Obeidallah and Negin Farsad successfully challenged a ban by New York City’s MTA sought to prevent them from promoting their satirical movie, The Muslims Are Coming!, with posters within the city’s subway system.
“Negin Farsad and I won our lawsuit versus NYC’s MTA today regarding our funny, positive posters about Muslims,” Obeidallah told friends Wednesday. “The MTA had claimed that being Muslim was inherently “political” and since they had banned political ads, the MTA refused to post our ads. The Judge rejected their argument and found for us. So barring an appeal, the MTA is now required to post our posters in 140 subway stops in NYC.”
U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon in Manhattan granted a preliminary injunction Wednesday that required the MTA to display the comedians’ movie posters for 28 days.
Posters include taglines such as: “The Ugly Truth About Muslims: Muslims have great frittata recipes” and “Those Terrorists Are All Muslims Nutjobs”
The MTA ban that had begun in April extended toward political advertising, but McMahon noted “the evidence before the court plainly indicates that (the comedians)’ silly advertisements were subject to greater scrutiny than other potentially controversial ads.”
“The judge’s ruling is more than a victory for us, it also ensures that New York City’s straphangers will get a chance to see funny and often silly posters about Muslims,” Obeidallah told the New York Daily News. “What better way to spend your time while crammed on a subway platform?”
The movie followed Muslim-American comedians on the road as they performed in various cities, towns and venues “to combat Islamophobia!” It includes on-camera quotes and appearances from Jon Stewart, David Cross, Janeane Garofalo, Colin Quinn, Lewis Black, Aasif Mandvi and several media personalities.
Here is the trailer for The Muslims Are Coming! from 2012 for your #TBT viewing pleasure: