---

Comedic greats Jon Stewart, Janeane Garofalo, and Colin Quinn join media well-knowns Rachel Maddow, Russell Simmons, and Soledad O’Brien in The Muslims Are Coming, a comedic documentary being screened 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Trinity Episcopal Church, located at 503 Asbury Ave.

A part of The Racial Justice Project’s Dialogue Series, the free screening features guest moderator Tarek Sharaf of the Islamic Society of Monmouth County, who will lead a post screening discussion.

Founded during the fall of 2015, The Racial Justice Project founding members include Liza Minno Bloom, Derek Minno Bloom, Mary Jane Dodd, Chris Rapaglia,  Maureen Shaffer, Adrienne Wert, and Deacon Gail Bennett.

“The RJP mission is to educate the community about the difference between racism and racial prejudice,” Derek Minno Bloom said. “Racial prejudice is when anyone judges someone because of their race or skin color, but racism is racial prejudice plus the systemic power to enforce that racial prejudice through ex slavery, Jim Crow, and now the prison system, housing, etc.”

Previously screened films included Rev. Gil Caldwell and Marilyn Bennett’s documentary, from Selma to Stonewall, Ava DuVernay’s 13th, and Raoul Peck’s I am Not Your Negro.

“A lot of folks believe racism to be in the past,” Minno Bloom said. “The film series is about finding ways to talk about the different types of racial prejudices and racism that still existed in the United States today.”

The Muslims Are Coming was co directed, produced and stars Negin Farsad and Dean Obeidallah, who use comedy to help change the negative perception of Muslims in America. It took home the Audience Award at the 2012 Austin Film Festival.

The film follows a band of Muslim-American comedians as they tour the nation, stopping in big cities, small towns, and rural villages.  They not only perform stand up but create slapstick interventions in unsuspecting town squares, like an “Ask a Muslim Booth” and “Name That Religion.”

It opens with an Islamophobia montage from television and radio clips by everyone from Herman Cain, Ann Coulter, and Pat Robertson to Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly, Bill Maher, and Donald Trump, before he became the nation’s president.

Others featured include David Cross, Lewis Black, Assif Mandvi, Aron Kader, Maysoon Zayid, Kareem Omary, Omar Elba, Preacher Moss, Ali Velshi and Congressman Keith Ellison.

For more information and to register, click here.

—————————————————————————————————–

Follow the Asbury Park Sun on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The Asbury Park Sun is affiliated with the triCityNews newspaper.

---