Preacher Moss Rocks for Farrah Khan
By Saboohi Ahmed
On Sunday June 5, 2016, Farrah Khan, candidate for Irvine City Council, got major fire power to support her candidacy- Preacher Moss came to town!
The comedian who is known as the founder of “Allah Made Me Funny”- The Official Muslim Comedy Tour - and the “poor righteous teacher” from his days as a young performer coming up in the industry came to Irvine to show his support for Farrah Khan’s candidacy.
A writer for Hollywood heavyweights like Damon Wayans, George Lopez, and Darrell Hammond on Saturday Night Live, Preacher Moss makes for some great entertainment. Farrah Khan met Preacher at a CAIR event a few years ago and he was so struck by Farrah’s dedication to the interfaith cause (Farrah is the Executive Director of the Newport Mesa Irvine Interfaith Center) that when he heard that she was running for Irvine City Council he offered to support her candidacy.
The result was an awesome afternoon spent in the beautiful backyard of Rima Nashashibi, veteran political consultant, President of the Newport Beach Women’s Democratic Club and former Vice Chair of the Orange County Democratic Club. Karen Hinks, Founder/Director of the WE/Lead OC, another prominent personality in the Orange County Democratic circles, came to lend her support to Farrah’s campaign.
Preacher Moss started his comedy monologue with a joke that really resonated with the audience. “We are about to begin the Holy month of Ramadan,” he told the audience (Preacher is an African-American from the Washington DC area and he converted to Islam while at Marquette University). I thought that I should not use any bad or curse words during this month. So I decided to replace all bad words with the word Trump. Every time I get mad at someone I yell “what the Trump are you doing?”
Preacher also told the audience about his hilarious meeting with the boxer Muhammad Ali in 1997. As he tells it, he met Ali at a trade show in Ventura where Ali was the guest speaker. Preacher was so overwhelmed to meet him that he began to praise Ali lavishly. Ali stopped him and said, “Do you have a dollar?” Preacher was surprised by this request, but handed the great boxer a one dollar bill. In the blink of an eye the note vanished. Ali then pulled at Preacher’s ear and produced a quarter. “This is your dollar bill after taxes,” he said and walked away!
The comedy routine touched on all the different issues facing Americans today, including racism, Islamophobia, and the role of social media in spreading intolerance. Preacher is married to an Indian Muslim lady, Yasmin, and he encouraged Americans of all shades to be tolerant of the idiosyncrasies of other peoples.
Farrah took the opportunity to also describe her campaign as one with a positive attitude, and bringing people in Irvine together rather than pushing them apart. Here’s wishing both Farrah and Preacher much success in their endeavors.
