Is this joke Racist?

After a debate in work today

I would appreciate your thoughts on this joke and whether its a racist  and how you would feel about hearing it.

I went to a muslim birthday party. It was the fastest game of pass the parcel I had ever seen !

Bad taste, but not any more racist than the Englishman, Irishman and Scottishman jokes.

I can see how some people could find it insulting and it isn't a joke I would put on a public forum where you don't know who is lurking who might be offended.  I might tell it in private in front of a few select friends who I knew would see the funny side.

Your joke is that all muslims are potential terrorists. How can that not be racist?

Actually, scrap that.  I wouldn't tell the joke to close friends as I don't find it particularly funny.

Stevie, I don't see any accusations that all muslims are terrorists.  You have made that jump in your head.

that's the implication. Otherwise what do you find bad taste about it?

You'd be on safer ground talking about Islamists than muslims.  It's still not very funny though.

Also, Islam is a religion, not a race.  On the other hand, if you're born into Islam in certain countries, it would probably be more hassle than it's worth trying to renounce it.  So that complicates things.

Anyway, on that note - I'm out.  Where's the popcorn?

I focused on the idea of a suspicious package being passed around at a birthday party (the assumption is that it is children, as they tend to play pass the parcel more than adults).  The race or religion of the participants is irrelevant.  It could equally apply to several other groups of people such as the IRA, Taliban, etc, or even to certain categories of mentally ill people.

Agree with Phil. Better to tie the joke to the extremist trend rather than stereotype all Muslims.

Like, for example, the Islamist sex doll. It blows itself up.

SuperCaz wrote (see)

I focused on the idea of a suspicious package being passed around at a birthday party

...amongst muslims.

SuperCaz wrote (see)

It could equally apply to several other groups .

...except in this case it applies to muslims.

If you change the word Muslim to IRA, then it's not racist.

If you keep the word Muslim its not racist either! Being Muslim has nothing to do with race.

But it's certainly bigoted.

If it's a joke or not is another matter

Why is it bigoted?

Because it implies that all people of a particular religion are terrorists.  How could it not be bigoted?!

Erm ... it implies that some people of a particular religion are terrorists. Or that a particular religion has a problem with terrorism. Indisputable, I'd say.

I don't like the word bigoted. It used to mean something, before the PC brigade hijacked it as an insult for instances when they don't agree or don't understand.

Muttley wrote (see)

Erm ... it implies that some people of a particular religion are terrorists.

 

Well it's a bit stronger than that though isn't it.  It's saying that amongst a group of muslims, a package is likely to contain a bomb - why else otherwise would you be so keen to pass it on?

Implication: most muslims are terrorists, or perhaps: muslims generally have a propensity to be terrorists.

Can't believe I'm still analysing this.  It's like trying to conduct a debate in the comments section on youtube.

But by far the vast majority of muslims are not terrorists.  Which at least makes it offensive to a large group of people. And why would you want to be offensive towards them?  The people who are not terrorists but happen to share the same religion as some other people who are terrorists.  It's not funny, it is offensive and it is really unhelpful in trying to foster better relationships within a divided society.  

*wanders off to peruse the comedic works of the great Roy 'Chubby' Brown and Bernard Manning*

What word do you use when a "joke" targets a particular group (like Muslims or Christians) but that group isn't really a race, so "racist" doesn't sound quite right?