Below is a message from comedian and actor Aasif Mandvi announcing upcoming changes to his web series "The Qu'osby Show," of which TAKE ON HATE is a supporter. 

Last week I asked you to join me and my partners in an effort to combat anti-Muslim bias through comedy. With your generous support, we’ve raised over $8,000 of the $20,000 we need to finish post-production on a sitcom parody web series about an all-American Muslim family, the Qu’osbys, that I have been developing over the past year.

At the same time, public scrutiny of Bill Cosby -- whose 80s sitcom, The Cosby Show, we parody -- was escalating. Each day has brought new accusations of sexual assault and rape.

The purpose of this project, to foster better understanding of American Muslims, is too important to me to take the risk of distracting from our core intention or alienating supporters. We want this web series to be a project everyone will feel excited to get behind. People shouldn’t have to chose between their desire to express outrage at anti-Muslim bias AND Cosby’s history of violence. 

Therefore, we are temporarily suspending our Indiegogo campaign until January 2015 to make a few small but critical changes to the series. All perks will be honored and we will complete the campaign and launch the series; just a little later than we had originally planned.

It is worth noting that the decision to call our web series The Qu’osby Show did not reflect any interest in honoring Bill Cosby personally or in downplaying the seriousness of the multiple allegations made against him. It was based on the unique role played by The Cosby Show itself, which represented a significant step forward in its portrayal of a complex, lovable, high achieving if flawed African American family. Each week it served as a powerful counterpoint to an often race-baiting media, obsessed with images of African American criminality.

That is why it was such a powerful model for an American Muslim sitcom, which we believe will be a valuable counterpoint to the contemporary media’s obsession with fostering mistrust and misinformation by perpetuating images of Muslim violence.

I am committed to using my platform to insert a more accurate and nuanced portrayal of American Muslims into the media. Before we launch our web series, we will make any changes we believe are necessary to ensure the primacy of our message about anti-Muslim bias in American today.

Thank you again for your early and generous support. Please feel free to send any questions or thoughts to [email protected].

All the best,
Aasif