Actor Aasif Mandvi.  Photo credit: Adam Cantor.

When actor Aasif Mandvi phoned his parents to tell them about he had been hired to be the satire’s “Senior Muslim Correspondent” on The Daily Show, they were skeptical.

“They were like ‘why would Jon Stewart hire you to be his Senior Muslim Correspondent?’” Mandvi tells Steve Fast. “I said, ‘Dad, it’s a comedy show.’ He was like, ‘I HOPE it’s a comedy show!’”

Needless to say, the comedic actor was less devout about his religion than his parents.

“Culturally I am Muslim,” Mandvi explains. “But I am not praying, I’m not going to the mosque. For me to be identified with Islam in any way was kind of bananas.”

It turned out that the acting opportunity gave Mandvi a chance to give voice to a part of his experience, and the experience of others, that he felt was overlooked.

“Because of the nature of The Daily Show I was able to somehow speak about something that very few people were talking about,” Mandvi says. “It was a really underrepresented voice in the culture.  And that is the voice of the American Muslim.”

Aasif Mandvi has written about his experience on the edges of American culture and his family’s tradition in his book of essays, “No Land’s Man.”

Listen to the interview: Aasif Mandvi on The Steve Fast Show

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