This is a silly argument, because it runs into a wall via a very simple reductio ad absurdum: it's the year 2000, and I made my career making fun of Muslims.. they wear funny things on their heads, do a weird carpet prayer, etc. Uh-oh, now it's 2002. Muslims are being persecuted again in some Southern states because of 9/11. Now, two years later, according to your very own present-day-contextualized-moral-joke-compass, you can't joke about Muslims anymore. When can I resume my comedy career joking about Muslims? 2005? 2006? Before or after Charlie Hebdo?
The Holocaust was a pretty big deal, can we joke about Jews yet? Or does comedy have a cooldown period?
Are you Muslim? When you, or your hypothetical strawman comic make fun of them, are you punching up or down?
To not mince words here, if your comedy career was wholly dependent on making fun of Muslim cultural practices that have existed for millennia before you were born, in America, a country that totally had no relationship with the Middle East or history of anti-Muslim bigotry prior to 9/11, and you further cannot possibly even conceive of continuing it with some other variety of humor, it probably shouldn't resume. Quit that particular hobby and pick up a history book.
> Are you Muslim? When you, or your hypothetical strawman comic make fun of them, are you punching up or down?
I'm not sure why this matters at all. In fact, it's just another red herring, as you provide no counter-arguments. I think that the case for free speech (my God, especially in comedy) is pretty strong, whether you're a Muslim comic making fun of Muslims or an Asian comic making fun of Muslims.
This isn't a strawman, this is the entire argument: is it okay to make fun of people? I contend that it is.
The Holocaust was a pretty big deal, can we joke about Jews yet? Or does comedy have a cooldown period?