The Muslims Are Coming!

Muslim comedians whose performances are featured in the film include Dean Obeidallah, Negin Farsad, Maysoon Zayid, Aron Kader, Omar Elba, Preacher Moss, Kareem Omary. Non-Muslim comedians featured include Scott Blakeman and Janeane Garofalo.

The following celebrities, pundits, activists, and religious figures are featured in the film discussing anti-Muslim bigotry in America and/or commenting on the power of comedy:

Entertainment Weekly and the Chicago Tribune named it as a film to catch in fall 2013.[3]

The Austin Chronicle made it a critic's pick, calling the film: "...really effing funny."[4]

The Muslims Are Coming! received a mixed reception from film critics. Review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes reports the film as holding an overall 53% positive approval rating based on 15 reviews, and a rating average of 5.2 out of 10.[5] At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 0–100 reviews from film critics, the film has a rating score of 48 based on 9 reviews, classified as a "Mixed or average" reviewed film.[6]

Frank Scheck, in The Hollywood Reporter, wrote that "[a]lthough not wholly successful in its sociological aspirations, the film does provide both considerable laughs and food for thought. [...] The film wanders at times into trivial territory [...] And it delves into all-too-familiar terrain[...] But it nonetheless makes its important points in entertaining fashion, and the onscreen commentary by a gallery of figures [...] is both thoughtful and funny."[7] Nick A. Zaino III of The Boston Globe felt that the film was "at its best when the comedians talk to real people outside the controlled environment of a stage."[8]

Jordan Hoffman in the New York Daily News called it a "mild, moderately interesting road documentary", and stated that "[t]he unfortunate thing is ... these folks aren’t all that funny. [...] Viewers outside the tristate area may have their minds blown. The rest of us may be only mildly amused."[9] Ben Sachs, writing in the Chicago Reader, observed that "evidently, mediocre stand-up can be surprisingly effective in promoting ethnic and religious tolerance. For better and for worse, this feels less like a feature film than a stretched-out Daily Show segment."[10]

Peter Rainer of The Christian Science Monitor gave the film a C− grade saying "[t]he comedy routines are so-so (though the falling-in-the-aisles reaction shots tell another story) and the comics’ patchwork odyssey often derails into irrelevancies".[11] Writing for The New York Times, Miriam Bale gave the film two and a half stars out of five, and said that "this well-intentioned 'docu-comedy' (as the filmmakers label it in publicity notes) is not very funny."[12]

Dean Essner of Slant Magazine gave the film gave the film one and a half stars out of four, calling it "a film that wastes a fascinating premise on its main characters' obsession with reducing everything to a joke, the attempted humor is neither ground- nor barrier-breaking.[13]

Annlee Ellingson of the Los Angeles Times commented that the directors' "try to keep it light, even a little cheesy, in the face of at-times infuriating anti-Muslim attitudes — an approach that best serves their goal of giving America 'this big Muslim hug.'"[14]