Laughing in the face of terror.

• Author: Kozlowski, Carl
• Position: Chicago Sun - Times reporter Ray Hanania

"In my hometown, Muslims here wanted to build a mosque but the entire community rose up to say you're going to bring terrorism," says comic and former Chicago Sun-Times reporter Ray Hanania. "I talked to one of the opponents and asked him what's the problem and he put it real succinctly: What do we need a mosque for when we've got three 7-11s?"

Ray Hanania believes he is using journalism and comedy to advance what he calls "a moderate Arab voice," one that affirms nonviolence and peace. It's a mission he has sought to fulfill his entire life. "There's room for good leaders in the Arab community, but the section for lousy leaders is filled up," he says.

This Palestinian American was a reporter before becoming a PR wizard. Now he's a standup comic who has found a unique way to educate people about the Middle East crisis: by hitting stages nationwide to crack jokes about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"If we can laugh together, we can live together," Hanania says on his website. "Humor breaks the barriers of hate."

Hanania's comedy career began a few weeks after September 11. He was attending a luncheon at Chicago's Columbia College when a student approached him, Hanania recalls, and "asked me why I killed all those people in New York." Rather than hanging his head in shame or reacting in anger, Hanania stunned the student by responding with humor and gained the upper hand.

"I don't know about September 11," he said. "All I know is before I could come into this building, I got strip-searched five times, and they even strip-searched me before I sat down at my lunch table."

More students listened in, laughed, and told him he should try performing in comedy clubs. After just three open-mic appearances, Hanania short-circuited a process that usually takes years of grueling rejection and asked for an audition at the city's primary club, Zanies. The results surprised audiences so much that he quickly performed more than thirty shows at the hallowed venue.

"The early jokes were talking about my marriage to my Jewish wife," he says. "The one they really liked was, 'You should have been at our wedding. We had 900 people. We only sent out twenty-four invitations. We had all the Arabs on one side, all the Jews on the other side. We didn't have a bridal party--we had a U.N. peacekeeping force right down the middle. And they were flicking pita and matzo bread at each other the whole time. We had thirty-eight casualties. They took one Jew and...