According to Religion News Service, Nadirah Pierre represents a new generation of Muslim comedians in America who have found their voice through social media. With more than 80,000 Instagram followers, @nadirah.p is one of the largest Muslim American accounts on the internet. And the funny-lady does not shy away from potentially sensitive topics — relationships, hijabs, marriage, body positivism, the Coronavirus are all on the table.
Pierre was born to a Muslim father and a Christian mother in a Haitian American community in which Islam is very much a minority religion as roughly 1% of Haiti’s population is Muslim. “There really aren’t that many Muslims in Haiti,” says Pierre. “Maybe historically that wasn’t the case, as we know a lot of Muslims were stolen from West Africa and brought there as slaves.”
“Seeing myself as a social media influencer, as a YouTuber, embracing that identity took some getting used to,” says Pierre. While the majority of her social media followers are Muslims, Pierre is increasing her fan base to non-Muslim communities. According to RNS, “Her account sits at an interesting intersection of Muslim and Black social media worlds.” And Pierre concurs, “I specifically focus on my faith, and a lot of people were not talking about that. And there were not a lot of people doing that from the Black Muslim community — talking about these issues and how they affect them.”
