The city of Kingman is fighting back and defending its residents after it was painted in a negative light on a recent episode of "Who is America?," Sacha Baron Cohen's political mockumentary series on Showtime.
On the episode, during a staged town hall meeting, Cohen posed as a developer who informed an audience of his plans to transform a shopping center into a multi-million dollar mosque.
"This is going to be the world's largest mosque outside of the Middle East," Cohen's character claimed.
The plans shocked the assembled crowd and led to backlash.
"To me when I hear the word 'mosque' I think of terrorism," one audience member said.
“You bring in Muslims, you might have problems, we probably will have problems,” another audience member complained.
Kingman responded in a press release, saying that the city has taken steps to erase "previous perceptions," adding that they have a mosque and welcome tourists from all over the world.
The audience was compensated as a focus group who reportedly learned of the meeting through online ads. They reportedly were not told that they were part of Cohen's show.