Film Celebrates American Ramadan
The documentary shows Muslims in their real world which is not the case in mainstream media or Hollywood. A Muslim-American filmmaker has directed a new and unique film about the American Muslim experience in the holy fasting month of Ramadan in order to counter the negative stereotype in the mainstream media and to meet the growing demand for positive Muslim content.
"Our goal essentially was to show American Muslims in realistic light," Naeem Randhawa, a first time filmmaker, told IslamOnline.net.
"We want to show Muslims in their real world that we don’t often get to see in mainstream media or Hollywood," he added.
"Typically when we look at Muslims represented on the big screen or on the spot screen, we see that they have always been stereotyped. There are always Arabs with long beards, terrorists and women who are fully covered with hijab and who do not speak English. It is very negative and stereotypical."
Islam had been lampooned in movies, writings and TV shows in the United States, including "JAG," "24," and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s "True Lies."
Last year Fox television network decided to remove some stereotypical aspects about American Muslims from its action drama "24" after pressures from minority leaders.
In its annual report, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said discrimination and hate crimes against Muslims in the US have surged by almost 30 percent in 2005. "I think that is fed by two main sources: The Internet, where we are seeing just a flood of hate rhetoric on the Internet, and also on talk radio. You can't turn on a talk radio station nowadays without hearing very negative, bigoted comments about Islam on a daily basis," said Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR national communications director.
In August, a USA Today/Gallup poll showed that 39 percent of Americans said they feel prejudiced toward Muslims.
Though there is no scientific count of Muslims in the US, the six to seven million is the most commonly cited figure.
Building Bridges
Half way into the film, Fatima decided to don the hijab.
Trying to build bridges between all faiths, the film shows the personal stories of five American Muslim families observing their faith in Ramadan with commentary by a Jewish rabbi, Christian doctor and a Muslim scholar.
"We want to show that Muslims are much more than that. We also want to show that Muslims are a very diverse group," said Randhawa, who was born in Pakistan and raised in Canada.
"They are Arabs, African Americans, Pakistanis and they are white, Chinese and black. They are from all over the world."
In his movie, Randhawa tried to show that American Muslims are part of the fabric of America and that they go through the same issues as their fellow Americans."American Muslims have the same hopes, fears and aspirations as any other American has," he said.
"The only difference is that they have a different approach in their faith just like the Jews and Christians have. But essentially all of these faiths and all of these American people are trying to do the same thing at the end of the day."
Asked whether the movie has any indirect political message, Randhawa, who has been living in Dallas for the last eight years of his life, said it cannot be labeled as a political film."We do have a political background there. However, we went really out of our way to make sure that the film will not be labeled as political," he added.
"In the movie we don’t talk about the government or about any establishments. We wanted this to be something like common ground for Christians, Jewish and Muslims so that when people of any faith look at they could find similarities from themselves. In this particular film, we want to focus on what we share in common."
Eye Opener
Randhawa is thinking of focusing on confusing issues that are misrepresented in the mainstream media such as hijab, Jihad or reverts.
Randhawa said that he is addressing his film to a variety of audiences.
"First, it is addressed for Muslims so that they could see themselves on screen and identify with all the characters that we have on the film," he noted.
"When you watch TV or when you watch film, you don’t identify all the time with the characters because they are not Muslims, they are typically so far removed from reality that you can’t really relate to them."
But in his film the case is different.
"So when Muslims see that, the reaction that we have gotten was that a lot of Muslims have been very enthusiastic and very happy to see things that belong to them.
The movie is also addressed to non-Muslims whom Randhawa believes need to see the right picture of Islam apart from the mainstream media.
"For non-Muslims, they get something a little bit different out of it. For them it is really an exploration of what true Muslims are, what true Muslims look like, talk like, live like and the fact that they are not these foreigners who are stereotyped in mainstream media," insists the filmmaker.
"They realize that these people are just like them. They have the same issues and they deal with the same problems. From the feedback we have gotten, the movie was like educational for them."
Randhawa said one American non-Muslim woman told him that her perception of Adhan (call to prayer) has completely changed after watching the film.
"I have one particular lady who after screening came back to me and said, 'You know the Adhan that you played in the movie was so nice. I thought the Adhan is something for terrorists when they go to war.'"
The filmmaker asserted that the lady's perception of the religion has been shaped by mainstream media "which is unfortunately for the most part has been put negatively."
"So, when they see this they come to understand that Muslims are fasting just like these Jewish and Christians are fasting. They see something like common ground between them and Muslims."
Challenges
Randhawa said he faced some difficulties while directing his documentary.
"Giving the fact that this is my first film and I haven’t made any films before, I had lot of technical challenges," he admitted."I just had a lot of learning to do. We want to make sure that we put out something that was as professional as we can make it because we want people to see this and we did not want them to look at this movie and think you know production values couldn’t be better.
"We wanted to make sure since we are talking about Ramadan, which we don’t really talk or hear about here, that we are presenting it in a very positive and professional way."
Besides the technical difficulties, Randhawa has also faced some religious problems while making his movie.
"I had a couple of unique issues that have to deal with Islamic subjects," said the director.
"Fatima, the Palestinian young lady who is married to the African American gentleman decided to wear the hijab on the half way of the movie. I was confused on whether I am allowed to show her without hijab in the first part of the movie. But after she asked a scholar, she decided to show it as a part of her journey."
The musical background was another confusing issue for Randhawa while directing his movie.For some it was absolutely forbidden to deal with music, but he said that he preferred to go with the majority of opinions that allow music.
"The decision that I made is based on my belief and on my conversations with the people that I know. You could not satisfy hundred percent of the people all the time," said Randhawa."My point in all these is that although we had lot of struggles and different issues that we had to deal with, we were committed that we want to make it a very fine quality movie."
Support Media
The filmmaker, who believes that focusing on media should be a priority for Muslims, is encouraging all Muslims, especially those who live in the West, to support Islamic media productions."Media is an essential tool for our community to be successful in America. If we are not involved in media it essentially means that we have no voice in mainstream America and if you don’t have a voice others begin speaking for you and they won’t say what you want."
Randhawa said Muslims need to support Islamic media production "which starts by reading it if it is a book or magazine, watching it if it is a movie. They should also buy these DVDs or CDs."
The world's largest Muslim body, the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), on Wednesday, September 13, encouraged Muslim tycoons to buy shares in global media outlets to help clear misconceptions about Islam and stop vilification of Muslims around the globe.
Anti-Muslim media campaigns have been on the rise around the world since the 9/11 attacks, associating Islam and Muslims with violence and terrorism.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has accused Western media of applying double standards when reporting on Muslims, saying they were often ignorant about sensitive issues for Muslims.
Stephen Schwartz, executive director of the US-based Center for Islamic Pluralism, has also criticized the western media for failing to meet the challenge of reporting on Islam after the 9/11 attacks.
Randhawa's documentary will be screened around the nation and will enter into film festivals in the US and abroad. It will be aired on PBS-Dallas, Link TV, KRA and other networks world-wide.
The film has already been awarded official Selection status by ‘Dallas South Asian Film Fest’ and ‘Dallas Video Fest’, the first two fests that it was submitted to.
Future Movies
Randhawa hopes to become a full time filmmaker.
"Basically, I go into transition from IT field into filmmaking because I feel it is a great need for the Muslim community."
After the many supportive and positive reactions he got from both Muslim and non-Muslim Americans, he decided to make another film that could be relevant to Muslims.
"Within about a year, I will have a second production that I am l already thinking about," he told IOL.
"But we are actually just at the brainstorming stage. We are just at the very early stages because we are still focusing on the first film.
"We are trying to think about other subjects that are relevant to Muslims and that would be important to non-Muslims to know, but we hadn’t completely decided yet."
In his future movies, Randhawa is thinking of focusing on confusing issues that are misrepresented in the mainstream media and that people have lot of questions about.
"Maybe issues like hijab, Jihad, or maybe about people who converted to Islam. All these issues that we see in the news and that people have lot of questions on and lot of confusion about."
