PBS's POV: New Muslim Cool

[Liquesce]

Just wanted to let you all know that POV's new season will premier on Tuesday the 23rd with the documentary "New Muslim Cool," largely about a slice of life out of the indigenous American Muslim community.

Since there's really a dearth of readily accessed media outlets that depict the non-Arab/non-Asian American Islamic community and/or non-sensationalist storylines about Muslims and Muslim communities, from what I've heard and seen it sounds to be something worth checking out.

The filmmaker herself said, "I think the main thing I came away with – I'm not sure if it's much of a surprise – was that a lot of the labels that we use so much in media, where we say 'moderate' or 'fundamentalist' or 'conservative,' etc. – I felt that those labels became more and more meaningless." If that realization is well depicted in her work I'd personally go so far as to call it groundbreaking. (And obviously I'm pretty psyched for the possibility. )

POV's site:http://www.pbs.org/pov/
The film's site and trailer: http://www.newmuslimcool.com/
Interview with the filmmaker: http://www.altmuslim.com/a/a/a/there_are_so_many_things_that_surprised_me

[Liquesce]

"'New Muslim Cool' possesses a kind of beauty that sneaks up on you ... the film is an opportunity to access a closer view of human decency."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/23/ar...er=rss&emc=rss

[BookGoddess]

I watched it last night. It was worth staying up to see how rapper Hamza Pérez pulled himself out of drug dealing and street life 12 years ago to become an imam. It's a shame he wasn't allowed to continue his lessons to the convicts. It looked like he was connecting with them using language they understood in getting the message across.

[Liquesce]

Oh ... it was kind of mentioned in passing at the end that he did get his security clearance back.

[BookGoddess]

That's good to hear. I must have missed that part. I saw him go to the ACLU and I saw the interview with the prison chaplin who was clearly sad to see him leave the program. I assumed he didn't get the clearance back. Does that mean he's doing work in the prison again?

[Liquesce]

Originally Posted by BookGoddess

That's good to hear. I must have missed that part. I saw him go to the ACLU and I saw the interview with the prison chaplin who was clearly sad to see him leave the program. I assumed he didn't get the clearance back. Does that mean he's doing work in the prison again?

Just at the end the woman who oversees the prison chaplaincy program mentioned him getting it back; it would take all of about two seconds to miss it. And yeah, he does have his full position back, along with working with the SHEHU Program, which is a curriculum developed for targeting at-risk urban youth ... basically just a more organized version of the street work they showed in the film. Good stuff.