New York Premiere of “Inside Islam, What a Billion Muslims Really Think “(screening reveals so much more….)

We must not let these propaganda films go unchallenged. We Must NOT be SILENT!

Unity Productions, the co-producer of this documentary, at first look seemed to be the typical ‘progressive’, building-bridges liberals promoting Islam. However, after the screening, with a bit of research there were a few surprises. The New York screening on November 10, 2009, was at the Scholastic Auditorium ( described on-line as “combining corporate design and (and corporate sponsors) style with a touch of schoolhouse whimsy…”

So now we have the venue, but the title, “Inside Islam:What a billion Muslims Really Think”, was really all we needed to lure us downtown, to the wrong address thanks to the ticket agency, but in the company of other lost-patrons we managed to find our way to the screening . Thought this was going to be a quick evening, in and out, just another documentary promoting Islam (that misunderstood Religion of Peace).

The synopsis: Inside Islam: What a Billion Muslims Really Think, a new documentary film from Unity Productions Foundation, explores the expertly gathered opinions of Muslims around the globe as revealed in the world’s first major opinion poll, conducted by Gallup, the preeminent polling organization.

Some thoughts we had regarding the film as well as statements made at the talkback :

The Gallup poll said no one they interviewed used the Quran as a reason for 9-11.

Terrorists hate us for our Freedom. Frustrated because they have no power only fear. Hate us because we meddle. They just want a Democracy. Unrelated to religion. Dislike that we treat them like children (referring to Iraq) When 9-11 happened Bloomberg’s Commissioner, Fatima Shama, and the female narrator in the film, Dalia Mogahed said they were so fearful the perpetrators might be Muslim.

Dahlia, also happens to promote Sharia (…says it’s misunderstood)

John Esposito had a lot of face time as well (director of Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal center for Muslim-Christian understanding at Georgetown University.)

Fatima Shama was so thankful for Bloomberg’s administration and the diversity; the tolerance; his good example. Shama also quoted Obama (who had been at Ft. Hood that day) “No faith justifies these murderous and craven acts; no just and loving God looks upon them with favor” . This of course brought self-congratulatory applause from the audience (which was white, Jewish, western-dressed Muslims, a few hijabs and blacks.) It seemed at a glance like more of the black women were in hijab compared to the others.

Vets and PTS were mentioned…of course….related to Ft. Hood. Stress of war…

LOTS of children through out the film. Always in prayer groups (a circle) reading happily the Quran

KKK, IRA, McVeigh…always get mentioned as examples of all religions and countries have terrorists

M.E.C.C.A. is an outreach organization in midtown Manhattan for Christian to Muslim converts (oh, my)

Change the Story, Intersections, something called 20,000 dialogues were all about talktalktalking. We can make peace happen if we would just talk. Talking means we would learn there is no reason to fear Muslims or Islam.

The review of the screening in Chicago was actually critical

BTW, the talk-back had implied they would be taking questions from the audience. That was so NOT on their agenda. An hour of tedious patting on the back from the producer and the director, Rob Gardner (Cities of Light: The Rise and Fall of Islamic Spain, Egypt: Quest for Immortality) on making this important film and then after about 15 minutes of let’s pretend that we’re finally taking questions (NOPE) back to long-winded speeches from the panelists. After about 80 minutes of this, we’d heard enough.

Here’s some info on the panelists:

Keynote Speaker

Alex Kronemer, Executive Producer & Co-Founder of UPF (bio)

The bio makes no mention of the fact that he’s a Muslim convert (which he goes in to detail here) but he made no mention of this during the talk-back.

Panelists

- Rev. Robert Chase - Intersections International and Change the Story.net

Intersections, is a new justice-based global initiative of the Collegiate Church of New York. Previously, Chase served as Director of Communication for the 1.2 million member United Church of Christ. (an apologist for Christianity)

- Shamil Idriss – Soliya has merged with the UN–established Alliance of Civilizations Media Fund.

Soliya on the Middle East

Our mission remains the same using new media technologies to foster cross-cultural understanding and the thousands of young alumni and volunteers who give life to our programs in 25 countries.

Mr. Idriss served as Executive Director of the Alliance of Civilizations Media Fund which merged with Soliya in 2009.On video re the Alliance of Civilizations:

In 2005 he was appointed by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan as Deputy Director of the Alliance of Civilizations. He served on the Steering Committee of the World Economic Forum’s Council of 100 Leaders and as COO of Search for Common Ground, a global conflict resolution organization. He is a member of the WEF’s Young Global Leaders and of the ASMA Society’s Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow.

- Fatima Shama - Mayor Bloomberg’s Office of Immigrant Affairs. As Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, Commissioner Shama currently serves as Senior Education Policy Advisor in the Mayor’s Office, where she previously served as the Health Literacy and Language Access Coordinator.

Born in the Bronx to immigrant parents – her mother is Brazilian and her late father was “Palestinian” – (as she spoke….she was all about The Hair…no hijab for this one)

- Moderator – Zeba Iqbal - Muslim Public Affairs Council NYC. She is the Vice-Chair of CAMP International (Council for the Advancement of Muslim Professionals). Additionally, she was the conference manager for CAMP’s 2008 and 2009 conferences.

Found this interesting article she wrote about being Muslim and unmarried here>>

Click after click on the computer took us through the sponsors, the producers, the speakers (the film) and revealed a web of organizations deeply embedded in our schools and colleges. Ft. Hood has exposed, again, how seriously this indoctrination (this one-sided propaganda) has corrupted our schools, our libraries, our media and our military.

And just this week Columbia and Princeton have reinforced this one-sided non-critical revisionist view of the Islamic World History by refusing outright and shamelessly canceling last-minute the appearance of an “unapproved” speaker, Nonie Darwish.

Her list of ‘dangerous’ speakers includes(amongst many others) Geert Wilders, David Horowitz and Robert Spencer , who was assaulted this week while speaking at NYU.

(For the latest outrageous cancellations and assaults of these reputable and respected critics of Islam, go here> )

This screening and its sponsors’ have reinforced how critical our timing is with this relentless RE-’education’ of the West the doors to transparency are creeping shut. And those present at this screening are a microcosm of the machine that is responsible. We must not cease to expose Islam and to challenge these Islamic Revisionist lies.

Their man is in the White House so they confidently intimidate with accusations of hate-speech. Sadly, this censorship combined with our own self-censorship has gone deadly as the murders at Ft. Hood have revealed.

They own the message, for now, but we must NOT relent. Look for this film. It’ll be on PBS in February and probably in our schools and our libraries. FIGHT BACK . The books , their speakers and the films must be challenged. Demand the right to be heard. Our future depends on it.

Much more at the Silent Majority

H/T: David F.

Film Review: The Stoning of Soraya M.

by John Nolte

The biggest narrative challenge facing the “The Stoning of Soraya M.” is in the overcoming of its own title. With the awful outcome inevitable, co-writer/director Cyrus Nowrasteh is forced to hold our attention through means other than a curiosity over how things will end. Replacing this with a gut-wrenching dread awaiting the final act won’t suffice — not for two hours, anyway. This leaves a single, narrow and challenging avenue; the summoning of a rare kind of storytelling invention, the kind where the audience knows full well what’s coming but still hopes against hope some cinematic magic will occur to alter the unalterable.

In an impressive feat of direction Nowrasteh accomplishes this, making “Soraya” much more than a film of the political moment or a position paper on the Middle East. In a current events’ vacuum, maybe even set on another planet, the story would work without the benefit of allegory. This is a universal, human story, after all, but not the story of a victim, but of a woman’s remarkable courage and determination to free the truth. This woman is Zahra (Shohreh Aghdashloo), and yesterday her niece Soraya M. (Mozhan Marnò), was buried alive up to her chest and stoned to death.

Based on Freidoune Sahebjam’s non-fiction novel of the same name, “The Stoning of Soraya M.,” takes place in 1986, seven years after Iran’s Islamic revolution. Due to car trouble, Freidoune (James Caviezel), a French-Iranian journalist, finds himself stranded in a remote Iranian village. He had hoped the downtime would allow him to quietly sip tea in a cafe and catch up on some work, but Zahra won’t leave him alone. Discreetly, she flitters about, following, quietly hoping to catch his eye, demanding his attention. The villagers warn Freidoune that Zahra’s crazy, not all there, but a reporter’s instinct wins out and soon he finds himself in her courtyard listening to a very real horror story. From here, in flashbacks, we meet Soraya M. and watch with ever-increasing dread as terrible men, and even some women, move events against her trumping up false charges of adultery.

Soraya’s “sin” is innocence, an inability to recognize events for what they are. She’s a well drawn character whose strength and spirit we admire even as we shake our heads at the naivete which plays such a large part in her demise. She simply can’t fathom the defiance of her husband, Ali, could lead to anything worse than a beating, which she’s willing to take because the divorce he wants in order to marry a much younger woman means no support for Soraya and her children.

Zahra’s even more fascinating, a clever and wise woman incapable of dishonestly. Though unafraid to speak her mind in a society where such characteristics only mean trouble, Aghdashloo infuses Zahra with such an unspoken dignity and authority that this helps to make perfect sense of her survival. Any act of silencing her would be an admission that she’s right. At the same time, Zahra’s in a harrowing position of her own. Ever watchful, she not only understands that gears are in motion, but where they could lead. But like something out of a nightmare, she can’t stop what’s happening or convince her beloved niece to act until it’s too late.

The three central performances are flawless, the sense of time and place impeccable, and the score beautifully evocative. The pace does slow in spots and the final button on Ali’s relationship with the younger woman was a little too tidy in the irony department for my taste, but the central sequence, the stoning, is unforgettable. Explicit, unflinching and emotionally shattering, it’s also conceived, choreographed and shot like an accomplished short film with a three-act structure and devastating character moments all its own.

Because of the violence, setting, and presence of Caviezel, comparisons to “The Passion of the Christ” are inevitable, but these are two very different films. “The Passion” was about helping the faithful to better understand the suffering of our Lord. “Soraya” isn’t about suffering. Instead it serves as a compassionate and at times visceral reminder that monsters, shielded by monstrous laws, international indifference and those selfishly comforted by the stability of dictators, walk among us; that even today, societies exist where an ideological poison breeds men capable of such wicked and inhuman acts.

But on the flip side, Nowrasteh does something equally important, does something not a single one of these dozen or so anti-war films has dared: he puts a real, human and accessible face on the people of the Middle East. Leftist bigots refuse to do this. It works in opposition to their depraved need to embarrass Bush and America by abandoning millions of Middle Eastern and Muslim innocents to terrorists and death squads. Certainly Nowrasteh shines a light on monsters, but he also sees Soraya and Zahra and Freidoune and children and two somewhat sympathetic but weak and conflicted men caught in a tide of something evil and impossible. “Soraya” is a first in many years, a film that introduces us to the good people of this region and reminds us of our common humanity.

Those images of brave Iranians demanding self-determination currently playing across our television screens will undoubtedly add an emotional resonance to “Soraya” when it opens this Friday, but there’s no expiration date on the broader themes at play here. There will always be evil and there will always be a need to point to it and call it by name.

Source: Big Hollywood

A Muslim's Take on 'Traitor'

By Michael van der Galien

As a devout and convinced Muslim, who hates Islamic extremism for the twisted and sick ideology it is, I thought ”Traitor” would be one movie I’d enjoy watching. Let me explain why.

Firstly, real people act in it, which is, as I explained in my post on “Kung Fu Panda,” a definite pro for me. Secondly, “Traitor” deals with an incredibly hotly debated subject; the war on terrorism. Thirdly, the main character is a Muslim American who helps fight extremist Muslims; it is a subject seldom explored in books or movies. It is a grand, novel and innovative idea, especially from my perspective.

And it was. The actors perform sublime. They draw you into the movie immediately and convince you that they are the characters rather than pretending to be them. The special effects are great and the movie was exciting; it keeps you off-balance. It is not until the very last moment that you understand the plan and the way in which it was executed.

But there is more to the movie than the superficial aspects described above. What made this movie so interesting - and from my perspective resulting in a mixed review nonetheless - are its major themes.

*Some Spoilers Coming*

Let’s start with the good stuff: The main character, Samir Horn (Don Cheadle), is depicted as a Muslim who worked for the FBI but fired after his colleagues complained about his devotion to his religion. He is “the reluctant fundamentalist” but more violent. Although that theme can hardly be called innovative, everything changes after those first 30 minutes. At that moment it becomes clear that the firing was a cover-up. Instead of being fired he became an undercover agent who had to infiltrate terrorist networks and prevent them from executing their plans.

The above was quite surprising because his project is depicted as just and as the act of a religious Muslim who, we find out later, considers extremists his secular and religious enemy, an opinion many Muslims, including myself, share. It has, however, seldom been made clear in movies or books.

That his fight is portrayed as ‘just’ is also surprising because Hollywood often produces rubbish about the war on terrorism portraying the good guys as the bad guys and vice versa. “Traitor” shows reality as it is and how it should be: a devout Muslim opposing extremism and even fighting it, and Americans as those who are protecting freedom against the enemy who wants to destroy all we hold dear.

There are certainly some minor points of criticism with regards to the first part of the film: for instance, at the very start of the movie, one sees the father of Samir teaching his son how to perform the ritual prayer. Ironically enough, the ‘devout Muslim’ performs the ritual prayer incorrectly. Instead of saying “as salaamu aleikum wa rahmatulaa” twice at the end he says “Allahu Akbar.” This is a frustrating mistake to make for a Muslim because both sentences have entirely different meanings. “Allah Akbar” means “God is Great” while “as salaamu aleikum wa rahmatulaa” means “may the peace and blessings of God be with you.” If the main character of a film is a devout Muslim, at least teach the actor how to perform our ritual prayer correctly.

The American government too is generally shown in a favorable light. An example: Samir’s superior cares deeply about him and does everything in his power to protect the undercover agent. Additionally, one of the two FBI agents, impressively enough the one who also happens to be a devout Christian , tries to understand terrorists and is open to a different interpretation than the most obvious one with regards to Samir’s actions. Agent Roy Clayton (Guy Pearce) is passionate about fighting terrorism, but he does not use “all means necessary.”

Clayton’s partner is an entirely different agent, the embodiment of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney’s approach to the war on terror Hollywood-style. This man is not open to reasonable arguments, all he wants to do is to capture or kill terrorists. If torture has to be applied, so be it. If innocent civilians have to die, who cares as long as they are Muslim?

Luckily, the partner plays only a minor role in the film, so the viewer is not really bothered by him.

As said, there is certainly room for criticism of “Traitor” but its main themes are refreshing, inspiring and of fundamental importance: the war on terrorism is a war between good and bad, between freedom and oppression.

Especially the message that you can be a devout Muslim yet a good American nonetheless, is inspiring.

It has not been said often enough in the last couple of years that one can be both at the same time. Many pretend that in order to be a good American a Muslim has to ignore a large part of his religion. “Traitor” shows that this is not the case; you can be a devout Muslim, yet a supporter of America, of freedom, and of democracy nonetheless.

Unfortunately, the above changes radically in the last few minutes when Liberal Hollywood could not resist to once again portray the good side in the war on terrorism as the bad side.

Where Samir Horn is portrayed as a religious and devout Muslim fighting the good fight in the first 90 minutes of the movie, he ends up with absolutely nothing in the end. He tortures himself by reciting a famous verse in the Qur’an in which God says about those kill one innocent: “It would be as if he killed the whole of mankind” (5:32). Samir makes clear to agent Clayton that it may finally have been clear to all involved that he was acting in America’s interest, but he has lost his confidence in himself and in his moral authority. In short, the devout Muslim fighting extremists ends up a broken man.

If there’s one thing we (liberal Muslims) do not need right now, it is for others to tell us that our fight is not worth fighting. We need encouragement , not discouragement.

We are fighting the good fight and standing up for what we believe in. We are doing everything in our power to prevent the hatred disguising itself as religion from taking over our communities, our mosques, our families, our cities and our countries. We know, and we need to know, that it is the extremists who are the villains and that is us who are the good guys.

Samir is a hero in every sense of the word; he is a secular American hero and a true Muslim hero; we need more of those. The film should have had a happy end for that would have sent a positive and inspiring message, instead of giving everyone the impression that the war on terrorism is not truly worth fighting.

Worse, according to “Traitor” we are no better than Osama Bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and other extremists if we decide to take them on. If someone would say this to your face, you would laugh at him. But for some reason, Hollywood considers it perfectly OK to put this idiotic message in one of its top productions. It defies reason.

Samir made mistakes in the movie, but this does not make him a bad guy. Even good guys make mistakes in the real world. We should learn from those mistakes but they should not cause us to lose our confidence in ourselves and our goals. The mistakes made by proponents in the war on terrorism - say Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib - were grave, but what differs us from the real bad guys is that these acts are mistakes for us while they are normal for the enemy. The enemy does not beat itself up after seeing evidence of a prisoner being tortured; it happily publishes videos of the (innocent) person being tortured and eventually murdered on the Net. The enemy is proud of it. We are not - and that’s what makes us different.

Perhaps some big shot in Hollywood will read this pos, and do something with it. I know it’s easy for these people to dismiss everything conservatives say, but I’m also a Muslim which should make it harder to ignore me considering liberals’ adoration for minorities. If Hollywood wants to make a positive difference in this world, it should use “Traitor’s” themes for a good cause: to encourage rather than discourage, and to build rather than destroy.

Source: Big Hollywood - Breitbart