At Last! A movie shows the real life of real..
..Muslims in America - and the problems and difficulties they experience when they enter Islam. So real you think it must be about someone you heard about in the U.S. trying to learn and live the life of a real Muslim in today's world...
Here's the story --
Growing up in a Puerto Rican-American family in a tough section of the Bronx, Jason “Hamza” Perez had imagined he was going to go to jail and die at a young age. -- And in a way - "HE DID" -- but in a different way! As a Muslim --
It all starts to happen after he meets a local Muslim sheik who tells him . . .
about real Islam, the peace, the freedom of the soul and most of all the worship of One God - Allah. Then at the age of 21, he converts to Islam and his old "gangbanger self" dies.
After a few, he finds himself volunteering at a faith-based initiative program in a local prison. A sensitive and perceptive film, New Muslim Cool chronicles Hamza’s halting evolution from thug to Muslim leader and family man.
We meet Hamza in medias res: A single dad raising two kids, he’s about to get married to a woman he met on a Muslim dating website and move to a community of mostly Latino Muslim converts in Pittsburgh. Director Jennifer Maytorena Taylor deftly constructs a portrait of Hamza learning to build cultural bridges: He cooks “boricua halal” food (traditional Puerto Rican fare made according Muslim dietary code), ministers to teenagers with his hip hop group, the Mujahideen Team, and explains to his skeptical but curious mom why her granddaughter has started wearing a hijab to school.
But the film’s real strength is mixing the political with the domestic: Just as Hamza has learned to move among his own worlds, the outside world gets in the way. And that’s where things really start to get interesting: The police raid the new Pittsburgh mosque—the stated reason is a convicted child molester who worships there, but the community suspects the FBI had been watching them for a while. And later, the prison where Hamza volunteers suddenly revokes his security clearance without explanation (he eventually gets it back). New Muslim Cool shows how Bush-era Islamophobia affected one family’s daily life, but the most remarkable part is watching Hamza and his family take the turmoil in stride. “You know you’re not doing anything wrong,” says Hamza’s wife Rafia. “So you just live your life.”
commentary - "The move New Muslim Cool came out on PBS Tuesday, June 23 at 10 PM - (did you hear much about it?) And then it was only going to be shown at select theaters in the U.S. (only for one month)
So, why such limited promotion on something as simple and straight forward as this movie? Why can't we see more programs like this in the mainstream of media and entertainment? Why must it always limit anything about Islam and Muslims to evil, violence and oppressive figures?
We all know the truth about the beautiful way of Islam - so let's start promoting the good and decent movies, television and programs about Islam, inshallah." A.K.
Do we need a TV channel in America for Muslims? Does Islam need proper representation for Muslims, by Muslims?
If you said, 'Yes" - then visit www.GuideUS.TV (and download the "Prospectus")
