http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbcmPe0z3Sc

What do you think? :)

I like it! :)

I think actually most Americans accept Muslims fine. We are used to having a large variety of people here, some of them new, and just considering them Americans.

Whatever people think of our foreign policy, I think American Muslims integrate better than in any other non-Muslim country and easily come to consider themselves American and to be considered American.

Actually I didn't understand that that was the idea behind the movie until now! I was thinking of how although we try to be good and go by the teachings, at the end we could make mistakes, or just act ... human! Like the woman sometimes preferring to just watch Grey's Anatomy, the woman naming her son after he first crush ... :p

niiiiiiiiiice
very nice video..
thx for sharing it :)

Oh, well, I guess it has more than one meaning! :)

But one point is that Muslims are just human like other people. Not some kind of Alien Army of Bombing and Death! :p

Americans can look at them and think, "They are just Americans like me."

I think most of us think just like that. Especially in areas where there are many Muslims, such as the DC area where I live. Nobody looks twice at a hijab, it's just as ordinary as a tennis shoe.

You're welcome Orgullo! I found it posted here: http://www.commongroundnews.org/section.php?sid=1&lan=en

Jeff,
Al Hamdulillah :cute:

I loved ittttt ... so sweeet...
Jeff Many Many People think like you do but many many dont as well and its upsetting, but you can't blame someone for making judgement about what they do not know.
I get asked to explain my headscarf alot and i saw the difference in the way people look at me before and after i put it on here. That being said many many nice people in Aus!!

... people who wear abayas [black cloaks] here make it hard for foreigners to see it as a normal thing .. and they cover thier facess ..

loving the video it shows that peace and harmony can exist in the world

But one point is that Muslims are just human like other people.

U are so right Jeffy, we also feel that Americans are just humans like other ppl.

U are so right Jeffy, we also feel that Americans are just humans like other ppl.

Ha ha! I'm not so sure about that; don't you think you may have been misled? ;)

I saw the movie as primarily AIMED AT non-Muslim Americans. The point was to show them that their fearful ideas of Muslims are incorrect. Muslims are just regular Joes and Joannas, just Americans. Not members of some kind of secret ultra-controlled death cult or something.

"We lie around, we act kooky, we watch TV shows, we have longings and failures, our lives are like yours. We are just ordinary Americans who happen to be Muslim. Just as you might happen to be Christian or Jewish or agnostic. We're not a special case."

That's what I saw.

But there seem to be other ways of looking at the point of it. What's your take?

An interesting theory was made on a sort of anti-Islam site which I was reading on saying (in meaning), 'The good Muslims in the West or anywhere are the ones who don't know their religion at all'.

I think this video shows how much of nonsense is in that statement or how many Muslims are just normal people. Watching it was quite a change from the regular image of Muslims everybody 'likes' to see.

What's even more interesting is that our regular members who will post whatever they find on Muslims around the world almost the minute it happens on the pages of the Sabla are totally absent from this thread. I just hope the reason is that they didn't notice it not some form of sick double standard.

But there seem to be other ways of looking at the point of it. What's your take?


I get you Jeff, but do we have to go thru that length to justify our existence? or lets say co-existence?

I googled around trying to see if I could see what Lena Khan, the filmmaker, had to say about her view of her own piece (and I *DO* believe that there are other view than those of the creator that are equally valid--art is independent of the artist) and this is what I found after a quick search:

Many of the filmmakers relied on humor and some good-natured self-ribbing, but in the end, the message was clear: Muslim Americans are, above all, Americans.

Lena Khan, 23, an independent filmmaker from Alta Loma, Calif., won the grand prize for A Land Called Paradise, which asks Muslims what the world should know about them. The answers, which included “I, too, shop at Victoria’s Secret” and “Islam inhibits my suicidal thoughts,” were meant to humanize Muslims, Khan says.

...Frustrated with the myths and stereotypes surrounding Muslims in the media, Khan wanted to help viewers relate to Muslims in America. “The idea was, ‘I really wish everyone knew this about Muslims,’ ” says Khan, a USC film school graduate.

http://www.hahmed.com/blog/2008/02/20/lena-khan-grand-prize-winner-for-a-land-called-paradise/

One of the submessages, which comes out strongly in her short short "Bassem is Trying" is that Muslims WANT TO BE American, but even though they try they are sometimes perceived as different based on stereotypes.

Here she is!

http://i.usatoday.net/news/_photos/2008/02/19/muslim-filmsx.jpg

And here is her "Bassem is Trying"

Bassem is Trying

^ Aw, that's her! :cute:


The 'Bassem is trying' video reminded me of this short film:

http://www.linktv.org/embed_ff/235

By M. Hasna M, hope it works :os

If it doesn't, and anyone wants to check, here's the link:
http://www.linktv.org/embed_ff/235

^ Aw, that's her! :cute:


The 'Bassem is trying' video reminded me of this short film:

http://www.linktv.org/embed_ff/235

By M. Hasna M, hope it works :os

If it doesn't, and anyone wants to check, here's the link:
http://www.linktv.org/embed_ff/235

I really enjoyed that!

You know, we Christians have the same problem.

I and my family always say grace before meals when we go out. "In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Bless us O Lord and these Thy gifts which are about to receive from Thy Bounty. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen."

You have to break the secular stranglehold in which you worry because people look at you funny if you act religious in public.

You pay a price for that. But once you simply make your peace with it, you develop a kind of calm and courage. You don't have to make a big deal of it, you don't have to push it in people's faces.

But you can't let them make you hide the public expression of your faith. Just do it.

And in the end, you'll even find that the price you pay is not as high as you thought! People admire it and are attracted by it.

That's something I heard about living in the West too. I hope it's not just a stereotype, but I've heard this from Westerners: Whatever your religion, people want to make you feel you're the weird one if you practiced it in public. Religion is being treated like it is something private that should stay at home.

It's funny how having a couple sitting in a restaurant, kissing, is looked at as normal and 'sweet', while another table with people holding hands saying a prayer could get to the point of being seen as an offence.

over here, making the sign of the cross as soon as you are about to do something, is ok. you open the door, you draw the sign, you board a bus...stuff like that.
it's not frowned upon.
obviously if you go in the street making a show, you're gonna look ridiculous.

like if you are the only christian in a muslim country and you start shouting the Credo, you're gonna look silly, you don't need to make such a huge show, same as eating your boyfriend's face at a restaurant. holding hands and thereabouts is enough.

Lol a funny video

A Land Called Paradise by Kareem Salama.
Very nice video and song.
You can be Muslim even if you do all the normal things people do!
I loved the part where the girl acts dumb and says she is dumb but she is sure God loves her! :D

Here is the link to the song only if you want to download it:
http://www.4shared.com/file/52255788/ff3e57ce/Kareem_Salama_-_A_Land_Called_Paradise.html