I forgot to add that it is really nice to present things here once in a while, and exchange our thoughts and feelings on it....we should do that more often :)
Maybe even start a book circle/discussion thing...

I, too, was intrigued by your comments so decided to watch the documentary. My first reaction is that Subhan Allah how finding 20 mins to devote to something could be difficult :) . As for my thoughts and feelings...

I actually liked it :)

*I was quite moved to see people whom I would have probably never liked, become Muslim...and the sudden connection you developed with them despite not knowing them. Subhan Allah how He guides whomever pleases Him. I liked the way the documentary started with showing how they were average americans doing american things (football, shooting..etc.), but yet, they are Muslim. It's very attention-grabbing from an artistic point of view :)

*Even if it did not shed much light over what made these individuals attracted to Islam, it is sufficient to have broken the ice in making Islam "familiar" and making it "hit home".. compared to its being this alien, mystery religion to many. But actually, it did elaborate on why they were attracted to it, though generally. One person for example said that Islam completed Christianity for him, or something to that extent.

*Some comments in the documentary as you mentioned was bothersome, but it's okay. It was minor in my opinion and does not take away from the documentary's main message. Some of those comments were like how sister x "arranged herself a husband". But I feel such comments stemmed from a lack of better describring the process of marriage in Islam and the stereotypic notion of arranged marriage. Insha'Allah we all have a responsibility to dispell some of the stereotypes.

*I liked how a new Muslima revert knew the notion of how nail polish invalidates the wodoo2. I know this is superficial compared to many other significant concepts as some may comment.....but it caught my attention because so many sisters who were born and raised Muslim, are observed praying with nail polish. May Allah guide us all, including myself, to proper ways of adhering to Muslim practices.

*It was maybe too early to start discussions about Muslims becoming the majority in America and the notion of all americans becoming Muslim. Too early...given that many Americans don't know anything about Islam, or still think that "Allah" is this foreign God, estaghfarullah. Though I have to admit that I did like how one person said that being Muslim makes them a better American (a nice da3wa message for Americans). However, I think we need to focus on doing our part, educating others about Islam, and whether the whole of the U.S. ends up becoming Muslim, is something to be left up to Allah.

I'd like to end that the main thing I took out of this documentary was how many Americans said how they don't know much about Islam...like the lady who wondered "do they believe in God"!!!!!. So insha'Allah we all have a role in helping educate others about Islam insha'Allah, whether direclty, or indirectly through our behaviors and actions.

I apologize for the long post :)

I guess that we all say the same thing: there are "some" positive things in this documentary and "some" negative things, yet we just differ on which is which, or more accurately the odds ratio that would render it acceptable or not...

One final point, we should NOT FORGET that this documentary was created by non-muslims for non-muslims, so we shouldn't expect much nor should we use it for other purposes without further scrutiny...

like I said before, can we create a similar piece that have the positive aspect(s) while avoiding the negative one(s)? I think this is the take home message from this JE.

BTW, Happy new Hijri year to everyone :) (it is tomorrow)

Thanks amr. Looking forward to read the other Mona's comment. As far as my opinion, (although many won't be able to read it), I agree with what Mona said. I, however, see one positive aspect about the documentary; I felt it made niqab, beard and arranged marriages less alienated. Non-muslims watching fellow americans comfortably doing these things, will think: well that's there choice and we respect it but this ain't for us. Americans are used to accepting many subcultures that are different from the mainstream and considering Islam as such is not that bad. In a nutshell, the documentary helps acceptance of Muslims but not propagating the message of Islam. Allah knows best.

I am not connected to sr. Mona3 but here are the other two comments of sr. mona393

----------------------------------- -----------------------------
Mona393
----------------------------------- -----------------------------
"salams, thanks for sharing.

this is a terrible documentary.

First, it totally encourages the terrible stereotypes about Muslims. It has everyone getting married through arranged marriages, a husband who is very strict, a husband and wife shooting with a gun, a woman wearing niqab who is obsessively making everyone stand in line, women covered from head to toe.

Second, it has absolutely NO SUBSTANCE. We hear people vaguely say that they are happy to be Muslim, they don't regret their decision, the US would be better if there were more Muslims, etc... but no one ever explains WHY or WHAT is great about Islam. So again, it encourages the perception that these are all crazy people who converted for cultish emotional reasons.

Third, it has an underlying fear factor - it raises all these scary questions like "What if the US was taken over by Muslims?! They're spreading like fire!" There was a negative sensationalistic underpinning. For example, when the Muslim and Christian office mates were exchanging light banter about each others' religions, the narrator framed it as some kind of tense conflict in which they were trying to convert each other.

I hope not to many people sees this documentary - what a way to turn off people from Islam."

----------------------------------- -----------------------------
Mona393
----------------------------------- -----------------------------
"The only point, as some of you mentioned, that the documentary gets across is that many people are turning to Islam in Texas. To spend 20 or so minutes and not get any other key information beyond that, such as WHY they turned to Islam, WHAT is so great about Islam, HOW Islam made their lives better, etc. is a total shame.

Will the movie garnish interest in why people are converting and lead people to search further? I don't think so. It would be very hard for people to identify with the characters in the movie (they were so one-dimensional), there was no new info to stimulate people's interest, there was nothing convincing to make people question "I wonder....".

On the contrary, I found the documentary had an eerie quality to it. It was slow, with poor transitions, vague and repetitive narrations, little personal emotions or characterizations of the people (did YOU get a sense that you got to know these people personally? I didn't).

With respect to arranged marriages or standing straight in line, there is nothing wrong with that. There is something wrong with the way it was portrayed in the film, without any context or explanations of the wisdom, beauty, function, benefits, etc. of these types of things. Plus, it sounded more like blind marriages (like the guy bought his wife from Morocco, without even meeting her). Those types of issues are advanced issues that should be discussed with people AFTER they have already covered the basics of aqeedah etc.

May Allah reward, however, the people in this movie for embracing the deen and trying to help others; may He bring peace and blessings to them in this life and the Jannah inshaAllah."

I am not a premium member anymore and I am not connected to either of the two Monas :) so I couldn't read their comments. Can someone please copy and paste their comments for me?

>Well? my message then is to let them know why ppl
>embrace Islam, and how Islam provides solutions to
>contemporary problems in the US? AND I don?t think
>that THIS documentary was created for THAT
>purpose..

There's yet another reason, which is to show that there are many people who are turning into Islam in a western state such as Texas. This would either 1) make them interested to see why people are doing so, and then search further, or 2) encourage some who are contemplating the idea, but are worried about the reaction of people around them or how they'd live afterwards.

Amr, very well articulated opinion, I fully agree. This is the reason I posted this video, since I would like us all to take an example of such zeal and determination -myself first. In fact, the reason the West is more successful lately is because they take their convictions seriously, while we do not, or may be we are still undecided on what our convictions are, due to various reasons in our eductaional systems, how we were raised, etc.. which are also the results of centuries of physical occupation, followed by cultural occupation and self defeat.

I got intrigued by the comments and watched this documentary and ended up with mixed feelings? on one hand I was happy to see ppl trun to islam with such zeal and determination... yet on the other hand I worried about some of the concerns that sister mona raised? so, to be objective, I tried to ask myself the following questions:

1) who is the producer? 2) who were his audiences? and 3) what was his explicit/implicit message?

I DO believe that it was created by a non-Muslim whose audiences were the average American citizen (it was aired on the believe channel), and whose goal (as I can see it) was to introduce ppl to the ?turn into islam? whole thing?yet he mainly concentrated on exterior issues with some implicit rhetorical questions as mona pointed out.

now...should I forward and propagate this video? well, I have to ask myself the same questions: who are my audiences, what I want to say to them and would it be an efficient way of conveying what I want to say..

So? if my audiences are fellow Muslims (and I would cc myself first), then probably I want to tell them.. see.. u have been Muslim for how long, but do u have such zeal? Maybe they lack some knowledge to back up that zeal.. but again that zeal would drive them to learn and be more effective one day? also, as I said above, it lifted our spirit to see ppl trun into Islam..

BUT, should I forward it to non-Muslims? Well? my message then is to let them know why ppl embrace Islam, and how Islam provides solutions to contemporary problems in the US? AND I don?t think that THIS documentary was created for THAT purpose.. so the message here will not be effective..

However, to sum things up, I think that this video is not that BAD and it has some good points?the question here is why we Muslims don?t make use of such things to spread Islam without adding those negative points... Why don?t we create our own documentaries? So?. There is a convert village here www4.naseeb.com) which is full of ppl from different backgrounds, and it would be nice if we can make good use of that? also, it seems that they like the video www4.naseeb.com vlID=74

JUST another note? I found this documentary on the ?www.turntosilam.com website? which is supposed to clear the misconceptions that ppl have about Islam? I believe it would be nice if sister mona can summarize her criticism to the ppl there.

Salam Mona,

Thanks for pointing these comments. yes, rethinking about it there is not so much substance, and that fear factor was also something I felt so inappropriate.

But, I do not understand what is the problem with arranged marriages, or organizing the line in prayer. The appropriate way for arriage after all is for the proposing groom to get to know the bride by meeting her with the presence of someone from her family. It does not work here in the U.S, because of the failure of U.S Muslims to make institutions that could help family's getting to know each other, and in general help in this matter.

it is really quite interesting. it's a little long, but worth taking the time to watch it.