Skip to main content

Documentary Featuring Muncie Mosque Nominated for Oscar

A short film about a US veteran who planned to bomb the Islamic Center of Muncie but found friends inside and converted to Islam has been nominated for an Academy Award.

Directed and produced by Joshua Seftel, 30-minute documentary “Stranger at the Gate” tells the story of US Marine Richard “Mac” McKinney who wanted to blow up a mosque.

Instead of finding enemies at the mosque, McKinney encountered several of the members of the Islamic Center of Muncie who welcomed him inside.

📚 Read Also: He Planned to Blow Up Mosque, Then What Happened? New Film Explains

Suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, McKinney meets Bibi and Saber Bahrami, co-founders of the Islamic Center of Muncie, and Jomo Williams, a Black man who converted to Islam

“When Josh Seftel, director of ‘Stranger at the Gate,’ contacted me as the president of the Islamic Center of Muncie with the idea for this short film, I jumped at the opportunity to showcase how our Muslim community in Muncie was able to welcome Mac with open arms,” Bibi Bahrami told The Star Press.

  • Bibi and Saber Bahrami, co-founders of the Islamic Center of Muncie

Continued Dialogue

Bibi Bahrami celebrated the nomination Tuesday as creating an opportunity for continued peace and understanding.

“My husband and I are absolutely blessed to be able to contribute and make a difference towards improving understanding and reducing hatred across communities in the US,” Bibi Bahrami, founder and president of AWAKEN Inc., said.

“After 9/11, our Muslim community had significant concern and stress of the safety and livelihoods of our children and grandchildren, with rising Islamophobia and increased hate crimes towards Muslims.”

She added that the film showcases the goodness of people, supporting a message of understanding.

“I feel humble and blessed that my husband Saber, my son Zaki, and I are part of this amazing message that shows how love and understanding can always overcome hate,” she said.

“Stranger at the Gate” is the latest in a series of shorter video posts Seftel created called “The Secret Lives of Muslims,” that have appeared on Vox.com and on other media sites.

The series of 14 short documentary profiles and subject films on life as an American Muslim today.

This series features many Muslim figures, including AJ+ Dena Takruri, US medalist Ibtihaj Muhammad, and NYTimes bestselling author Reza Aslan.

The post Documentary Featuring Muncie Mosque Nominated for Oscar appeared first on About Islam.



source https://aboutislam.net/muslim-issues/n-america/documentary-featuring-muncie-mosque-nominated-for-oscar/
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

List of Times and Places Where Dua is Accepted

A short reminder regarding the recommended times of dua . And I think what you need to know here is that the recommended times of dua or recommended things that can cause your dua to be accepted, can be divided into two sort of large groups: Am I Good Enough to Make Dua for Myself? Situations where your dua is accepted. Times where your dua is accepted So I’m going to very briefly mention them one after the other as much as possible. As for situations where your dua has been accepted: – The person who has been wronged or oppressed . – A person who finds themselves in severe difficulty after a calamity has struck. – The person who is traveling. – Someone who is fasting. – The one who is reciting the Quran or has just recited the Quran – Someone who is performing Hajj or Umrah or jihad. – The one who is making dua for someone in their absence . Because we know that when you make dua for someone in his absence an angel says: “ Ameen and to you”. – A person...
Post a Comment
Read More »

Ghuraba (The Strangers): Nasheed with English Subtitles

Islam began as something strange, and it shall return to being something strange, so give glad tidings the strangers. (Sahih Muslim 145) This famous nasheed has many versions; this one is from Muhammad al-Salman and has the subtitles in English embedded. [We are] strangers and we do not bow the foreheads to anyone besides Allah  […] Transliteration to help in the pronounciation:  Ghurabaa’ wa li ghairillaahi laa nahnil jibaa Aisha Stacey  wrote in an article for Aboutislam.net : “I think that many of you would agree that being Muslim in the 21st century makes you well acquainted with being strange. It might even be a metaphor for random, as in you have been randomly selected. […] many converts to Islam will tell you about feeling as if they were strangers, before finding Islam. They will speak of feeling that they belonged somewhere else that their lives were just slightly off center. They often speak about a vague sense of knowing they were not like everyone else...
Post a Comment
Read More »

Taqwa – Living the Main Purpose of Ramadan

Taqwa is a major purpose for the month of Ramadan. The people of taqwa are those who do the things that they are commanded and avoid the things which Allah has made prohibitive. And evidently, to reach a state of taqwa requires vigilance, it requires patience and sincerity. The verse is pertaining to fasting I found in a single set of verses in chapter 2 starting at verse 183: O you who have believed, decreed upon you is fasting as it was decreed upon those before you that you may become righteous. ( 2:183 ) A Collective Act of Worship Allah is telling us that fasting has been made obligatory and then Allah tells us that just as it was prescribed for those before us. We often get asked this question in Ramadan, “how’s the fast going for us?” And if we gave ourselves a moment to think about it, we see that Allah Most High has made the fast inside the month of Ramadan easy for us because we know that there is a collective spirit to fasting; we know that we’re not alone in this ...
Post a Comment
Read More »