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Newsday on America to Zanzibar

Here is a Newsday article on the exhibit America to Zanzibar: Muslim Cultures Near and Far, at The Children’s Museum of Manhattan, for which I was the lead academic advisor. It’s a good chance to shout out my friends from high school. “Our goal is to have children deal with differences in a healthy, positive way and encourage them to be inquisitive while exploring the world instead of running away from its differences,” Rashid said, an experience not so different from his years growing up in Elmont.  

New Rumi movie?

Ali Eteraz is teasing about a new Rumi bio-pic, run with Qatar Foundation and Rumi Foundation. Looks really good, but some questions: Will it seriously deal with the fact that Shams-i Tabriz was most likely an Ismaili? I can’t imagine the Qataris would be too happy with that. Why do we need a non-Muslim playing the part of Rumi? Are there not enough good Muslim actors? I think the Iranians might object. Even Mel Gibson went with a no name for Jesus to make it seem more real, and that movie seems to have done OK.

Film on Muslim Homosexuals

I think it’s a necessary film, because the reality is that they do exist, and how do we as a religious community deal with them, especially when the issue of religion and homosexuality is getting more important internationally as it becomes a wedge issue in the US. I like his last point, an obvious one, about a vocal minority hijacking the faith. Unfortunately, it will be this same vocal minority who will scream “Zionist conspiracy,” and “Jews trying to destroy Islam,” because of his work with a Jewish director.