Young Muslim filmmaker offers commentary of hope

“The news is grim as more than a billion Muslims around the world pepare for the month-long fast of Ramadan.” On Monday, that’s how we started our coverage of Ramdan and tensions between Islamic and Western countries. We reported on a major new Pew study of these global tensions.
On Wednesday, we welcomed Muslim teacher Najah Bazzy to talk about Beauty of Ramadan.

TODAY, we turn to a Muslim filmmaker, Yusuf Begg, who is part of a new wave of talented young Muslim communicators working on honestly portraying the life of their religious communities in America. Yusuf created the short film, below, as his editorial commentary on helpful images he finds in American media. That’s a remarkable approach to this kind of short film. Raise the subject of “Media” in any minority community across the United States—including Muslims, African-Americans, Latinos, Asian-Americans—and you’ll immediately hear harsh critiques of their portrayals in mainstream “Media.” What Yusuf Begg accomplished in creating this short film commentary is the opposite of those critiques. Instead, Yusuf found and highlighted images of inclusion and hope.

Watch Yusuf Begg’s film commentary by clicking on the screen below. If you don’t see a video screen in your version of tis story, try clicking on this link and reloading this ReadTheSpirit page. On slow Internet connections, it may take a moment to load Yusuf’s film.

Care to read more about Islam and Ramadan?

Care to read more from Dr. John Esposito? Here is ReadTheSpirit’s most recent interview with him.

Care to read more about Ramadan? We recommend The Beauty of Ramadan.

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Originally published at readthespirit.com, an online journal covering religion and cultural diversity.

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