"Abraham's Children" Post Screening Discussion

@ Intersections International, September 2010, New York City

Social Studies - Moving Forward and Onward!

Last night I found myself in a room full of Social Studies teachers, Museum educators and assorted other people, all passionate about teaching young people K – 12 about the world around them and preparing them for responsibilities in the real word as engaged, educated and civic minded members of their communities. It was an eye opener for me as I have not gone through the New York (or American for that matter) school and I have no kids.

The ATSS/UFT Center for the Study and Practice of Social Studies is putting together a task force to move the social studies programs across New York into the 21st century, streamlining them and giving weight to issues long neglected. In particular Asian studies.

For those of you, who like me have no clue of the acronyms: ATTS: The Association of Teachers of Social Studies and the UFT is the United Federation of Teachers.

The undertaking to address these major issues is epic and I hope they will succeed – from the energy in the room and the passion from the organizers I have little doubt.

So: if you are a social studies teacher, principal, educator, filmmaker, activist or someone with any kind of fundraising and grant writing experience…. give them a shout! They will need your help.

Rozella Kirchgaessner, president of the ATSS: atssuftnyc@gmail.com.

New York Times Columnist, Nicholas Kristof: My Apology to Muslims

What a powerful article by journalist, writer and activist Nicholas Kristof. Also check out his book: Half the Sky.

This my comment:

Dear Nicholas: thank you! Thank you for doing what so many of us should have done weeks (months and years ago) - speak up! And thank you for doing it so eloquently and succinctly and I want to join you in your apology to Muslims in America and Muslims around the world.

I wish I could have put my thoughts into words like yours, but I hope I put them well enough into images with a film called 'Abraham's Children' - www.abrahamschildrendoc.com - about Muslim children in the New York school system, where every 10th child is Muslim.

Muslim children in America (and NYC particularly I think) are robbed of a 'normal' childhood and find themselves having to defend their religion at an age where they should be busy figuring out 'teenage stuff'. They are - often unwilling - experts on their religion when they might not have the inclination, maturity and oratory finesse to be pulled into such a difficult and private discussion about one’s own faith. I certainly - even today - would not want to have to explain my believe system to strangers.

May we all have the strength to keep educating those in need of learning about bigotry, racism, hatred and just plain dumb generalizations - and on the latter I'll start with myself.

Intersections Screening

Last night we had a SOLD OUT screening of Abraham's Children at Intersections International! Over sixty people were in attendance and the panel discussion and Q&A session were very lively. Sara Reef of Intersections moderated and Dr. Lou Cristillo and Susan Smith brought some very interesting points to the panel discussion. More on that later!

Intersections Panel Moderator Sara Reef

Intersections Screening - pre-event

Intersections Panel:  Nina Froriep, Dr. Lou Cristillo, Susan Smith

Imam Ibrahim Negm

The Islamic Center of Long Island held, as every year for the past seven, an interfaith Iftar during the month of Ramadan.

The house was packed and Isma Chaudhry (one of the mom's in my film) did an extraordinary job in hosting the evening. Her smarts, wit and kindness kept the evening moving along with many inspiring and lovely moments as local leaders from so many different congregations took to the podium to either talk about their faith or expand on fasting - each from their point of view.

I was fascinated and a bit intimidated as Isma had asked me to say a few words about the film. But it was a wonderful opportunity to have a captive audience that actually cared about the topic of the film - and, inshallah, we are a small step closer to getting this film into all schools in America! Sukran.

MC Isma Chaudhry

AALBC.com Backyard Screening

Saturday night was a perfect night - warm, dry and starry. Troy Johnson of the AALBC.com hosted a wonderful backyard screening in his brownstone in Harlem. The Q&A afterwards was very enlightening - a very different crowd than the one on Wednesday at Global Kids, they focused more on the filmmakers choice of kids in the film and their ethnic and social backgrounds - I enjoyed that discussion very much and it also showed me on how many different levels the film can be viewed and critiqued.
As there was no 'escape' during the screening I did see the film for the first time in a while in its entirety and it was mind boggling to me that I once though that every frame was necessary. There is so much I would cut out now and so much else I would like to put in. The two stories that I miss seeing the most are the more 'street wise' kid, maybe one that is even struggling with his/her faith and a West African Muslim.
But hindsight is always 20/20 even as we get older and need reading glasses.

Global Kids Screening and Iftar

Global Kids Team, Nina and Imran (3rd from L)

Q&A after the screening

On Wednesday we had a wonderful screening and Iftar at Global Kids. The audience seemed very appreciative of the film and some of the questions during the Q&A were very thought provoking - thank you!  Global Kids raised over $300 and a I was able to sell a few copies of the film.

I want to thank Rik Panganiben, Amira Fouad and Usman Farooq and the GK team for their enthusiasm and for making the screening happen. Their blog post about the screening gives a nice overview.

Usman also shared a lovely story about the restaurant that donated the very delicious food for the Iftar and I want to share it with you - it's in the true spirit my crew and I experienced when we were shooting the film during the month of Ramadan 2008:

I had to share this story as I am extremely touched by it.

For the movie screen of Abraham's Children we decided to do an iftar dinner (breaking the fast for Ramadan). Rik, Amira and I walked around our local restaurants to ask for food donation for the event. 

We had some luck until we went to Chandni restaurant. I spoke to the front counter person and he gave me the owner's phone number and said that he is a nice man so ask him. After a brief conversation with the owner, Muhammad Asharaf, he agreed to provide us with food and emphasized that to take as much as we want. I was a bit shock about this man generosity over the phone.

A day before the event I spoke to him on the phone to confirm and requested food for 40 people instead of the original 30. He again mention not to worry and order as much food as we need.

The day of movie screening we had more then enough good tasting food to go around. Filmmaker, Nina Froriep, was kind enough to offer a copy of her film and wrote a thank you letter to the owners of the restaurant [...].

The next day of the screening I went to the restaurant with a thank you letter from GK and Nina; and the DVD. A calm mannered middle-age man approached me after the front counter person mentioned that he is Muhammad. I started to thank him for his generosity only to be thank twice as much in return for selecting him to provide food for our Iftar. I mentioned that everyone loved the food and how grateful we are. The next moment his eyes teared up and he humbly thanked me again for appreciating his generosity. He then proceeded to say that what we are doing is great and he saw purity in our work. Adding that God will defiantly bless us.

I wanted to share his gratitude and his well wishes to all of GK staff for the new school year. I can truly say that our purse of educating the underprivileged and misunderstood youth is very pure and it shines out of our staff. I am grateful to be part of such an organization.

Good luck to all of us for a very new and exciting school year.
Sincerely, Usman Farooq