Muslim movie attracts masses

February 22, 2010 by Bryant Nguyen 

MSA honors Black History Month with film and guest speaker event

More than 100 people came to the Student Union to watch an award-winning documentary on the Muslim prince-turned-slave Abdul-Rahman Ibrahima Sori, sponsored by the Muslim Students Association in honor of Black History Month last Friday.

“It is kind of a way to show the history of Islam in America and also the African-American history as well because they intertwine together,” said MSA president Amin Nash. “I believe this movie will show a different side of Islam in America and how we’ve been able to live up to our responsibilities as Muslims and human beings.”

The number of people in attendance eventually exceeded expectations and the MSA requested more seats to fulfill the high demand of the event.

Even that was not enough as people stood in the back of the room to watch the movie.

“I was actually really surprised and shocked that a lot of people showed up,” said UNLV student Jaffer Almosawy. “I expected a lot less people.”

Among the crowd were students, adults and even children. Together they watched the life story of Abdul-Rahman and his quest to one day return to his homeland after being captured by European slave traders.

After seeing the documentary for the first time, Almosawy learned that there are parts of American history that are still not widely known.

“It was a good learning experience,” Almosawy said. “It showed how one religion can be so diverse. It shows that Muslim religion went all the way to slavery. It showed that there are Muslims of different races.”

The night unfolded like any other movie event with food, drinks and a multimedia projector to display the film.

But once the movie ended, the attention turned to the guest speakers of the evening Fateen Seifullah, the religious leader of Masjid As-Sabur, and Naeem Shalf Jr., the founder of the ILM Foundation.

One at a time, they spoke about the importance of knowing one’s history and to learn from those events that took place in the past.

“When we think and reflect upon this history, we should understand that history itself is a vehicle of self-reflection. It’s a vehicle for self-improvement and some of the greatest stories known to Muslims are preserved deliberately by people who were historians,” Seifullah said.

Seifullah ended his speech with the thought that history is shared and a reflection of everyone.

“This history is important because it ties us all together,” said Seifullah. “It reminds us all of our connections. This history of African-American slaves is a history of all of us. All of us should be able to identify and relate.”

Shalf Jr. soon followed with a message to rid any misbelieved impressions that are displayed in the media and to create a new identity that mirrors the proper image of Muslims and African-Americans.

“I think there is a misconception that hopefully we will be able to change some of the misconceptions that are pervasive with the image of African-Americans in the media,” Shalf Jr. said. “So I’m hoping some misconceptions can be removed and at the same time we can all share this victory together of something like this happening on a soil that we all share today and that justice can prevail.”

Almosawy expressed the feeling of many in the audience, that the event helped elucidate the history of Muslims in America in an important way.

“They were very inspirational,” Almosawy said. “They told us a lot of things and some of the things I had no clue about. They showed us that their culture is a lot like mine and that they went through a lot and that we have to recognize and realize everything they went through.”