Journey Into America

Just weeks after Dr. Ahmed Akbar came to American University in August 2001, his life changed.

“I’m teaching one of my first classes when the plane slams into the Pentagon,” he said. From that moment on, he was on a mission.

“Because my subject is Islam, because I am a Muslim, it makes my task even more urgent,” he said. “I’m trying to create bridges of understanding, trying to create bridges of dialogue, on campus and off campus.”

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Project Nur’s Muslim Film Festival Screening: Tuesday, 11/17 at 6PM at George Mason University: Dewberry Hall.

If history tells us anything, it’s that fear is a powerful catalyst in exacerbating the misconceptions many people hold about races and religions other than their own.

In a Sept. 2009 study, nonpartisan think tank The Pew Research Center reported that nearly six out of every 10 American adults see Muslims as being discriminated against more than any other religious group in the world. As a result of these perceived tensions between Muslim-Americans and other Americans — specifically those manifested after the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001 — a small non-profit organization has dedicated its existence to fighting for the end of this hostility.

According to its official mission statement, the American Islamic Congress (AIC) is “a non-religious civic initiative challenging increasingly negative perceptions of Muslims by advocating responsible leadership and ‘two-way’ interfaith understanding.”

As an extension of these efforts, the AIC’s college subset “Project Nur” is promoting its Muslim Film Festival, which showcases films about the prevailing notions that non-Muslims have of the Muslim faith. Included in the screening are prominent works like “Persepolis” and “Faith Without Fear,” as well as lesser-known movies, one of which, “Journey Into America,” is screening today on campus.

“Journey” will be shown today in Room 213 of Dennison Hall from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. The event is entirely free of charge, and refreshments will be served.

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Free and open to all on November 9 at 6:00 p.m.

Greenberg Theater is located at  4200 Wisconsin Ave. at the corner of Van Ness St., just a short distance from AU’s main campus, Tenley Campus, and from the Tenleytown/AU Metrorail Red Line stop.

Parking: Available in guarded underground lot on north side of Van Ness St., just west of Wisconsin Ave.

The United States is a country founded on the principles of freedom, justice, and tolerance. These fundamental ideas are revisited in Journey into America, a documentary that explores American identity through the Muslim lens. Professor Akbar Ahmed, the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University, traveled with a team of young Americans for nine months, visiting over 75 cities and 100 mosques in the United States. The result is an unprecedented effort to understand the nuanced dimensions of Islam in America, and its place within the broader American identity.

Journey into America – the companion to Professor Ahmed’s earlier study Journey into Islam: The Crisis of Globalization, which documents Ahmed’s tour of the Muslim world – is the first consolidated anthropological study on the Muslim-American community. Five Americans were chosen to be part of the team – Craig Considine (the film’s director), Madeeha Hameed, Jonathan Hayden, Frankie Martin, and Hailey Woldt. According to Ahmed, the team members were not only instrumental in conducting the necessary fieldwork, but they also acted as his ‘guides’ on the journey.

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For those of you in the Denver area, please come out to The University of Colorado Denver on Thursday October 15 where we will be showing the film in the Public Policy Film Series at 11:30 a.m. Frankie and Jonathan will be in Denver to talk about the film and answer questions.

Here are the details.

Thu, Oct 15 11:30 am – 1:30 pm
Location: Auraria Campus, King Center Recital Hall

RSVP here.