Mooz-Lum

President Obama said in his 2011 State of the Union Address - "American Muslims are part of the American Family".

Mooz-lum was in theaters less than 1 month from this historic statement. A story about a yong Muslim boy Tariq (Evan Ross) growing up as a Muslim in America. We experience his challenges, his rebellion and most of all his emotional struggle in accepting the religion that he was born into while living in the country that sometimes reject and ridicule it.

I strongly suggest non-Muslims take a leap of understanding the American Family and go see this film. Directed by Qasim "Q" Basir and a star studded cast including Nia Long, Evan Ross, Danny Glover and more.

I was watching another movie when this rolled up on cable and I saw some of the cast and the title and thought, well lets give it a shot.

Freely I have to admit I was expecting something a bit lighter more of a younger take on being Muslim at a college in America, and the impact 911 had on all Americans Muslim and non-Muslim.

T or Tariq was played magnificently as a young man who is questioning his faith and all the supporting characters were interesting, purposeful ,and well written, but the most impactful was Tariq's mother portrayed by Nia Long. She was strong in all the right ways that it made it feel true and honest like a real Muslim mother.

Now I know how I felt when 9-11 happened and realistically I knew it had to be harder on the Muslim Americans (which I still think people oftimes forget, they are both Muslim and American). The horror and pain they felt was as real and deep as all of ours, if not even more so knowing that people had done this in the name of their faith, which does not preach such violence.

The real beauty of this film is that it does not try to preach or point fingers or say who's wrong and who's right, but show that we have more in common than we think, and we all can be hurt by the same things.

This film is so well done and moving if you have not seen it you must.

It's not entirely fair for me to say that "Mooz-lum" was made on a low budget. I don't really know the facts on that. But it did seem to have some rough spots that wouldn't have been there if it had been a "typical" Hollywood movie.

For the most part, the acting was excellent. I'd really be surprised if the main character, Evan Ross, doesn't become more well-known as an actor. Strangely enough, Danny Glover wasn't that good in this movie. He acted almost like he didn't want to be there.

Some of the photography, especially at the beginning, was really beautiful. And the use of Qur'an recitations made for an authentic and haunting atmosphere.

The movie moves back and forth in time which I didn't catch on to right away. The earlier times were filmed in sepia with color tinting and the present was in full color.

I don't want to go into the story line itself for fear of spoiling it. But I will say that it's not quite what most people probably expect. The main character is s young man who was raised quite strictly as a Muslim and is now going to a secular college where he has to struggle with what being a Muslim means to him. That sounds kind of generic, but there's a plot twist that keeps it from being trite.

I was a little disappointed that there were no Caucasian Muslims in the film, because I'm afraid that it gave the impression that all Muslims are Arab or black and that's simply not true.

But overall, I was impressed with the film and recommend it to others, Muslim and non-Muslim alike.

I think that is a question people should ask themselves.

In interviews, I got the impression from Qasim Basir and Roger Guenveur Smith that this movie would be about prejudice and hatred against Muslims. Which I think is a very important issue especially these days. But while that is part of "Mooz-lum", it seems to me to play a minor role.

The core theme of the movie really are the troubles of this young man with his religious community, where those troubles originate and whether he will overcome them. When Qasim Basir says the movie would appeal to everybody, he automatically sees it from his theistic point of view. Because this movie should indeed appeal to everybody who is faithful and not a bigot - no matter what their faith might be. But if you are against religious institutions, you will probably not enjoy this movie unless you for some reason romanticize Islam. As I said in the beginning: ask yourself whether you would still like it if it was about Christianity. Personally, I cannot stand movies that promote the idea that a certain religion is good, that faith in general is important and that religious communities are great.

Also, the movie at one point makes the argument that sticks and stones really are more harmful than words, calling one of the most awful characters in the movie a "nice guy" - just because he is not violent. I find it reprehensible how lenient people often are with those who cause considerable psychological damage to others.

And from a more "technical" point of view, there are quite a couple of scenes in there that seem over-dramatic, and visually there were rare elements that made it look unprofessional (e.g. cheesy titles design and I am pretty sure there were flat-out mistakes in one or two picture transitions).

What I do give this movie credit for is the fact that it for the most part looks decently shot, that it does tackle the issues of conservatism among religious people, prejudice/hatred against Muslims and a fantastic soundtrack.

So to sum up - if you are "pro-faith" and tolerant, you will probably enjoy this movie. But if you are agnostic/atheist and even though tolerant towards religious people still think that faith is a bad idea - you will probably not enjoy "Mooz-lum".

Not sure why a studio would hype a film that is boring, poorly made and not about anything, glad my date bought the tickets. The acting and directing were especially poor, which was a surprise, Danny Glover is one of my all-time favorites.

Just because a movie is bad does not mean it had a small budget, I doubt this movie had a tiny budget, but it's played off that way to compensate for how bad it is.

If you are looking for a story about the Muslim experience I would recommend reading "Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention", you can probably buy it for the money you would waste if you bought tickets to this crap.