Blog
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
The world recently celebrated United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, and I wanted to write about it.
MEDIA & ETHICS
Witness, too, The Sun’s decades-long campaign against ethnic migrants and minorities in general and Muslims in particular. Among the screaming headlines The Sun has spewed in this regard are:
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
As a 7th grader, I visited the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., where there is a quote in huge letters around the inner dome of the building. It reads: “ I have sworn upon the altar of god, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
It’s human nature to want to understand things. Our relentless curiosity is what drives us forward as individuals and as a culture. Most people take it for granted that the present is a more enlightened age than any previous one, the idea being that we are constantly evolving and improving.
ANTI-RELIGIOUS PROPAGANDA
In early March, the TV Academy hired a consulting firm, ostensibly to address issues of equality head-on. Under the banner of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), the company will analyze “staff and member composition, attitudes and perceptions regarding DEI, opportunities for improvement, and expansion of current practices.”
COMBATING BIGOTRY & HATE
I remember when I first became aware many years ago that there was a Wikipedia entry about me. It seemed, back in the burgeoning digital age, like having your very own Wikipedia entry was some kind of stamp of legitimacy—that you were now officially relevant.
RELIGIOUS LITERACY
What I saw was a recognition of the best kind of inclusion: a collection of movies, TV shows, and press coverage where Muslims are not necessarily the story (although in two of the films, they are) but who, in their portions of the stories, are depicted as they are: human beings—not necessarily perfect human beings, but real ones.
RELIGIOUS LITERACY
The Muslim Public Affairs Council Hollywood Bureau held its media awards ceremony on March 20. It was a straightforward affair, shot on a simple stage intercut with livestreams from the homes of the awardees—a far cry from the Golden Globes held a few weeks earlier, but more meaningful to me.
TOLERANCE
This year, International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is chillingly well-timed.
ANTI-RELIGIOUS PROPAGANDA
It’s tempting as a filmmaker to go for the low-hanging fruit—to play on people’s fears of the “out” group and reinforce those stereotypes to get some more clicks. But it’s unacceptable.
