A film about a man learning to fly a plane in in the post-Sept. 11 era could go unnoticed. But what if the aspiring pilot was a Muslim man named Monem Salam trying to fulfill his American dream? That might get people talking about Muslims and stereotypes. Or so Emily Hodgin, 21, thought when she decided to show the film "On a Wing and a Prayer on her university campus in Oregon.
That's exactly what the Washington-based Unity Productions Foundation had in mind for the film about Salam and other documentaries it makes about Muslims.
The foundation's goal is to help people learn about Muslim culture through interfaith dialogue and to get to know one another. The films are distributed as tools to help start conversations, said Daniel Tutt, coordinator of the group's "20,000 Dialogues" project.
"We're not necessarily in the business of proselytizing. We're not in the business of teaching or preaching. We're more in the business of building relationships through dialogue," said Tutt. "You're trying to find a way to build mutual understanding."
The project, launched in 2007, has assisted in setting up as many as 1,800 dialogues in schools, community centers and living rooms across the United States, said Tutt, 27. "Religious leaders have kind of symbolically owned interfaith dialogue," he said in a telephone interview. "Our intention is to work with lay people, work with people that have a genuine curiosity and are interested in international issues and cross-culture issues."
Hodgin, a senior at George Fox University in Newberg, Ore., wanted to share with others on the campus of the Christian school what she was learning in an "Islam in the West" seminar course. She had seen the film about the student pilot in May and thought it would be "cool" to bring it to her school for the class.
Hodgin invited Salam to visit her campus near Portland. He put her in touch with Tutt , who helped Hodgin set up an event as a class project. Hodgin received the film and tips on how to host a dialogue. She learned that "dialogue is not debate" and that her job as host was to try to create an environment where people would feel free to open up and ask questions without fear of judgment.
The exact number of Muslims living in the United States is a question of debate. The U.S. Census Bureau does not tract religious affiliation in its population count. But estimates by various organizations put the number of Muslims in the range of 1.5 million to 5 million. Interest in the Muslim faith, Islam, rose sharply in the United States after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in 2001.
Lobna Ismail, 46, is an advisor to "20 Thousand Dialogues," but she earns a living providing training and workshops in cross-cultural communication. Islam and religious diversity are among her areas of expertise. She started her business, Connecting Cultures, Inc. nearly two decades ago. After Sept. 11, there was a much greater demand for what she does and for understanding about Arabs and Muslims, she said in a telephone interview.
"After 9/11, one of the best things that came out was that there was a real intention to engage in dialogue to learn and to respond to fear through education," she said.
Thirty Christians and Muslims met at George Fox University on a Saturday afternoon in November to watch "On a Wing and a Prayer" and to discuss the film. The theater-style lecture hall may not have been conducive to intimate conversation, Hodgin said. The group was quiet at first but people became more animated when they broke into small groups, Hodgin said. "You could tell just through their body language and the expressions on their faces that they were definitely engaged in really good conversation," Hodgin said.
Tutt, a Master's candidate at American University's School for International Service, said there is a lot of misunderstanding about Muslims and that his organization hopes film and dialogue can build bridges between people of different faiths.
Unity Productions would like for the dialouges to continue beyond a screening of its films. However, Tutt said that it is difficult to measure whether the organization is achieving that goal.
Hodgin was disappointed that more of the 3,200 students on her campus did not show up for her dialogue. "I was definitely hoping for more people to be in attendance and I was let down by that," she said. She said only 30 people were there and about a third of them were Muslims invited through the Muslim Educational Trust in Portland, a local group that promotes interfaith discussions.
However, Hodgin did achieve a small measure of success. Two Muslims who participated in the dialogue spoke to her about planning screenings in two nearby cities, she said.
"That was exciting to me because the event that I had put on was spawning these other events," she said. "From one to the next, that's how it keeps going. That's how we break down the stereotypes and the barriers that we face."
More