Synopsis: The film profiles five diverse North American individuals who experience life in new and unexpected ways when they decide to become Muslim.
Director: Hoda Elatawi
Several years ago, I decided to grow a beard and kept it for a few months. An individual I was casually familiar with said to me, ‘I didn’t know you were a Muslim.’ To which I replied, ‘Is that a problem?’ The person got uncomfortable and stammered, ‘No, no, I just didn’t know you were one of them.’
The fact is that I am not and never have been a Muslim. I am simply a Black man who, at that time, had a beard, but that visual was enough to make that person slightly uncomfortable.
That brief experience I had is nothing compared to what actual people of the Muslim faith deal with regularly. It is one of the themes explored in the new documentary, So You Want to Be a Muslim, by director Hoda Elatawi.
Elatawi’s film looks at Islam from a point of view rarely discussed on screen. She examines the religion from within and presents cases of several people who have become Muslims. Barbara, Stephanie, Rima, and the married couple Johnae and Eli each discuss what led them to Islam. The film is shot over several years, so the audience gets to spend significant time with these individuals. It’s fascinating getting to know their relatives and their reactions.
Muslim people are often presented in films as outsiders or a threat to society. However, in this film, we meet mothers, daughters, and husbands, interesting people with very different lives, and the common denominator is their religion. Whether employed in politics, the military, or building a family, the film introduces us to people just trying to make their way through this thing called life.
Any good documentary provides multiple points of view, and Elatawi does not shy away from that. She documents family members’ scepticism about their relatives converting. She highlights the stereotypes society has around religion while also providing a close look at what being a person in the Muslim community deals with and some of the stigmas attached. The film explores Islamophobia and how even wearing a hijab can incite negative experiences for those wearing it.
In 2020, when George Floyd was murdered, it ushered in a discussion on what the Black experience was like. Similarly, this film opens a dialogue on what the experience is like for Muslim people and shows there is a lot more that unites us than divides us.
The film isn’t a pro-Muslim piece aimed at getting people to convert. Instead, it showcases why these specific characters chose Islam. Through unflinching experiences, we get to know them and why their religion is so important to them.
Some movies need to be seen in the theatre, and So You Want to Be a Muslim simply NEEDS TO BE SEEN. Elatawi has made a film that will foster great discussion; in fact, this film is so powerful that it should be part of the educational curriculum. The film not only challenges the prejudices that people in the Muslim community deal with but is also a celebration of the religion. It shows people who normally may not be associated with Islam and demonstrates the beauty they have found in the religion.
Typically, conversations around religion and politics are a no-fly zone, but this is a dialogue that needs to happen. Audiences will no doubt benefit from watching a film that explores the reasons behind people’s conversion to Islam rather than another where a Muslim character is typecast as a terrorist yet again.
In this documentary, Elatawi isn’t simply allowing the audience to get to know these people. She is holding a mirror up to society.
Grade: B+
Watch Keith’s interview with Director Hoda Elatawi:
Watch the movie trailer:
