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Diversity DVD Library

Middle East

1.  America at a Crossroads: The Muslim Americans (DVD – 60 min.s – Facilitator’s Guide)  This documentary explores the diversity of Muslims in America today, focusing on communities’ experience after 9/11, and contrasting life for Muslims here in the United States with Muslims in Britain and Europe. The film looks at the ongoing conversation American Muslims are having about life in the United States, including assimilation, discrimination, Muslim youth, religion and politics.

2.  America at a Crossroads:  Homegrown - Islam in Prison (DVD 60 min.s - discussion guide)  This PBS documentary, narrated by journalist Roger MacNeil, explores the spread of radical Islam throughtout Europe,  Will this militant mindset become "homegrown" and threaten the U.S.?  HOMEGROWN, examines a crucial question - are U.S. prisons incubators for radical Islam and terrorist ideology?  The issue was brought to the fore by the disruption of an alleged terrorist plot, hatched in prison, in Los Angeles in 2005.

3.  Arab World, The (DVD & VHS – 25 min.s – Facilitator’s Resource Guide)
The Arab world is the gateway to Africa, Asia, and Europe. The earliest civilizations and three major world religions took root there. Many influences – religion, the West, the diversity among the Arab people have shaped the Arab world. Today many nations within the region are trying to construct modern civilizations based on ancient traditions. This video examines the reasons these traditions are important to many Arabs and their impact on the region today. The video outlines the history of the Arab world, including the founding of Islam, the Turkish Empire and its eventual breakup, and the Arab’s political and armed conflicts with Jews over Palestine.

4.  Dissonance and Harmony:  Arabic Music Goes West (DVD - 60 min.s)  This film offers new imagery of Arabs, not as patently anti-American, not as terroists, but as artists, universally familiar in their struggle to share their talent and ideas.  The film follows an eclectic mix of Middle Eastern musicians from their own very specific turf in the Middle East to the U.S.  Once there, in Los Angeles, they collaborate with other gifted musicians from the West, finding common ground between two cultures in conflict.

5.  I Exist:  Voices from the Lesbian and Gay Middle Eastern Community in the U.S. (VHS)  From the Unlearing Homophobia film series, this documentary is about the lives of lesbian and gay Middle Easterners in the U.S.  Award-winning directors Peter Barbosa and Garrett Lenoir deliver a piercing tour de force of the joys and pains of growing up gay and Middle Eastern.  Touching and groundbreaking interviews shed light on the experiences of this community, once voiceless by the fear of shame and ostracism.

6. Muslims: An In-Dept Look at What it Means to be a Muslim in the 21st Century (DVD – 120 min.s) The events of September 11th left many Americans asking how such atrocities could be perpetrated in the name of religion: specifically, Islam. Misconceptions and lack of understanding dominate American’s perception of Islam, the world’s second largest and fastest growing religion. Filmed in Egypt, Malaysia, Iran, Turkey, Nigeria and the United States, Muslims explores the influence of culture and politics on religion, and provides a deeper understanding of the political forces at work among Muslims around the world. The film emphasizes Islam’s kinship with Christianity and Judaism, and looks at diverse interpretations of Islam among the Muslim people.

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