At any rate ... I just watched The Mosque in Morgantown. And I didn't hate it. Perhaps I didn't hate it because I so anticipated hating it. I think for internal viewing, for viewing by the American Muslim community, the film actually did a fairly good job of illustrating and clarifying what the situation was, in practice, in intentions, and in the mind of Ms. Nomani herself. Internally it did not very well portray her as a martyr for her cause or even as being correct in her approach, but it also did not attempt to simply wash away the fact of the discomfort and disputes that do arise in mosque memberships. Not so much propaganda and not so much proselytizing, or at least not of the believable kind. As films go I can respect that. Though I do question here, now, years afterwards, nationally debuting a film that in effect continues the attempt to make a national spectacle of one community.
Externally ... I well understand that it is likely to read differently. But to be blunt I'm finding it hard to care. To put it in some context: I have recently engaged in a discussion about Asra Nomani with a Christian woman who read an article by her or heard an interview with her or something along those lines. What the conversation has caused, for me, is a renewed realization of the difficulty that exists in discussing Islamic matters, particularly sensitive matters, in their own context with people who exist outside of that context. An American Christian feminist can not realistically help but to view a woman holding a protest in front of a mosque, a single mother who feels disrespected, through anything but the lenses of American protest movements, Christian texts and their related disputes, the Christian American political scene and it's own cliches, and 20th century sexual politics -- through every lens but those of Muslims, Muslim feminists, or Islamic texts, ethics, or methods. (That the filmmaker herself does so well underlines the point.) That such a viewer will view things in a manner that doesn't necessarily apply is more a given than it is gamble. But to the extent that such a viewer is not in a position to attempt to force changes in line with their own perceptions (say, for example, in the case of using the plights of many Afghan women in the litany of excuses for leveling those same women's communities) their opinions are only as relevant as we care to make them. And, frankly, I doubt very many people sitting down to watch a little PBS on a Monday night are in just such a position.
(As an aside, I thought the AltMuslimah article on and the Muslimah Media Watch review of the film were both fair in their criticism.)
Though I may not have hated it, I still have higher hopes for New Muslim Cool next week. I'm missing films about Muslims that kind of fill the reality space that exists between dawah documentaries and things like The Yacoubian Building or Confessions of a Gambler. Piety with reality but not centered so heavily on divisive controversy or only personal failings ... is that really so much to ask from just a movie?
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