Oz wants Jihad ; )

So here I am in Sydney, Australia.
Last night was amazing. The Mardi Gras Film Festival and its courageous and visionary Director Lex Lindsay had to organize a second parallel screening of the film on Oxford Street, just to accomodate the overflow of eager audiences. And yes, Jihad played on two screens simultaneously-that is a total of 680 people in one evening! Everyone crowded into the main theater for the Forum discussion afterwards, that lasted for more than half an hour. We were joined by an old friend, fellow gay Muslim Azeem Ahmad, who is one of the first people I had ever filmed with. Azeem shared his amazing story with the Australian audience and the resonance of the film with current refugee, asylum issues here in Oz as well as the ongoing debates about Islam, was profound.

A woman in Hijab, a few gay Muslims and a remarkably engaged audience-made for a really moving evening.

A lot of press is happening.
An excellent interview with ABC, Australian National Radio is available at the link below-this is the Oz equivalent of NPR and Richard Aedy of LIFE MATTERS did a very thoughtful discussion-here is a journalist who had clearly done his homework and really engaged remarkably well with the film. (the interview is about 36 minutes into the program)
A JIHAD FOR LOVE ON ABC'S LIFE MATTERS WITH RICHARD AEDY

THERE IS A THIRD SCREENING ON WEDNESDAY AT THE DENDY CINEMA IN NEWTOWN AT 9 PM-PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD.

Here are some reactions from last night.

NICK writes...

Hi Parvez,
I saw your film tonight in Sydney, it was amazing.
Very thought provoking...
I can’t wait to see how it goes in Turkey and Indonesia.

AMAN MALHI writes...

I most say I was completely overwhelmed and over come w/ emotion after watching your documentary. You are truly an exceptional human being and a revolutionary of our time. Thank you, you have given my homosexual Muslim friends a glimpse of light at the end of the tunnel, letting them know that they are not alone in their struggle.

BEN writes...
"Thank you for your brave, challenging and optimistic film. ben.".

And from Mexico, PEDRO writes...

"Hi, Parvez-I watched your film at the Morelia Film Festival. I was amazed by how you managed to capture all of those feelings in one film. Congratulations! Keep up the work!"

Press and Berlin

Yes- we are in Egypt Today, an influential Egyptian English Newsmagazine and the response is sure to be overwhelming. Here is the link
Out of the Closet and Onto the Screen
A controversial film breaks open the taboo topic of homosexuality and Islam
By Ethar El-Katatney
We also have a write up in the ARAB TIMES from Kuwait

Der Spiegel's online English version has an excellent interview as well.

ADR's very popular NACHTMAGAZIN interviews Mazen and me on their show yesterday-this very good story is at around 18:00 in the interview so just click forward till that time code on this link. YOU CAN ALSO CLICK ON THE JIHAD FOR LOVE ICON ON THE LEFT OF THE PAGE

One of Germany's most powerful weeklys-DIE ZEIT puts Jihad as one of the top 10 films of the festival and calls it "herzzerreissend" (heartbreaking)

NEWSWEEK Magazine highlights the film is an excellent article.

STERN, also an influential voice in Germany, also has this on the film

VARIETY'S Ed Meza writes a comprehensive story including my future plans.

Rediff India's Asseem Chabbra writes about the film.

IN JUST THREE DAYS, 1800 PEOPLE HAVE SEEN THIS FILM AT THE BERLINALE!

My Jihad of the Camera goes on and there will be much more to come

Berlin Day 1

550 people in the audience
A chance meeting with Hiam Abbas
John Goetz talking about what he calls 'Catholic Cannibalism'
Berlin-at the heart of Europe's many deep divides and deeply fascinating...
I will soon write more

Oh Berlin!

Big premier tonight as the opening film of Panorama Dokumente
I am missing an 'important lunch' to write this quick post.
Why do we filmmakers have to endlessly network-and gather contacts to make our voices heard?
What is this networking madness? Is there space in the Universe for us all?
Questions of the day as I myself, prepare to plunge into the mosh pit ; )-and yes that will be later today.
Hopefully people will surround the film with love here as well. That for me is most important. I really said everything I could in the film, and it does speak for itself. So please come and engage with the film.
My Jihad continues! Allahu Akbar!

Why I made this film...

These days, I frequently get emails like these. I will not reveal the identity of this person and am changing his country of origin, but his pain and his dilemma is why I made this film. I am trying to find a way to be in touch with him and have him see the film. Inshaallah, we will all join in the message of hope and the embrace of love and understanding that so many need and need now.

Dear Parvez,
I am writing to you with no prior contact because you are my last destination of hope. The moral dilemma that you convey in your new documentary is eating my from within. I am 17 years old and the youngest of five children, of whom two are mentally disabled. My parents are very religious, and after having lived 17 years in France, they have still not integrated themselves, due to lack of language and difference of religion and culture. I simply need your help because I am alone in the struggle against my parents. I do not know whether they have the upper hand because they know the truth about whether homosexuality is a major sin, but what I do know is that they use it against me all the time. Personally, I am very much certain that I have not consciously made the decision to be a homosexual. I think all my misfortune began when I was raped at the age of six by a teenage friend to the family. I suffered many years of guilt and lonelines, and on top of that, today I am gay. Coming from my family and having my background that is the worst a person can be. So in Nov 07 my parents found out about my homosexuality and my third world war started. I was kept isolated during a month, very much confined to my home with no means of communication with the outside world whatsoever. I was given the ultimatum to either cure my self right away or be murdered and eliminated by my 30 year old brother/stoned to death by my father. Part of the cure would be going to Mecca with my mother in Dec 07, but I refused due to my school committments. They forbade me from seeing my one and only true friend, because he is a Christian transexual boy, and if I would have seen him without their approval, my brother and his wife would hire someone to eliminate my friend too. So I submitted to the atrocities hoping that I would find my way out of them soon. When school started in Jan 08, the social services were contaced, which further infuriated my family. Since then matters have shrunk almost to natural size and today I am no longer bothered by my brother and his wife thanks to an arrangement by the social services.

Please Parvez, I must see your documentary for I can no longer live and love with the knowledge that I am displeasing Allah. Please help me!

HOME

In the city, I always call Bombay (and for good reason)-the theater was too full to accomodate everyone including old friends that showed up. So we had two back to back screenings.
Screening the film in my Vatan (homeland) has been a huge personal victory for me-even beyond getting the award from the Delhi Chief Minister. The reactions have been so profound and to be honest so much more refreshing than the ones I usually get from my Western audiences (which while critical, are also remarkably and obviously different).
Saniya from Pakistan who was at the screening writes:

Hi Parvez,

Thank you so much for your film last night. I have to say that the best line in the film was that the, "Prophet was a femininst." Amazing how much effort goes into making a project come to completion. Where you must have started and then to bring it back to Bombay for a screening. Amazing!

Very Best,

saniya
I was surrounded by love, criticism, admiration and disagreement. And every single minute of it was worthwhile and priceless. Pictures and Video will follow when I return to the US.

And Shabnam writes
To,
Mr. Parvez
It was a good experience watching Jihad for Love yesterday... Its a topic tht is rarely covered.

And this from Ana

I saw the film at the festival at IHC in Delhi. I just wanted to express my utterly strong impressions about the film to the director!!! He has done a truly remarkable work! I'm a PhD student in social anthropology in Sweden and happened to be at IHC at the time. I have a large interest in how anthropological knowledge can be expressed in other media than academic texts, and from my perspective, this is what has been done here! My research project concerns gender construction in South India, so the topic of the film was also very interesting for me. Living in the West where homosexuality is more accepted, the film gives much insight to what it can mean to have a strong religious faith, something we often tend to neglect. Especially the islamic faith is being stigmatised and simplified. Issues such as what can be involved in being a refugee is also well expressed. I find it highly important to show the film in Europe, and I wish you good luck for an award in Berlin!
Best regards,

Anna Laine, University of Gothenburg,
Gothenburg, Sweden

Dilli ki Garmi: The Heat in Delhi and the Best Documentary Award

It is winter here in Dilli-but the temperature last night at the India Habitat Center was HOT! Here I am in my hometown and 400 people show up to the Indian premiere of 'A Jihad for Love' last night. To put it simply, it was an overwhelming and very emotional night. The audience temperature was high and that meant a question and answer where I engaged with that large and very supportive audience for more than 40 minutes. For the Tri-Continetal Film Festival that was a record turn out. As one man who came all the way from Dehradun (more than seven hours away) told me: "Thank you Parvez. I have been gay all my life and tonight you opened up a door and gave me courage that I will take away". A group of young Muslim men and I debated for quite a while after the screening-the consensus amongst them was that while they could not say that homosexuality was acceptable in Islam, they were going away with atleast a significant amount to think about. We spoke about the finer aspects of the film, for long in Hindi and Urdu-as I found it easier to communicate the ideas I had in our own languages. They promised me that they would try and spread the word so that more people-and especially young Muslims in India could engage with the film. Clearly many discussions remain to be had and I feel fortunate and blessed to bring this discussion to a clearly engaged and very supportive hometown crowd. The film has also won the Jury Award for Best Documentary Award here and it was ironic for me to recieve the award from the heart of the Delhi political and bureaucratic scene-Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit gave me the award.

This is home my friends and nothing can be a greater or more personal journey for me than to bring this film here. For 400 people to show up to see this film in a week that has seen some of the worst personal attacks on many Muslim intellectuals in India, is a sign of significant hope. I promise to keep you all updated on these rich and meaningful discussions here in India, the worlds only real democracy in my opinion and certainly a nation that has the worlds second largest Muslim population.

The film will also probably get seen by millions more here. For now- I cannot reveal how, but keep watching this space for more updates from here and from the road.

Clearly coming to a non-Western audience for the first time with this film-is a huge personal victory for me and points the way forward to discussions and debate that will be remarkably different.

I am also going to be up-loading an unedited video someone filmed of a portion of the question and answer-so you see it, as it was ; )

Parvez Sharma on The Huffington Post again

Folks in these strange times, please read my latest blog featured on The Huffington Post, in the politics section

The Martyrdom of Benazir Bhutto

Suhail's Jihad

A dear friend Suhail Abu al-Sameed has been thrown right into the storm generated by the MJC's Hukum in South Africa-that follows showings of the film there. Suhail became a part of the debate raging around Islam and Homosexuality in that country, from the time we went on The Voice of the Cape. I have known Suhail for years and he is a remarkable and courageous activist who deserves all of our support.

For more details on Suhail coming out to Ulema in Johannesburg go to:

Gay Muslim Outs Himself to Muslim Scholars at Conference

MJC Hukum and its repercussions

MJC's (Muslim Judicial Council, South Africa) Hukum and A Jihad for Love were discussed in the majority of mosques in the Western Cape over the last week. Amongst many liberal Muslims in the Western Cape, the response has been that the MJC has been reactionary. Many have spoken to Imam Muhsin Hendricks and many have emailed me. We look at the MJC's Hukum as an opportunity to work with the community and with the MJC and we seek to invite Maulana Abdul Khaliq Allie and Maulana Ahsaan Hendricks from the MJC to see the film when we open in theaters in South Africa over the next few months. We look forward to positive engagement with the Muslim Judicial Council in South Africa and I use this opportunity once again to invite the venerable Mufti Abdul Kader Hoosen to see the film as well.

I reproduce here one recent background article from the Voice of The Cape, a Radio Station that had the courage and the vision to discuss this issue in public and graciously invite us to be on their show. (I reproduce directly from their website, without punctuation changes) Gay Muslim film raises CTN temperature

Posted on: 16/11/2007 14:56:35

The Muslim Judicial Council has raised fierce objection to a program done on VOC on Friday morning which focused on the documentary film Jihad for Love, which runs in Cape Town until Saturday, saying that the program gave exposure to controversial figures in the community on an explosive issue. The film which was made over almost six years documents the lives of gay Muslims in 12 countries -- to tell the story of Islam by the most unlikely storytellers: lesbian and gay Muslims". The MJC charged that the coverage on the film had "helped to propagate an ideology and ideas which are very much resented in any Islamic community". Since the program was aired, our telephone lines have been inundated with calls from people objecting to the exposure given to homosexual activity amongst certain individuals. "We strongly object to this kind of presentation of a lifestyle which is foreign to Islam and Muslims. We do not look upon this as a broadminded view since it encourages homosexualism," said MJC secretary general, Maulana Abdul Khaliq Allie. "On behalf of every right-minded Muslim at the Cape and South Africa, we demand that this type of attitude of VOC shall end immediately and they should not try to be 'with it'. Moreover, to air such a program without a rebuttal from the ulema's side to reject such views is not only professional at all. Lastly, we object to VOC propagating and advertising the film on homosexualism," Ml Allie concluded. In response, VOC denied that the ulema had not been given an opportunity to state the opposing view, adding that the station had taken care to presents all sides to the program. This was most strongly demonstrated by the views of Mufti Abdul Kader Hoosain which aired on Thursday evening and was repeated on Friday on the Open Line @ 9am, to show the different perspectives the documentary tried to reflect. Ulema position The Quran is replete with the incident of Lut's people in so many verses. In one verse Allah SWA said that Allah 'picked up the earth and smashed it to the ground'. Even today if you go to that part of Palestine, you will find that it is the lowest portion in altitude on this earth. That is a relic and remnant for people to take heed of what had happened to the people of Sodom and Gomorra. Not only Islam -- every religion, whether Christianity or Judaism -- have abhorred it, outlawed it," Mufti AK said. He also quoted the hadith which stating that if two consenting adults engaged in a homosexual act, it would be punishable by death. "The only difference among the jurists is the method of capital punishment. Some say we must take them to the apex, or the mountain, otherse say throw them down and put a wall over them. If any person with a Muslims name considers it permissible and calls himself and imam, he is a murtad and outside of the fold of Islam. There are no two opinions on this issue. It is absolutely haraam. What we see on the internet and in films today is a reminder of what the Nabi SAW had said centuries ago -- that one of the things he feared most for his people was that they would become involved in homosexuality and the gay business." Asked why he had allowed himself to be filmed as part of the documentary film, Mufti Hoosain explained that he had first engaged in debate a few years ago with Imam Muhsin Hendricks, the local gay imam who came out of the closet and subsequently started a support group for queer Muslims in Cape Town. This had raised the ire of the Muslim community around the country with many ready to take strong action against him. Hendricks is one of the people gay Muslim filmmaker Parvez Sharma focused on in the documentary. "I was in Makkah at the time when CII called me to say there was an imam in Cape Town who was challenging the ulema and no one wanted to take him on. I later found out that other ulema in the Cape had spoken out against him. I was in the Haram at the time and I agreed to participate in the debate, which he lost very badly. Then after a few years they contacted me again to say they wanted to record the debate again for the foreign audience who had not heard the first debate. I then met with him in my home, but I told Muhsin that there is unanimity from the ulema on his position as a murtad and as such, I was not even willing to take his hand, because he was still trying to justify his position. My interaction with him was only so that he comes back into the fold of Islam and don't try to please the Shaytan. I told him that if he was to die at that point, not one imam would perform salah on him. I also asked him to realise how many people he was leading astray because he carried the title of Imam in front of his name." Asked if this meant that Muslims could engage with the gay Muslim community on how to deal with homosexuality, Mufti said: "In Islam we don't say that we must engage with them to the extent that we socialise with them. But history tells us that we are able to engage in intellectual debate with those whom we have difference. For example, Musa AS had the debate with the Sahireen and those involved in witchcraft. So we have to try our level best to bring them best to Islam. But if the person has made up his mind and they adamantly hold onto their views, then you must ex-communicate them totally. This applies as much to the murtad as it does for those who wish to justify and legalise homosexuality." Debate However, he added that Muslims could not sweep the existence of homosexuality under the carpet. The best way to deal with it, he said, was to face reality. "To push everything under the carpet and live in denial that it is not happening, is a lie. If there is a problem -- whether it is drugs or homosexuality -- then we must address it in the light of Quran and Sunnah, as we will address this issue too. But any person who tries to justify it, that we will condemn at all platforms at all times because it can never ever be allowed in Islam. Asked if documentaries like these help Muslims to deal with the reality of homosexuality in their midst, Mufti said: "Definitely. Allah forbid but there are so many respected people whom we interact with who would like to think that their sons of daughters do not become involved in drugs for example. Yet it happens. Allah forbid, homosexuality can also creep into our ummah. The constitution in this country is so lax that everything -- Adam and Eve, Adam and Steve, Madam and Eve, all of it goes. Legally you can't even take action. "Therefore the only way you and I as Muslims can win this battle is to show them the beauty of Islam, interact with them in the form of debate and not just tell them they will go straight to hell without pardon. If we can bring back one of them, because we must never lose faith in the mercy of Allah, then we must try to do so. But they must know what they are doing can never be justified. And if they do justify it, they are murtad and out of the fold of Islam," he said. VOC said knowing that the matter was a sensitive one, it ran opinion polls ahead of the program which conveyed the sentiment also expressed by most of the on air callers on Friday morning. The online poll conducted on Wednesday posed the question if films of this nature served a purpose in helping Muslims to deal with the reality of homosexual phenomenon. Only 22.9% thought the film did serve this purpose, but even so, 2.4% said they would still not see it while 20.5% said they would see it. However, the majority (77.1%) echoed the sentiments of on air callers who said they could not approve of the documentary under any circumstances since it pushed for gay acceptance. The station stressed that it had not done the program to debate whether homosexuality was accepted within Islam or not since this matter had repeatedly and vociferously been debated over the last four years on air with the majority opinion holding true to those of Mufti Hoosain's. "The intention of the program was to find out if the film helped Muslims deal better with the issue if it was your son or daughter that was conflicted by the battle to reconcile Islam with their sexuality. This is why a social welfare organisation like ISWA -- who also featured in the documentary - was included in the program, since they do not have a gay agenda, but could speak as social workers on how Muslims are dealing with the issue," the station said. Rushdi Sears of ISWA confirmed that homosexuality had always been part of the community, which had been tolerated as something that secretly took place, as long as no one was flaunting that lifestyle in the community's face. However post 1994, gays began to assert themselves more and this assertiveness led to increasing intolerance against homosexuals, more so than in previous years. "The issue was not as assertive today as it was 15 - 25 years ago and by assertive I mean there is an agenda now. People are now saying I am a Muslim, but I am also a homosexual. Does that make me wrong? We are saying that does not make you wrong, but we may differ with you on the actions you take." Understand not Accept "At ISWA we believe that when people present a problem, they are not the problem themselves. Homosexuality is a reality we cannot wish away. But in our society there are many misconceptions about homosexuals. People believe if you are gay you sleep around. Yet we don't make the same assumption of heterosexuals. It is a terrible distortion made of homosexuality. ISWA is about trying to understand people and in that process, give them options and guidance on how to better to come to terms with the situation they find themselves in. But while we may understand it, that does not necessarily mean we agree with their position. This is how we believe Muslims should behave." To further add balance to the program, callers were allowed to raise their opinion. Two of whom who had seen the film had distinctly different opinions. One said he had been expected Islam to be bashed in the film and had gone to watch it for educational purposes, but he had been surprised by the fact that the film did not depict anything negative about Islam. "There was nothing disparaging about it Islam, it was in fact a very human movie. It dealt with the internal jihad these people had (as they tried to deal with their homosexuality and Islam). I in fact apologise unreservedly for my attitude towards gays before I saw this film." However, a second person who saw the film had the exact opposite view, saying that while the film "had some Islamic aspects"he still could not accept the gay agenda of the film. "Will we accept child pornography or bestiality? Of course not. Homosexuality is the same thing," he said, confirming that his opinion had not been changed after seeing the film. All the other callers share similar sentiments. Some said the film's attempt to create a different understanding about Jihad as "an inner struggle", rather than a terrorist activity -- which had won over most non-Muslim audiences -- was used as a "strategic and emotional seduction" to gain acceptance for the gay agenda. Another caller said: "We have been taught if something was wrong, you stay away from it. It is as simple as that. Discussing it just helps to create a platform to promote it." VOC added that the film had been widely discussed on most mainstream radio station in the Cape in the last week. "The minute our listeners heard it on the commercial stations this week, they called us to ask if we were also going to cover it because they wanted to hear a different perspective on it. We felt that since it was a film that dealt with Muslims and Islam -- homosexual or otherwise -- it was unacceptable for it to be dealt with by everyone except the Muslim community. "VOC took every care to cover all sides to this debate, because we believe that we cannot shy away from challenging issues, rather we should seek the opportunity to deal with it responsibly, which we believe we have done with our best intentions. The maturity with which our listeners responded on air, which showed dignity to all parties despite the vast chasm between the two sides, we believe is a credit to our listenership for which we are grateful." VOC Matthieu Tancrede writes in from Montreal Thank you for your film, I was at the Montreal's screening and the documentary really moved me. Hope the recovery is doing well, in french we have an expression that says: le repos du guerrier, I guess the Jihadi's rest is well deserved. I was wondering if you have news from the two Iranian men who were still waiting in Turkey at the end of the movie. What happened to them ?

Nina's Heavenly Delights

Please watch my friend Pratibha Parmar's first feature-Ninas's Heavenly Delights now in its first week of theatrical in New York and opening in San Francisco. Pratibha is an accomplished filmmaker who first captured our hearts with "Khush" and now brings us this urban fairy tale about Garam Masala, Curry, Korma TV and Indians with Scottish accents ; )
Also comments are pouring in from around the world for Jihad. I can hardly keep up. This from Montreal (someone who actually saw the film as opposed to those who condemn (see MJC below) without seeing the film).
Hi Parvez, i want to thank you for producing this documentary. it was touching and inspiring. it renews faith in love and humanity!
Thank you.
Marius Wolfe
In addition to all those comments from Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Doha and Bangladesh-the hunger for 'Jihad' is widespread-we need to find ways to spread the movement within the Ummah and beyond. 'Datu' writes in from the Phillipines.
"i just wanted to ask if your film will ever be screened here in our country. i'm a 20-year-old closet mtf tran, and i'd be very glad if there would ever be an opportunity for me--as well as every silent queer muslim out here--to watch it."