Sunday, January 22, 2017

"American Sharia" A Film Review

This week a friend of mine attended  the "premiere" of American Sharia" a film designed to make American Muslims look like victims of an evil America. My friend wishes to remain anonymous.I have added four hyperlinks for background.

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I attended the C.A.I.R. sponsored film, "American Sharia", last night at Cinemark in Anaheim.  The theater was nearly full and Omar Regan, who is the film's screenwriter, director, and star, introduced the film with these comments:
  • Big praise for CAIR, and its director Hussam Ayloush, for making this showing possible.
  • The Latino community is in the building.  (NOTE:  Earlier in the day, a Latino-Muslim coalition was formed.)
  • I made this film because Muslims in movies are always terrorists.  Also to show Islamophobia is not real.  (I think he meant to say Islamophobia is real.)
  • I dedicated this film to my father, Imam Luqman Abdullah, who was shot 20 times by the feds, who said he was a terrorist. He wasn't.  (For information on this Oct 28, 2009, google the Imam's name.)
  • Eric Roberts is the only Hollywood star in the film.  He wanted to tell this story.  He knows 5 other Hollywood actors who want to be in future films.
My review of the film begins with the admission that it was less amateurish than I expected.  I had very low expectations. The gunfights were really lame, but I was fascinated by the plotline's propagandistic portrayal of Muslim cops trying to do the right thing in bringing truth, justice, and the American Sharia way to Detroit while exposing all the bad guys, including non-Muslim black cops, white cops, bigoted old ladies, and one Arab type I never figured out.
Eric Roberts played the bad guy, a rogue cop bent on making the lives of good, decent Muslims miserable.  The odd thing was he is always alone as he harasses women and points guns at men with raised hands obeying his every command.  In one scene he coaches a witness viewing a lineup of women in burkas to "just pick one, any one."  His most memorable scene is his "come to Jesus moment" when we learn the cause of his hatred.
The greatest annoyance was a series of "what's wrong with America" statements:
  • They dropped the bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki
  • They wiped out indigenous Americans
  • They perpetrated Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook, and got away with killing Trevor Martin  (I think this film was in the can before   Michael Brown and Black Lives Matter)
  • They gave blankets infected with smallpox to the Indians
Bottom line is this film will have a very limited market.  What's important is seeing how sharia is marketed.  The message is exactly what I and some others heard April, 2013 at a Loyola-Marymount conference: Sharia does not work under dictators.  It will work in the US because it's all about love and justice and getting along. 
I would give this film the following subtitle:  Muslims make America great...finally!
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Thanks to my friend for sitting through this film. That way I didn't have to.

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