Muslim voices screened

Documentaries by nine Muslim community groups, produced through Scribe Video Center's Muslim Voices project and to be screened Tuesday at International House, offer intimate perspectives of Muslim life.

"We wanted a project that reflected the broad diversity of Muslim communities in Philadelphia in terms of practice of faith, ethnicity, longevity, or geography," said Louis Massiah, director of the project and founder of Scribe Video Center, which works with community groups to tell their authentic stories.

Massiah began laying the groundwork for the project in 2010, undertaking a pilot project with six Muslim groups, two of which created pilot films in 2011.

"One of the most powerful ways to learn about those traditions is to hear from the groups themselves, firsthand," said Zein Nakhoda, the project coordinator.

"When a community is allowed to define itself, all of us are empowered because we can have a true democratic discourse," he said. "There needs to be more spaces for historically disenfranchised and silenced communities."

Each group submitted a proposal detailing subject matter and archival information. Scribe provided the groups with a production facilitator and a humanities scholar, who worked with them for a year.

Nina Johnson, assistant professor of sociology and black studies at Swarthmore College, worked alongside the New Africa Center, a nonprofit coalition striving to preserve, protect, and elevate the cultural heritage of Islam in America.

"It's been really thrilling," she said. "There's so much I didn't know about Philadelphia and the history of Islam in Philadelphia."

With Philadelphia's large immigrant population, the city has become a microcosm of the demographics of Muslims across the globe.

Ayesha Butt served as the project's research coordinator in 2011, examining the history of Muslims in Philadelphia. She scoured old newspapers, museums, archives, and ship passenger manifests to uncover a concealed history.

"I found that a second influx of Muslims arrived in the 1880s from Syria and Arabia," she said. "There was still a large presence of Moors in the late 1890s, but a large immigrant wave of Arab families arrived and permanently settled in the 1950s, establishing a critical mass of Muslims in the city."

During the mid-20th century, thousands of Muslim immigrants arrived from Asia, Eastern Europe, and Africa, this population added to the growing African American Muslim community. There are 50 to 60 mosques or Islamic centers in Philadelphia now.

"We tend to think about the Muslim community as a monolithic entity," said Ife Williams, a consultant to Muslim Voices. "The richness of this project is its focus on the diversity and internationalism of Muslim communities in Philadelphia."

The Lajna Ima'illah (the women's auxiliary of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, a revival movement within Islam that was founded in 1889), documented the woman's point of view.

"We wanted to concentrate on issues affecting women - issues like how Muslim women dress, arranged marriages, and education," said Nusrat Jahan Bashir, president of Lajna Ima'illah.

For Brother T. Hopkins-Bey II, 27, secretary of the Moorish Science Temple of America, Temple #11, the project was pivotal.

"It was phenomenal," Hopkins-Bey said. "It gave me the opportunity to realize what I want to do."

After his work with Scribe and the Muslim Voices of Philadelphia project, he enrolled at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Fla., with a major in digital cinematography. He plans to further document the history of the Moorish Science Temple of America.

The projects were educational for the groups themselves, each leaving with a trove of memories.

Hopkins-Bey reminisces about meeting the eldest member of the Moorish Science Temple of America, Sister H. Graves El, believed to be in her late 90s. He also learned that Temple #28 in New Jersey was established by a Philadelphian. Bashir remembers interviews highlighting Muslim women in the armed forces.

"It has encouraged us to pray together, eat together, and learn from each other," Hopkins-Bey said. "It's created an atmosphere of love."

Williams, who assisted the Masjidullah with its documentary, found she was learning along with her group despite growing up in a community with Muslims.

"I thought I knew a lot about Black Muslims," she said. "I had my own perspective that had been tainted by society. ... I had this image of them being cold and aloof. . . . Their image has been tainted by the media as well as Christian communities that have demonized their cultural practices and beliefs."

In her work with Masjidullah, Williams attended a mosque for the first time.

"I don't know what I thought it would be like," she said. "I felt so at home."

"The stories and stereotypes we hear about Muslims in Philadelphia can be very narrow," said Nakhoda. "Even with nine groups [involved in the project], it's a small slice of the full diversity of Islam in Philadelphia."

But Nakhoda stresses that the project is not merely a rebuttal to stereotypes or prejudice, but is instead a celebration of the religion, culture, and people of Islam. Despite its large cultural and historical footprint in Philadelphia, very few entities offer information specific to the relationship between the region and religion.

"The project is about representing the vibrancy and strength of these communities and their contributions to the city," he said.

"There was so much great footage and so many great moments," said Johnson. "The challenge was taking these very precious memories of a rich time and place and narrowing that down to a very focused 15 minutes."

With hundreds of hours of interviews, the transcripts will be used to create a companion text to the project.

Butt hopes the project inspires people to not only collect, but also document, their history.

"Philadelphia is a city with all types of people," she said. "No matter what denomination one follows, they will find a place to call home and to belong."