Deen Too Tight

Deen “Too” Tight

Culture Identity and Power at a NJ Film Screening

Introduction

On Saturday, August 7th 2010 I attended what was to be a screening of the film documentary DeenTight by filmmaker Mustafa Davis. Both Mustafa and Usama Canon, Director of the community based organization Ta’leef Collective who is also interviewed in the film, flew in from the Bay Area of California to New Jersey. “Deen” is an arabic word most commonly translated as ‘religion’. DeenTight uses the challenges faced by Muslim American music artists as a vehicle for peeling off the layers of race, culture, identity and religion in America. Though I do not appear in the film I was asked to be a part of the panel discussion due to my experiences as a Muslim Spoken Word artist. What follows is how on a warm August night in the Garden State life imitated art.

Background

Please familiarize yourself with the film by visiting www.deentight.com. Both the synposis and trailer links are at the bottom of the homepage. The film was to be screened in its entirety at a mosque in New Jersey. 95% of the audience were South Asian and Arab with a clear gap in generations. The power dynamic rested primarily in middle aged South Asian and Arab men. I mention this because it would become relevant later. The screening was held in what was initially described as “the musallah” (prayer space). To their credit Mustafa and Usama adamantly cautioned the organizers WHILE STILL IN CALIFORNIA that due to there being some profanity, and the prolific use of music which some Muslims find objectionable, having the screening in an actual masjid would not be advisable. It should be noted that no one in the masjid actually screened the film beforehand. We came to find out however that this was not in fact a dedicated prayer space but a mixed use space where they in fact have weddings that include music (though not “American” music). More on this later. Onto “the controversy”.

The Controversy

DeenTight is a documentary on Muslim artists and their perspectives and challenges when it comes to music and Islam. One would expect that actual music would feature prominently in the film. As we began to watch the film it became clear however that the masjid (mosque) leadership was lowering the volume whenever music would move to the foreground of the soundtrack as opposed to the background when someone is talking. I personally found this to be not only silly, intrusive and artistically untenable but disrespectful to the filmmaker and Usama Canon who were guests of the community. But at this point it was merely annoying.

As time went on however and the more “raw” parts of the film began to appear (mainly profanity from gang members) the lowering of the volume moved to outright pressing of the mute button. I grew more and more bothered by this because our guests were sitting right next to me. I could see in disillusionment and exasperation in their faces. This is not how you treat people you invite “into your home.” As the film progressed there was a point when a Muslim woman began to sing and so muting the volume progressed to FAST FORWARDING of ENTIRE scenes. At this point I could no longer contain myself and said loudly “Imam this is ridiculous. If you are going to keep doing this then please just stop the movie and let’s just go into discussion.” So contrary to what was stated by someone later during the open session I did not “yell at the Imam”. So perhaps 1/2 way through the film we ended.

What Followed!

The discussion began with a brief intro and then the mic was passed to me. I stated that I had no intention of turning the entire night into a rant on “what just happened” but stated what my issues were. My main issue was how we treated our guests. I was incensed to be honest because as human beings we don’t treat guests this way let alone do we do so as Muslims. How did we make them feel? And for what? We need to stop being afraid to deal with real issues affecting our community because those issues don’t fit into nice bite-sized “baklavic” or “buryanic” pieces. I talked about how we can’t even accept the fact that there is a legitimate difference of opinion on music permissibility. Those of us that have studied Islamic jurisprudence know that it is NOT permissible to insist upon one’s position being definitive when there are legitimate scholarly differences on a matter. But this isn’t bout Music halal/haram. For a more thorough treatment of this particular subject please refer to the article Music and Islam: Wind, Strings, and Fear of a Black Planet on www.brotherdash.com. What this is about is how on a warm August night life imitated art. The silencing of “the other.” The rejection of that which is not familiar or comfortable. You see the emotion and the sensitivity in the voice and in the face of a Muslim female artist who said that it might “mean the deen” if she had to give up singing (due to the wrangling over the issue of permissibility). There’s no “mute” button for her soul is there. And if there was would that be healthy? Do you want your Muslim sister to leave Islam because she feels stifled by Pakistani and Arab and frankly Black and Latino convert uncles telling her to shut up and her voice is her “nakedness”? What kind of existence is that for a human being? The issue isn’t can women sing…can women articulate the voice of their souls? Is there even a SPACE for a soul to speak? That also informed my ‘anger’ if you will.

The Discussion

We did get into some issues however. We talked about how we rarely if ever define music (a point made in the Music and Islam article). We operate from different understandings. And we are not being culturally agnostic. A comment was made about how we need to promote our “Islamic music” like Qawwali (a cultural genre of Pakistan). But how is Qawwali anymore “Islamic” than Muslims doing Islamically themed Hip-Hop? When we peel off the layers the issue isn’t about music permissibility it’s about how Black people music is a problem. It’s about how American music is a problem and the threat that represents to the status quo and default “Islamic” culture meaning ‘immigrant’ culture. It’s about how the Arab and South Asian dominance of Islam in America is being forcibly challenged by a growing Black and now Latino Muslim base that can synthesize legalism with culture for an AUTHENTICALLY Islamic and American story.

The reality is when we asked who listened to music at least 3/4 of the room raised their hand. When we asked who listened to ONLY ‘ISLAMIC’ MUSIC not one person raised their hands. When we asked what kids were listening to one brave soul mentioned Li’l Wayne and Metallica! Think we need to have the kind of discussions DeenTight is provoking now? Also brought up in discussion was this tendency of the questioners, again Arab and South Asian, to use terminology like “these people” and “the Muslims.” You had a questioner mention that his father would sometimes say “stop acting like an Imriki (American) and act like a Muslim.” That creates a false dichotomy. When we say “these people” and “an American” then that means there is a mutually exclusive relationship between being Muslim and being American. You can’t be both? An American can’t be Muslim? Muslim is by default an Arab, a South Asian, an immigrant or 2nd/3rd generation child of Muslim immigrants? So you see the issues of race, culture and identity in this discussion and that has nothing to do with music and this says nothing about even the terms we use like “Islamic” culture and “Islamic” music. What about labels and how we accept labels and what that means for the discourse? What does “Islamic” music really mean? This was brought up in fact very eruditely by a young Egyptian American sister involved in the music scene.

Conclusion and Hopeful Endings

Now as strange as this may sound I posit that this New Jersey screening was probably one of the best “screenings” of DeenTight! How can I say such a thing especially in light of not even finishing the film? I can say that because it’s not always about the activity it’s about the goal. Screening the film is an activity. Stimulating discussion and dialogue and starting the process of dealing with race, culture, identity and power in Islamic America and The West is the goal. Did we not accomplish this? For the uncles and aunties in attendance they got a bit of a metaphorical “smack upside the head” as we say in Black American vernacular in terms of the in your face seriousness of the issues. That’s a good thing. For the young people they got to be in the same room with the older generation and air some of their thoughts. Not only that but afterwards several of us got together at a local brother’s home with Usama and Mustafa discussing these issues til “the break of dawn.” And most importantly everyone got to hear alternative voices and share their own. They got to see three American Muslim converts not back down from “the old guard” but also not try to control the dynamic. It’s not about having both the literal and figurative remote control. On the hopeful note all individuals involved in the drama including myself spoke with each other and feelings were smoothed over. I personally apologized to the Imam and mentioned no disrespect was intended but I did not apologize for speaking up. He was fine with that and agreed with me in fact on some of my points. He has now asked me to speak to a youth group he teaches in northern New Jersey. All of this as a result of Mustafa’s film. So was the “screening” not indeed a success after all? I think it was but the true success will be when we have these discussions all over the country and with different audiences all contributing to open dialogue. After the dialogue we can start to do some real work which has already begun with the film DeenTight.

Brother Dash
www.brotherdash.com
August 2010