Inside Islam

Jan. 2011 Update: The film is freely available for online viewing at Snagfilm.org.

Watch more free documentaries

On TUESDAY, APRIL 27 at 7PM in the GJERDE CENTER, CBC Reads will host a showing and panel discussion of the documentary film Inside Islam: What a Billion Muslims Really Think.

Read a letter to the Editor of the Tri-city Herald by Tom Roach recommending this event.

Original post 4/8/10
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Update by Meg. Woods:

There were 248 people at last night’s event. I introduced our community collaborator, Sabiha Khan, by giving some background about Three Cups of Tea and how the committee wanted to have a film event and how Daniel Vickoren (ASCBC Education Programmer) contacted Mrs. Khan after reading the story in the Herald when it was shown in January.

The film highlights the results of the most extensive Gallup poll ever done in the Muslim world—20,000 people everywhere in the world sat for one hour interviews. As one of the panelists pointed out, there is a book that goes along with the film that explains all of the results, not just those that can be put into a 55 minute film.

After the film, John Roach, who moderated, introduced the panelists—a man and a woman from Syria, a doctor from Lebanon, a pharmacist, a nuclear engineer, a former Catholic nun from Venezuela who is married to an Egyptian, and Sabiha’s daughter who is a teacher. The questions included what Muslim dating was like, how Malcolm X is viewed, what the similarities and differences are between Christianity and Islam, and the final question was what is one thing that can be done to bridge the gap between Americans and Muslims. One woman said changing foreign policy so the US doesn’t support dictatorship in the Muslim world while advocating democracy everywhere else. Another said the only change any person can do is at the community level and by promoting tolerance in the community, promoting education in the community, and being aware and voting.

The event was wrapped up shortly after 9. Several people expressed their appreciation of the event and I talked with Sabiha about the possibility of more collaboration in the future.

4/28/2010
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Additional Resources:

The title of the book related to the film is Who Speaks For Islam?: What a Billion Muslims Really Think.
Information about the book on  Amazon.com
6 book reviews on EBSCOhost
5 book reviews on ProQuest
Information about the poll from Gallup


5 film reviews on ProQuest

Kite Making Event

The second event of CBC Reads on Mar. 9, 2010 was a great success.

See news on CBC website about the event.

See Tri-City Herald photos from the kite making workshop.

Also there will be a free Kite Festival hosted by Ben Franklin Kite Society starting at noon on Easter Sunday April 4, 2010 at Leslie Groves Park in North Richland. From George Washington Way, turn east on Saint St. towards the river and the event should be at the soccer field.

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

Today on NPR's All Things considered program, they chose Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, a Pakistani singer, as one of their series of 50 Great Voices:

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan: The Voice Of Pakistan Listen to the program online.

First Event

The first event for our CBC Reads series, *Geography, Civil Society, and Development in Pakistan*, was last night. It went really well!

Donna Brouns helped organize the event, invited one of the two speakers, and introduced both of them to an audience of close to 100 people.

Dr. Feeney showed slides of his 1999 trip to northern Pakistan. Dr. Bourouh gave a great overview of facts about Pakistan, as well as relevant quotes from Three Cups of Tea. Together, the information and images gave an overview of Pakistan and good context for readers of the book.

As one community member said, “I don’t know who did this, but I’d like to thank whoever did because it’s been very informative and interesting. I read about it in the newspaper.”

Meg Woods