Upon my second rewatch of the documentary, I was able to really appreciate the themes of American identity and Islam, as we have studied the intersection of race and culture for Muslims in America this semester. Rap/Hip-Hop music is one of the biggest and most important cultural exports from the U.S. with a lot of significance in poor Black/Hispanic neighborhoods, so I thought it was interesting how Hamza used that as an introduction to Islam for the gang communities. He was basically speaking the language of American communities combined with revolutionary and brotherhood messaging of Islam so people could understand it and potentially convert. It really showed the cultural and racial overlaps of communities in America, and I felt that this documentary really represented a good ideal for the American Dream: a melting pot of different races, languages, food, cultures etc. all coming and mixing together. Hamza’s mom, a Puerto Rican Catholic, had a lot of confusion or misconceptions around Islam as most Americans do, but was able to see past that and probably learn a lot out of love for her son, as well as seeing how Islamic practice made him a better person. The Jewish woman, as well, initially believed all Muslims were “extremist fundamentalists”, but upon meeting them and hearing their ideas, changed her mind and gained access to a whole new world of art and literature. Of course, this is the idealized American Dream, but the documentary also shows the bad parts such as the FBI spying on the Muslim community and eventually raiding the mosque. It also shows Hamza getting fired as one Christian lady puts it “for no reason” because of the Patriot Act.
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