In The Name of Allah
Filmed in twelve different countries and in nine languages, In the Name of Allah [working title] is the first-ever feature-length documentary to explore the complex global intersections of Islam and homosexuality. With unprecedented access and depth, gay Muslim filmmaker Parvez Sharma brings to light the hidden lives of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Muslims and goes where the silence has been loudest in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Egypt and Bangladesh, as well as in Turkey, France, India, South Africa, the United States and the United Kingdom.
The majority of gay and lesbian Muslims must travel a lonely and often dangerous road. In some nations with a Muslim majority, laws based on Quranic interpretations are enforced by authorities to monitor, entrap, imprison, torture and even execute homosexuals. Even for those who migrate to Europe or North America and adopt Western personae of "gay," the relative freedoms of new homelands are mitigated by persistent racial profiling and intensified state surveillance after the terrorist attacks in New York, London and Madrid As a result, many gay and lesbian Muslims end up renouncing their religion.
But the real-life characters of In the Name of Allah aren’t willing to abandon a faith they cherish, despite its flaws. Instead, they struggle to reconcile their ardent belief with the innate reality of their being. The international chorus of gay, lesbian and transgender Muslims brought together by In the Name of Allah doesn’t seek to vilify or reject Islam, but rather negotiate a new relationship to it. In doing so, the film’s extraordinary characters point the way for all Muslims to move beyond the hostile, war-torn present, toward a more hopeful future
As one can imagine, it was a difficult decision for the subjects to participate in the film due to the violence they could face.
However, those who have come forward to tell their stories feel this film is too important for 1.4 billion Muslims and non-Muslims around the world for them to say no. They feel Islam is at a tipping point and they are willing to take the risk We are currently filming a breaking story on Shiite death squads who are kidnapping and killing gay and transgender people in Iraq under a fatwa from the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, as well as a group of Iranian gay refugees who escaped torture and fled across the border into Turkey.
Two of them have just received asylum in Canada, and we are shooting their journey to an uncertain freedom. Our needs for funding are immediate as we wrap shooting and edit the film to premiere in early 2007.
For more info or screenings, write to [email protected].