The Christian man at the Muslim cemetery.
If we trusted him, alive we can trust him dead.
Fronthouse Mustaba, Where the story was told
I.
Summary/ The story
The challenge to tell Arab/Muslim story in the US is getting harder and harder. I have been for years trying to bring to the American people the real story about Arab and Muslim, our voices is lost in the wilderness of racism and bigotry environments. The only loud Arab/Muslim voice that we hear about is the ugly one, the voice Saddam, Bin Laden and lately major Nidal, . American people have been exposed only to the bad stories of Arabs and Muslims. Now we need your support now is the time to tell a different story .
The Christian man at the Muslim cemetery.
It was a small, unassuming village in the Egyptian Nile delta. Many people’s lifestyles hadn’t changed that much since the time of the pharaohs, and local demographers have found no dramatic census changes for a long time.
Before CNN and Al Jazeera, villagers lived the simple life of a farming community, and their interest in the outside world went only as far as the edge of their cornfields. The men left with their animals for work at dawn and came back at dusk, while their wives stayed home, busy raising kids to work in the farm as soon as they mastered their first step.
People seemed to consult the same fashion designer, go to the same mosque to pray, eat the same food, celebrate the same holidays, and for generations, villagers kept the gene pool very much confined to the area’s families. As youngsters, we spent most of our days trying to kill time, and playing soccer was the only game in town.
However, there was something un-provincial about my village. Unlike most of villages around us, this village had one Christian family living among them. They lived in the outskirts of the village near the cemetery, a place villagers would visit only when there was a divine call.
Unlike other villagers, who worked on the farm, the Christian family was still in the hunting-and-gathering age. They made their living chasing wild wolves lurking on the outskirts of the village during a time when wolves were considered a dangerous species. The Christian father would disappear into the remote cornfields for days and suddenly reappear with his kill. The family then would drag the dead wolf around the village for show-and-tell, describing the grave danger they had just faced and the heroic adventure they had encountered, which earned them considerable admiration from villagers and a handsome handout of rice, corn or whatever the season offered at the time.
Years went by, and since Egyptian Christians had the same life expectancy as Muslims, the father suddenly died. The family was not prepared for this eternal fate, and neither was the rest of the village. Although the cultural tradition of the Muslim villagers accommodated the Christian family while they were alive, the religious burial traditions were not flexible enough to accommodate the mixing of their dead in the same cemetery. The Christian family wanted to bury their father in the village and not venture away to a segregated Christian cemetery, as most of them do across Egypt.
The neighbor family of Abd Elhafeeze were not known for their religious zealotry, but for their kindness and generosity. The family logic was that if the Christian family had lived in peace with the rest of them all these years without any trouble, there definitely wouldn’t be much trouble while they were dead.
Abd Alhafeeze family consulted no one in the village. As they had welcomed the Christian family alive, so they wished to welcomed them among their dead. The burial ceremony was completed with a grave, like all Muslim graves, that lacked religious symbols or eulogy — just a Christian family name, “Kariakoos,” and dates: “Born in 1911 and died 1962.”
All those years, in my village, Muslims and Christians had lived together and died together in peace and harmony. As Abd Hazeeze’s son Sheikh Obed put it, “No diversity programs were required, no axis of evil was declared, and no crusade or jihad was launched.”
Sheikh Obed, who falls in the gentle camp of Abd Alhafeeze family, who welcomed the Christian family among their dead, told me in a reflective voice, “I stop by the Christian family grave every time I visit our family cemetery.
“Please relate this story to your friends in America.”
I will. Said I End of Story.
That how it ended and began too, a promise I want to fulfill, a promise to tell this story to the American people. Please help.
II.
Introduction/ BelAhdan TV
For more than 15 years now, I have been working to produce the Arab-American TV program, Belahdan, which airs on the Twin public TV, Belahdan is the only TV program in the Midwestern states that offers an insightful and personal perspective on Americans of Middle-Eastern origin. It is also a show that encourages cross-cultural dialog produced by “hyphenated” Americans who want to make a difference. The show is aired throughout the State, with a highly 83% penetration rate. Thousands of highly motivated viewers tuned to our show every week, the public TV viewers has the highest purchasing power and heavily influential community leaders, we also bring prominent guest every week; Here is a few of our special guests who appeared on the show:
Producer Ali Selim, congressman Keith Ellison, former Egyptian first lady Jihan Sadat, Governor Tim Pawlenty, Mayor R.T. Rybak, Father David Smith, Bob Meek, Dr. Badawi ,US Attorney Tom Hilfiger. Jay Shahidi, Karen Monahan,
We are asking your help to tell this wonderful story and to be part of our team and raise awareness of the rich culture of the thousands of Arab/Muslim Americans and to encourage acceptance of diversity and enrich the cross-cultural dialog. Please become a sponsor of our program today. We need to bring this human story from the depth memories of Egyptian delta to the American people here, we need to speak out for the voiceless, and define ourselves in the post 9/11 craze.
Check our Youtube channel
http://www.youtube.com/my_videos
III.
Needs/Problems
Tickets for to two people (producer/ Cameraperson)
Cameraperson for 5 days
Lounging (6 days)
Car rental
Other misalliance ((translation, tapes, …
Edition and production (20 hours)
IV. Goals/Objectives
1. Bring the Arab-American story into the culture diversity realm.
2. Introduce the Arab-American culture to the American community at large in the context of their American experience.
3. Introduce the diversity and the multiculturalism within the Arab/Muslims American community itself.
4. Introduce the different views of the Arab/Muslims Americans through alternative TV programming.
5. Give the Arab American another voice to represent their own views of current events, events that have an immediate impact on the Arab-American community here in Minnesota.
V. Procedures/Scope of Work
The documentary will take place in a remote village in Egyptian delta (250M north of Cairo), all the videos and interviews will be done on location, talking to community elders those who had lived during the time of the actual events, also talking to the new generation and get their input of the changes that had taken place in the village.,
VI. Timetable
|
|
Description of Work |
Start and End Dates |
|
Phase One |
Traveling and Visiting landmarks location |
1/15 / to 1/16.2010 |
|
Phase Two |
Interviewing |
1/17 to 1/25.2010 |
|
Phase Three |
Editing and production |
3/1 to 3/10.2010 |
VII. Budget (estimates)
|
|
Description of Work |
Anticipated Costs |
|
Phase One |
Traveling cost and Visiting location |
$3000 |
|
Phase Two |
Interviewing/Lounging/rental |
7500 |
|
Phase Three |
Editing, translation and production |
11500 |
|
|
*Total |
$ $22,000. |
*I’m as a producer and host of the show, volunteering all my working hours for this project, interviewing, organizing, research and directiong. please help me tell this amazing story.
Key Personnel
.
VIII. Evaluation
Number of hours, number of interviews, and production rate
IX. Endorsements
Here are some of our great sponsors for this project already
Kathy Haddad, Mizna
Jay Shahidi , Human Rights Activist
Arab American Investing Group/ Northwest Bank
Tony Nickolow’s, Santorini
Ken Stone, TV production
Fahmi Ketabi, Blue Nile
Karen Monahan, Erath Justice
Frederic De Sam Lazaro/ Journalist
Nihad khan, Journalist
Carlyon Green, International Marketing Plus
Marina Grill, Minneapolis NE
X. Next Steps
Please send your check to BelAhdan/Christina Family Project
Make the check payable to
Bealhdan/ ahmediatv
172 East Fourth Street,
St. Paul, MN 55101
XI. Appendix
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