Haqq Entertainment

Reality TV has had a continuous momentum since the 90s when "The Real World" debuted on MTV. Countless number of reality shows are popping up all the time and the demand for them does not seem to stop.

So I knew that a reality show about Muslims was probably the best way to go in trying to educate people on the truth of Islam and Muslims while entertaining them at the same time. Around late 2008 I had thought up on an idea of a reality show where Muslims of different walks of life lived together and worked on dealing with stereotypes amongst each other and from the rest of the world. You had your liberal and conservative, your convert, your aspiring entertaining, your activist, etc., all under the same roof finding ways to deal with each other and with life in general.

Out of all ideas I ever had regarding anything dealing with entertainment, this idea was the only one that everyone who heard it liked, whether it be regular folks or people in the industry.

I even shot a few videos (kinda like demo reels) that showcased some of the characters I had thought in mind:

It started in high school. When I was in the 10th grade, I had a religious awakening. I had begun to study Islam (as well as other belief systems and religions) and buying as many books as I can with my weekly allowance. I started propagating Islam and getting into debates. While I was a college student, I finally realized how Islam is a way of life (after saying it was for several years without fully understanding what that actually meant).

Early on I knew the use of entertainment was an effective tool in propagating Islam. Most people in general, especially the youth, are not into reading a lot of books or attending lectures on intellectual issues. If there was a way to get the people's attention and educate them at the same time, I knew entertainment was that way. Mass media has been used for decades to change public opinion, to spark revolutions, influence politicians to make or change laws and promote ideas and values. So as a Muslim, I wanted to work with or at least meet with people who are using entertainment to teach others about what is Islam and to use it bridge the gap of misunderstanding of Islam and Muslims. In the mid-90s, I knew and corresponded with Muslim rappers and artists who used music to do "da`wah" or the propagation of Islam.

The problem with music was that in Islam, many view it as something forbidden and that "Islamic music" was an oxymoron. Instead of using something that many people believed Islam already forbade, I looked for other alternatives to where it was little or no controversy at all.

Fast forward to 2002/2003. I had a serious interest in using movies in getting the Muslim experience onto the silver screen and making it mainstream. If other minorities could do it and be successful in getting their story and art into the mainstream, why can't the Muslims do it as well? At that time, I was friends with Baba Ali, who with me, would later co-found the Muslim film company "Ummah Films". Baba Ali was working on a few things of his own including board games. He wanted to use games to do "da`wah" because to him, having fun while learning about Islam was an effective way to teach people.

While Baba Ali was working on his games, I was working on writing screenplays as my way to try to find an effective way to do da`wah. I knew that movies and TV shows were not as controversial as music was from an Islamic stand point so I decided to pursue a possible career in movies as a screenwriter and/or director. I wrote one script and sent it to Baba Ali to read and he liked it. I wrote another script and had a few people read it but never had either script sent to anyone in the mainstream because I felt I wasn't ready to pitch it. I just didn't feel what I wrote would get picked up and be made into a movie.

Baba Ali was invited to New York City to promote his game on a Muslim-owned TV station. While he was out there, he was somehow inspired to delve into movies as a way to do da`wah. He contacted me and we started to brainstorm what to do. We both agreed that a film company that allows Muslims a platform to make "Halaal" (permissible in Islam) entertainment was something needed. We thought about what to name our company and "Ummah Films" was the name that we choose. "Ummah" means nation in Arabic and this company was and is for the nation of Muslims who want a platform to be able to make movies that do not go against the teachings of Islam.

Baba Ali invested money into the website, computer, camera and other equipment while I worked on promoting, organizing and other back end work required to launch the company. We were both amateurs in film making and we started to shoot a few practices and post it on the Ummah Films blog. Slowly but surely more and more people had begun to notice and the hits to our blog website increased.

Baba Ali pitched to me the idea of a "vlog" or video blog. I liked it and a few days later, I drove to his out and directed the first video of what would be later the staple of Ummah Films: Baba Ali's videos. With no script and just a brief discussion what we will make the video about, we decided to shoot the vlog on a subject matter relevant to Muslims. The whole process took about 4 hours from shooting to editing and the end result was our first video. The very next day we shot another video and again, with no script we briefly discussed what we wanted to discuss. I directed the first two videos and Ali did all the editing with me there.

Starting from the third video, Ali would write, shoot and edit all the videos. I made a cameo appearance in the sixth video:

Due to creative differences, I left Ummah Films shortly after posting a video on the Youtube page that was far different from the comedic humor in Baba Ali's videos. I felt that Ummah Films needed to reach out more to the mainstream and deal with more serious subjects that not only affect Muslims but all people regardless if they are Muslim or not. There are far more non-Muslims than there are Muslims and to reach out to them as well was something I believe was imperative. It was possible to make videos and movies that both educate and address the issues Muslims and non-Muslims were facing at the same time while educating people on the truth of Islam and Muslims: killing two birds with one stone. The new people who were now controlling Ummah Films wanted to focus on Baba Ali as their main star and his videos as the staple. This is not Ummah Films was originally about and I could not accept this new direction which handicapped and limited the potential of Ummah Films as being something popular in the mainstream instead of just with Muslims. While non-Muslims watch Ummah Films' videos, the direction and how Ummah Films is managed greatly hindered its chances and potential of being a more dynamic, vibrant film company that do not mainly focus on one person and just one genre or type of videos.

What is popular with non-Muslims often automatically becomes popular with Muslims and not vice versa. So I had in mind making something that will be popular amongst both non-Muslims and Muslims.

In the next post insha Allah, I will talk about my attempts in "doing my own thing" and also coming up with the concept of a reality show about the Muslim American experience in urban America.