{"id":11209,"date":"2022-11-07T15:52:05","date_gmt":"2022-11-07T13:52:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/?p=11209"},"modified":"2023-01-03T19:48:40","modified_gmt":"2023-01-03T17:48:40","slug":"why-muslim-palestinian-mo-preferred-catholic-confession-to-therapy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/why-muslim-palestinian-mo-preferred-catholic-confession-to-therapy\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Muslim Palestinian \u201cMo\u201d Preferred Catholic Confession to Therapy"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4><\/h4>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<h4>Sarah Eltantawi<\/h4>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is where I bawled my eyes out for hours watching <em>Mo<\/em>,\u201d\u00a0 a friend said to me recently, in the living room of his new home. I understood his feelings instantly and there was hardly a need to elaborate further. <em>Mo, <\/em>the new show on Netflix about the Palestinian-American Najjar family in Houston, centers on main character and eldest son, Mo, played by comedian Mo Amer. The series has provided surprising and vital catharsis for many Arab and Muslim Americans. I would liken my own sensation after watching <em>Mo<\/em> as akin to eating after not knowing I was starving. I also emerge haunted by the enormity of our trauma in American Arab and Muslim communities, and the shortcomings in the resources that are truly available to address it in the western psychological apparatus.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_11216\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-11216\" style=\"width: 556px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-11216\" src=\"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Mo-and-Maria-with-friend-Nick-at-the-arcade-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"556\" height=\"313\" srcset=\"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Mo-and-Maria-with-friend-Nick-at-the-arcade-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Mo-and-Maria-with-friend-Nick-at-the-arcade-600x337.jpg 600w, https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Mo-and-Maria-with-friend-Nick-at-the-arcade-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Mo-and-Maria-with-friend-Nick-at-the-arcade-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Mo-and-Maria-with-friend-Nick-at-the-arcade.jpg 1153w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 556px) 100vw, 556px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-11216\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mo and Maria with friend Nick at the arcade.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The series\u2019 brilliant presentation of Mo\u2019s trauma is a subtle but persistent leitmotif. It starts at an arcade one afternoon with his best friend and his girlfriend, shortly after accidentally learning that his father was tortured before he died, when Mo was an adolescent. After absorbing this news, he becomes addicted to lean, aka Purple Drank or Sizzurp. In the course of a passionate encounter with a game of Sponge Bob whack-o-mole, it becomes clear to everyone that Mo\u2019s anger was starting to burst out of him. The friends eventually sit down to eat.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>Mo\u2019s Nigerian best friend, Nick:<\/strong> \u201cSo what\u2019s good with that new lawyer?\u201d (for the Najjar family\u2019s asylum application; the family has been waiting for years).<br \/>\n<strong>Mo:<\/strong> \u201cShe\u2019s on that vibe shit. You know, yoga, ommmm. I went in there for some legal advice, and it turned into a therapy session.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>Maria, Mo\u2019s Mexican Catholic girlfriend:<\/strong> \u201cYou could use a therapy session.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>Nick:<\/strong> \u201cHell yeah. You can talk about what the hell happened over there with Sponge Bob.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>Mo:<\/strong> \u201cI don\u2019t believe in therapy. It\u2019s a scam.\u201d<br \/>\n<strong>Nick:<\/strong> \u201cHow is therapy a scam?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>Mo:<\/strong> \u201cCause, you pay some PhD $200 an hour, when you can talk to God, for free, anytime.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>Maria:<\/strong> \u201cI don\u2019t ever see you get out a prayer mat.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>Mo:<\/strong> \u201cYeah. I don\u2019t walk around with a prayer mat all the time. What am I, Aladdin? This is not Disney. OK? Islam\u2019s real practical. I could just pray right here if I wanted to. Just take out a tissue, put it on the ground, \u2018bam.\u201d (raises hands as if to begin sal\u0101t) Done. Alright?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>Maria:<\/strong> \u201cWhy don\u2019t you just talk to someone?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Mo | Official Trailer | Netflix\" width=\"750\" height=\"422\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dtohea4CFbE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not that Mo doesn\u2019t want to talk to someone. The question is who, and in what context. A non-exhaustive list of the descriptions I\u2019ve heard about therapy, growing up in my Egyptian-Arab-Muslim community, includes, \u201cIt\u2019s a scam,\u201d \u201cJust another American business,\u201d and \u201cI am sure you are less crazy than the therapist.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In conversation the subject of therapy was often met with derision and an eyeroll; if insisted upon, one became aware of a certain fear. Therapy wasn\u2019t safe for us. \u201cThey\u201d would never really understand, much less, care. There is also a critique of capitalism here, but it is not about economics per se, it is about the taxonomical culture capitalism inspires. It is a visceral distaste at the idea of categorizing life\u2019s challenges and setbacks \u2014 the way life <em>is <\/em>\u2014 and understanding those experiences as (only) \u201ctrauma,\u201d or blaming them (only) on the \u201cfamily of origin,\u201d or compartmentalizing that \u201ctrauma\u201d into an analytical object to be toyed with and quite possibly magnified by the removed and often unsympathetic therapist. Moreover, there is a sense that one\u2019s individual capacity to transform those challenges into strength and insight should not be outsourced to a paid intermediary \u2014 this process is the very stuff of resiliency; therapy would make one weak and dependent.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, difficult feelings were to be downplayed, ignored, redefined, and, above all, hidden, lest they bring shame and recrimination on already vulnerable immigrant families and communities, as well as a demonized minority religion. I wish I could say that prayer was presented as an alternative to seeking psychic relief, but God was too scary and full of judgement for that. In spite of these attitudes \u2014 or, perhaps, in part, because of them \u2014 I have tried therapy several times in my life.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_11215\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-11215\" style=\"width: 750px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-11215\" src=\"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Farah-Bsieso-as-Mos-mother-Yusra-Najjar-Omar-Elba-as-his-brother-Sameer-and-Mo-Amer-as-Mo-1024x512.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"750\" height=\"375\" srcset=\"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Farah-Bsieso-as-Mos-mother-Yusra-Najjar-Omar-Elba-as-his-brother-Sameer-and-Mo-Amer-as-Mo-1024x512.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Farah-Bsieso-as-Mos-mother-Yusra-Najjar-Omar-Elba-as-his-brother-Sameer-and-Mo-Amer-as-Mo-600x300.jpg 600w, https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Farah-Bsieso-as-Mos-mother-Yusra-Najjar-Omar-Elba-as-his-brother-Sameer-and-Mo-Amer-as-Mo-300x150.jpg 300w, https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Farah-Bsieso-as-Mos-mother-Yusra-Najjar-Omar-Elba-as-his-brother-Sameer-and-Mo-Amer-as-Mo-768x384.jpg 768w, https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Farah-Bsieso-as-Mos-mother-Yusra-Najjar-Omar-Elba-as-his-brother-Sameer-and-Mo-Amer-as-Mo-1536x768.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Farah-Bsieso-as-Mos-mother-Yusra-Najjar-Omar-Elba-as-his-brother-Sameer-and-Mo-Amer-as-Mo-1568x784.jpg 1568w, https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Farah-Bsieso-as-Mos-mother-Yusra-Najjar-Omar-Elba-as-his-brother-Sameer-and-Mo-Amer-as-Mo-1320x660.jpg 1320w, https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Farah-Bsieso-as-Mos-mother-Yusra-Najjar-Omar-Elba-as-his-brother-Sameer-and-Mo-Amer-as-Mo.jpg 1575w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-11215\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Farah Bsieso as Mo&#8217;s mother Yusra Najjar, Omar Elba as his brother Sameer and Mo Amer as Mo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>There is much to respect in the field of western psychology. The process of naming unhealthy psychological and mental states, and developing medical paths to heal them, is of undeniable benefit. It is hard to address what is not acknowledged and understood. It seems to me that problems can arise \u2014 as I believe Mo was signaling \u2014 in the dialectic exchange between therapist and patient, particularly when there are significant power disparities between the two parties, and cultural differences that can be existential.<\/p>\n<p>In one example from my own life, the \u201cwhite therapist\u201d problem, which is to say a lack of shared cultural values regarding family, became recurrent for me. While I am not unsympathetic to the notion that trauma can been caused by one\u2019s parents, I am also aware that insofar that is the case it is due to their own trauma; rather than view this fact as \u201cmaking excuses\u201d for them, I view it is an empowering form of empathy that helps heal generational trauma, much of which was foisted upon them by forces out of their control. This perspective does not disempower a person, rather it allows you to maintain your own structural integrity as a member of a family and community that you want to play a role in healing and elevating.<\/p>\n<p>I have come across therapists whose analysis depends, to various extents, on demonizing Arab\/Muslim\/Middle Eastern societies, \u201ctheir men,\u201d and women\u2019s status as an \u201coppressed\u201d within that culture. As an autonomous subject with an individual subjectivity, if these are the conclusions one would like to draw for oneself about one\u2019s own experiences (in my case, they are not), so be it; to have these frameworks imposed upon a person \u2014 no matter how subtly this is evinced \u2014 can be a form of cultural imperialism in an intimate space, often traumatizing in and of itself.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_11225\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-11225\" style=\"width: 750px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11225 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Mo-offered-chocolat-hummus-at-the-supermarket-tenders-Palestinian-olive-oil-on-pita-1-1024x654.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"750\" height=\"479\" srcset=\"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Mo-offered-chocolat-hummus-at-the-supermarket-tenders-Palestinian-olive-oil-on-pita-1-1024x654.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Mo-offered-chocolat-hummus-at-the-supermarket-tenders-Palestinian-olive-oil-on-pita-1-600x383.jpg 600w, https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Mo-offered-chocolat-hummus-at-the-supermarket-tenders-Palestinian-olive-oil-on-pita-1-300x192.jpg 300w, https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Mo-offered-chocolat-hummus-at-the-supermarket-tenders-Palestinian-olive-oil-on-pita-1-768x491.jpg 768w, https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Mo-offered-chocolat-hummus-at-the-supermarket-tenders-Palestinian-olive-oil-on-pita-1.jpg 1180w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-11225\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Offered chocolate hummus at the supermarket, an offended Mo counters with Palestinian olive oil on pita.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>At one point, I thought a way to escape this problem was to pursue \u201cwoo woo\u201d therapists, or those who spiritually identified with the \u201cnew age.\u201d In the Pacific Northwest, the place where I decided to try this approach, such therapists were not in short supply. Not every memory with \u201cBonnie\u201d (not her real name) was negative. She burned several pure beeswax candles during our dimly lit, late-afternoon winter sessions, and they were beautiful. Many of her comments were helpful and insightful. However, one day, I feel I had no choice but to lose confidence in our interaction. I related something my mother had told me recently, which was that she had never processed her own mother\u2019s death. To this day she even avoids saying <em>Allah yarhamha <\/em>(may God have mercy on her soul), because that would be an acknowledgement that her death was real. As a result, said my mother, she has a knot in her stomach that never goes away.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOh,\u201d Bonnie said nonchalantly. \u201cShe\u2019s going to die young.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I was stunned for several moments.<\/p>\n<p>Her own mother was in the process of dying, so I found myself in a position of having to process her unfolding trauma in an attempt to get therapy for myself. This is only fair and human \u2014 but is it effective therapy? Moreover, when Bonnie uttered those words, another side of me kicked in \u2014 one that was out of my head and into the deeper reality \u2014 in this case, the absolute reality that she had just conjured a kind of evil foreshadowing on the life of my mother. Was a spiritual challenge not at my doorstep?<\/p>\n<p>Shaking with anger, I said, \u201cYou can\u2019t say that about my mother.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think you\u2019re turning your frustration on\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo. You were wrong. You can\u2019t say that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The next time I heard from her, it was an email asking me for 1) payment, perhaps correctly surmising that I would never see her again, and 2) a request for me to research a subject I had mentioned in our session and provide her with resources. I submitted payment and deleted the email. Therapy had failed again, and may have left me worse off.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_11218\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-11218\" style=\"width: 1138px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11218\" src=\"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Mo-Amer-in-Alief-a-Houston-suburb-Netflix.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1138\" height=\"550\" srcset=\"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Mo-Amer-in-Alief-a-Houston-suburb-Netflix.jpg 1138w, https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Mo-Amer-in-Alief-a-Houston-suburb-Netflix-600x290.jpg 600w, https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Mo-Amer-in-Alief-a-Houston-suburb-Netflix-300x145.jpg 300w, https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Mo-Amer-in-Alief-a-Houston-suburb-Netflix-1024x495.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Mo-Amer-in-Alief-a-Houston-suburb-Netflix-768x371.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1138px) 100vw, 1138px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-11218\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mo Amer as Mo in his car in Alief, a Houston suburb.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Mo hesitantly walked into the confessional at Maria\u2019s church. The priest, beautifully played by rapper Bun B, exuded kindness and empathy even before he spoke. He began, \u201cHow can I help you son?\u201d Mo is initially defensive, asking him not to call him \u201cson,\u201d since they \u201cjust met.\u201d Mo quickly follows, \u201cI don\u2019t mean to be disrespectful. I\u2019m Muslim. We usually confess straight to God.\u201d At this point Mo begins to complain bitterly about the tactility and rawness of Catholic iconography; the nails in Christ\u2019s hands, the blood. It is clear that he is recalling his own father. While Muslims revere Jesus as a prophet and one of the wisest of men, they do not believe in the trinity, or, in the Sunni tradition, in depicting prophets, and certainly not God, in any visual form. The priest pauses and responds thoughtfully to Mo\u2019s litany of complaints. While he could have taken umbrage at Mo\u2019s disparaging comments about the portrayal of Jesus on the cross, the priest gently clarified, \u201cThere\u2019s no glory in suffering. But there is glory in sacrifice.\u201d Mo fell silent and was chastened. In this moment, the two men \u2014 and the two traditions \u2014 had found a shared morality.<\/p>\n<p>Mo\u2019s emotional release was real in this encounter. (Mo Amer later revealed in an <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2022\/tv\/news\/mo-amer-netflix-comedy-palestinian-refugee-houston-bun-b-1235348953\/\">interview<\/a> that the story of his father\u2019s torture was based on his life, and that his preexisting close relationship with Bun B, who he looks at as a \u201cbig brother,\u201d helped him feel safe and comfortable enough to do that scene.)\u00a0 Mo admitted that he blamed his father for leaving them. He discussed how he was angry at himself for failing, as an adolescent, to be the man of the house. It was moving to witness this raw exchange of vulnerability between two men. The priest asked Mo if he thought his father would want him to carry all of this sadness and anger, or if he would want him to be happy. The scene ends, cutting to a beautiful moment of cinematography: an open vista of olive trees, accompanied by the transcendent song \u201cHow Great\u201d by Chance the Rapper. It moved me to tears in a way that I am quite sure the absence of the divine in a therapy session would not have.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_11217\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-11217\" style=\"width: 1138px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11217\" src=\"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Teresa-Ruiz-as-Maria-and-Mo-Amer-as-Mo-in-the-series-22MO22-Netflix.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1138\" height=\"547\" srcset=\"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Teresa-Ruiz-as-Maria-and-Mo-Amer-as-Mo-in-the-series-22MO22-Netflix.jpg 1138w, https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Teresa-Ruiz-as-Maria-and-Mo-Amer-as-Mo-in-the-series-22MO22-Netflix-600x288.jpg 600w, https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Teresa-Ruiz-as-Maria-and-Mo-Amer-as-Mo-in-the-series-22MO22-Netflix-300x144.jpg 300w, https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Teresa-Ruiz-as-Maria-and-Mo-Amer-as-Mo-in-the-series-22MO22-Netflix-1024x492.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Teresa-Ruiz-as-Maria-and-Mo-Amer-as-Mo-in-the-series-22MO22-Netflix-768x369.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1138px) 100vw, 1138px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-11217\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Teresa Ruiz as Maria and Mo Amer as Mo in the series<em> Mo<\/em>\u00a0on Netflix.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Mo is right that in Islam, we speak directly to God. But why not just speak? What is the purpose of the ritual of saying, \u201cIn the name of God, the gracious, the merciful,\u201d then washing your mouth, nose, hands, face, ears, neck, hair and legs, laying out a plush prayer rug, making sure you\u2019re modestly dressed, and then reciting the same verses of the Qur\u2019an in the same order (with the possibility of adding more), and finishing with wishing peace upon the angels on both sides of you? It is only after you have done all of this you can then speak to God directly. What I have come to realize is that the ritual is a spiritual exercise you must practice to earn the experience of standing before God. Seen from this perspective, it makes sense that one would need to expend effort to speak to the creator of the universe. The ritual inculcates respect for a majesty outside ourselves. The practice of cultivating this perspective, in itself, can be psychically healing.<\/p>\n<p>While Mo was taken aback by Catholic iconography, it is not difficult for me to understand why Mo would prefer the Catholic confession to therapy. In addition to understanding his relative comfort with the priest, it is clear that Catholic confession worked where therapy would not have. Why? First, it is not insignificant that the priest was African American, and would thus be more likely to understand his experience of marginalization. How many spaces do we really have for brown and black men to process their trauma safely? But I do not think that is the main factor that made confession work. Rather, the key was the presence of a third referent \u2014 Jesus \u2014 to which both men could defer; a common referent for whom both men had tremendous respect, albeit in different ways. Mo felt comfortable in dialogical and empathetic exchange with a Catholic priest during confession, because they were comparing both of their experiences to the sacrifice of Jesus, who stood outside their conversation as an ideal. The holy is present in this form of exchange, whereby a certain healing power is conjured through the example of Jesus\u2019 sacrifice. This power is conditioned on the distance the figure of Jesus creates in the power of the priest \u2014 to Mo, just another man \u2014 to help heal Mo.<\/p>\n<p>In other words, Mo can trust the priest insofar as the priest places his trust in Jesus \u2014 not his own mind. There is reduced danger of megalomania in this relationality (strictly speaking), and of judging one person based on their religion or ethnicity by a person from different ones. The presence of an afterlife in both Christianity and Islam allows Mo the possibility of comfort about his father when talking to the priest, but also creates a shared intellectual scaffolding between the two men, with which to build a theoretical possibility of a different, safer world.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Mo Amer Takes Us Behind The Scenes of Mo\" width=\"750\" height=\"422\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ePo3pzr0z9A?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It remains astonishing to me that the simple portrayal of Palestinians as human beings \u2014 as I know them \u2014 as people who love their mothers, sacrifice for their families, have faced huge adversity and violence, and have a very delicious cuisine that is centered on olive oil \u2014 is so very revolutionary on an American screen and has had such a profound effect on so many of us.<\/p>\n<p>But I must say that I was just as moved by the show\u2019s depiction of Islam \u2014 again, the Islam I know. What I loved about <em>Mo\u2019s <\/em>portrayal of Islam and Muslim practice is that it was free of the ham-fisted caricatures that are so common in both western <em>and <\/em>Muslim depictions \u2014 the former with its insistence on linking Islam with foreignness and violence, the latter with its insistence on linking Islam with rigid practice, hijab, and moral simplicity. Neither extreme captures the full humanity of who Muslims are. <em>Mo <\/em>comes much closer. There is human imperfection in the form of drug addiction; there is cultural and social complexity in the form of marrying outside one\u2019s race and religion; there is an actual representation of reality which is that the majority of Muslim women do not wear hijab, in spite of many Muslim male conservatives\u2019 obsessive insistence. (It goes without saying that most women who do wear hijab \u2014 especially in the U.S. \u2014 do so of their own accord, but I have found that even they tend not to appreciate the external pressure.)<\/p>\n<p><em>Mo <\/em>did an outstanding job of showing a more universally agreed upon, and beautiful aspect of Islam, in a scene where Mo, his brother, and his sister, visit their father\u2019s unmarked grave under a clear Houston sky. In a moving and serene moment, they stand in front of their father and recite verses from the Qur\u2019an that wish peace and salvation for the dead. This is the oneness, <em>tawh\u012bd, <\/em>that is the best of Islam; an ordering of the universe, a submission to God to cope with fates we do not control. This submission is easily available to us with a simple prayer in the company of those we love in this world and the next. And having taken part in this ritual, we can move back into the world with renewed strength that is built on this fundamental sense of precarity and humility in the face of the larger order. I am so grateful to <em>Mo <\/em>for this genuine portrayal of Islam as a gentle and non-ideological spiritual force that faithfully accompanies the challenges of everyday life.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As a Muslim American and scholar of Islam, Sarah Eltantawi finds the new series from Mo Amer and Ramy Youssef cathartic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":319,"featured_media":11220,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,23,24,51],"tags":[233,287,896,1309,1453],"coauthors":[2133],"class_list":["post-11209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film-review","category-islam","category-review","category-tmr-weekly","tag-arab-muslim","tag-asylum","tag-islam","tag-palestinian-identity","tag-refugees","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This 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