In an effort to introduce more Muslims to the media, the LA-based Muslim Public Affairs Council hosted a mixer last week where Muslims thinking about media careers got to mingle with Muslim and non-Muslim media types.
Many Muslim Americans have and still do view TV and Hollywood with suspicion and fear, the sources of slanted news reports and films like “True Lies” and “Terror in Beverly Hills” that incite other Americans against them.
But that is changing, as more Muslim Americans enter the media profession, and as Muslim American advocacy groups increasingly make themselves available as consultants to films and television shows. Not surprisingly, most Muslims asked say the only way to change negative media images is to join the media.
Still, young Muslim media aspirants say, between finger-wagging parents and inherent competitiveness of today’s media world, dreams of Hollywood careers hardly seem attainable. Among those present at the MPAC event to tell young Muslims they can make it in Hollywood were Steve Bing (financing the new film “Beowulf”), Kamran Pasha (producer and writer for NBC’s “Bionic Woman”), and Sameer Gardezi (writer for The CW’s “Aliens in America”).
The mixer was hosted by MPAC’s Hollywood Bureau, which the advocacy group launched earlier this year.
I’ve written about Muslims in the media a couple of times this year, for RNS, and the Boston Globe.
