If you were impatiently waiting for the premiere of PBS' documentary New Muslim Cool on June 23, you'd be treated to yet another interesting documentary on Islam on the same network a week earlier (June 15). The Mosque in Morgantown, a verite-style film by Brittany Huckabee, chronicles the struggle of journalist and activist, Asra Nomani, as she takes on the male leadership of a mosque at her hometown over fundamental issues in Islam today.  You might be familiar with Nomani if you read her book, Standing Alone in Mecca, or you might remember her if you watched Zarqa Nawaz' excellent documentary, Me and the Mosque. Other documentaries and films include Deen Tight, an interesting look at how hip-hop has influenced Muslims around the world; Slingshot Hip-Hop, about Palestinian rappers in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem and their struggle under occupation; and Arab in America, a short comedy about what it means to live as an American Muslim in a post 9/11 era.

What's refreshing about these documentaries and films is that they genuinely address what it means to be Muslim today beyond the deafening and obsessive fixation with terrorism and extremists. Soon, at the School of Journalism at the University of Colorado in Boulder, we'll be making an attempt at a documentary on life as Muslim in the Mountain West region. We're excited about cataloguing the diversity of Muslims in this area.