As I was watching CNN's Unwelcome: The Muslims Next Door recently, I couldn't help thinking about another way of deploying the media to build bridges across communities. CNN's special report was obviously meant to highlight a deep rupture at the heart of a community divided on whether a bigger mosque should be built in their town in Tennessee. This got me thinking about a documentary about a similar issue in New Jersey, but this time instead of making discord and tension the driving force behind the narrative, it was all about how differences behind building a mosque brought a community together. CNN's report left viewers with a bitter feeling that the story of mosques and Islam in America is just an insurmountable problem whose outcome can be nothing but antagonism and enmity. Unity Productions Foundation (UPF) has been producing a different kind of documentaries (see trailer of the mosque story in NJ below and here you can watch the entire documentary). Their latest production, On a Wing and a Prayer, tells the complex story of a Muslim American whose dream is to learn how to fly (trailer below). We need more of these films to balance out the story of Islam and Muslims, particularly at a time when most people learn about Muslims through the news: this week the news about Islam was particularly grim: a pastor in Florida burns a copy of the Quran, dozens are killed in retaliation. This is not a way to diffuse tensions.

Talking Through Walls from Unity Productions Foundation on Vimeo.