Deterring Islamophobia

Note: This article originally appeared in the April 11, 2013 issue of The Pan American. The Pan American was the student newspaper at my former university, The University of Texas - Pan American, where I got into writing. Ultimately, TPA was shut down as a result of a merger with neighboring university to make way for The University of Texas - Rio Grande Valley and the new student publication did not transfer anything from TPA. Here's one of my articles for them that was saved thanks to the miracle of Google Docs.

Aarosa Sardar of Swat, Pakistan, wants to get one thing straight about Islam.

“A huge misconception is that suicide bombers and people like them are Muslims, but they’re not. The message of Islam is peace and love,” she said. “Extremists like that do not follow the word of Islam, and are therefore not Muslims.”

Sardar is vice president of The Muslim Students’ Association, an organization that interacts with UTPA students to represent the Muslim community. Their mission is to dissuade Islamophobia by educating students on Muslim people, their religion of Islam and how it affects everyday life.

According to the BBC, Muslims are followers of Islamic faith. Muslims are monotheistic and believe that Jesus is not the son of God, or Allah, but another prophet such as Abraham and Muhammad. Their holy book is the Qu’ran, which is believed to be the final record of the message that had already been given to Abraham, Moses, Jesus and other earlier prophets by God.

Laraib Safeer is the current president of the organization.

“We’re currently working on getting more members and getting the word out about us,” said the biology major from Pakistan. “There’s about seven regular members here. We’re an open group, no one has to be Muslim to join us.”

One of MSA’s regular members is Muhammad Sulaiman Rashid, who sees the organization as a way for members to help them identify themselves.

“It’s practical for Muslims to come together to sort out issues in a culture unlike their own,” the 20-year-old biology major said in an email interview. “We can use MSA as a vehicle to educate the public about what Islam truly is, a valuable goal in a post 9/11 world.”

The Association holds events like Q&A tablings once a month where the organization discusses several MSA related topics with students. Before Safeer was elected president this semester, the MSA focused on holding big events, such as a speaker series whose guests came to events and discussed Islamic topics.

After seeing how much students interacted at the Q&A’s, Safeer came up with the idea to hold monthly tablings as a way to educate people about Islam.

“There’s a lot of media coverage about Muslims, but people don’t seem to have an idea about what being Muslim is,” Safeer said. “We get asked a lot of basic questions, ranging from why we wear hijabs (head scarves that Muslim women traditionally wear), to personal questions about our beliefs. We’re helping them understand what being a Muslim is.”

In meetings, the organization discusses fundraisers and events, such as an upcoming tabling that will be held April 16; at this, members will display hijabs and allow students to try them on and learn why they’re worn as a sign of modesty.

Aside from reaching out to UTPA students, the MSA also works with the Muslim community outside of UTPA with activities such as game or movie nights in the Edinburg mosque, or place of worship, located on Jackson Road.

The Muslim Students’ Association meets noon every Thursday in Room 3.212 in the Science Building.

Hollyweird

A comedy of misadventures 

Note: This article originally appeared in the April 11, 2013 issue of The Pan American. The Pan American was the student newspaper at my former university, The University of Texas - Pan American, where I got into writing. Ultimately, TPA was shut down as a result of a merger with neighboring university to make way for The University of Texas - Rio Grande Valley and the new student publication did not transfer anything from TPA. Here's one of my articles for them that was saved thanks to the miracle of Google Docs.

Failure, according to Professor David Carren, is hilarious.

Again and again, audiences have responded to characters going through hell and back to resolve their various issues, such as the 1959 comedy Some Like it Hot where two struggling musicians disguise themselves as women after witnessing a mob related massacre.

This resulted in The American Film Institute voting Some Like it Hot as the greatest comedy ever back in 2000, and now Carren has written a play about that experience.

The communication professor wrote Hollyweird, a play based on his own experiences working in Hollywood in the ‘70s. It details the misadventures of Kelly Friedman, who represents Carren, a failed screenwriter in L.A., and her brother Bosco. Due to some comical circumstances, Brosco is blackmailed into committing several acts of murder, while a horrified Kelly must stop him.

According to Carren, his play was influenced by the many people working in the business who are starving for fame. However, he’s not referring to money.

“People in the business want recognition; there’s a hunger for it,” said Carren, who worked in Hollywood starting in 1978 and has been at UTPA since 2007. “Growing up, these people wanted to be part of the amazing process that is Hollywood and create a great story that will live on forever. It's the magic of a great story that makes Hollywood great.”

Several of the characters are portrayed as “highly fictionalized versions” of people Carren worked with. However, he stresses that the murders aren’t based on actual events and simply work as a plot device to move the story forward and dramatize how someone or something is always trying to “kill your dreams.”

According to Carren, the murders also represent how no one in the film business is safe from losing their livelihood.

“It’s chaotic, people lurch from one situation to the next, there’s no guarantee that people can keep their jobs,” Carren explained. “It’s quite scary. It makes the play closer to reality in some ways.”

Carren has experience working in Hollywood, having written for several TV shows such as Murder She Wrote, Diagnosis Murder, The Twilight Zone and Stargate SG-1 from 1997 until 1999. He reflected on how different writing for the stage was from writing for TV.

“In TV, one scene can’t be longer than three pages, but onstage, an entire scene can go on for dozens of pages,” he explained. “However, I still treated the dialogue as if I was writing for TV. Every single line had to count toward defining a character.”

Despite writing a play that deals with murder, Carren decided to adopt a comical tone to his stage and cited The LadyKillers, a 1955 British black comedy in which five men use an elderly woman to pull off a heist, as an influence.

“It’s hard to make a comedy out of murder, but The Ladykillers cracked it,” Carren said. “Like the movie, the crazier the murders become, the more absurd Hollyweird becomes. Even the cast is having a hard time keeping a straight face during practice.”

Heather Sanchez, who stars in the production as Kelly, explains the humor in the story.

“A lot of the victims are hateful characters that makes it easy for the audience to want to see them dead,” the 22-year-old theater performance major said. “The deaths themselves are bizarre accidents done so over the top that they’re almost cartoonish.”

Sanchez also adds that she sees the play as a warning to aspiring actors as to what Hollywood is like.

“The lesson is that the producers are the ones with with power in Hollywood and don’t appreciate the actual art of movies,” she said. “They’re number one priority is making the movie with the most money.”

The characters of Kelly and Brosco represent two sides of Carren. According to the University of Texas graduate, Brosco represents Carren if he'd stayed in Texas and not moved to L.A. or ever became a screenwriter. Kelly represents Carren if he'd failed in the business.

Kelly also represents a fractured relationship Carren has with his sister.

“We weren’t that close growing up, and I want to fix that,” he explained. “You can use fiction to correct things like this in your story. I wish that I had a sister who would do for me what Kelly does for Brosco.”

Despite being emotionally involved in the story, Carren decided to not be as involved with the making of the play, handing directorial and casting duties to communication professor Trey Mikolasky.

“I’m blessed to have him as a director. I’ve learned that writers and directors don’t mix well,” Carren said. ”We can get too bossy on the set if we don’t feel that the director is doing a good job with the script. It’s best to let the directors do their job, I have complete faith in Mikolasky’s vision.”

Even if Carren feels he has found that “one good story,” he isn’t done writing.

“I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished, but I still feel like my best work is ahead of me," he explained. "Therefore, I will continue to write and I don’t think I can stop. I don’t feel complete unless I’m writing.”

Hollyweird opens April 23 and will run until April 28 in the Albert L. Jeffers Theater in the ARHU. UTPA students and faculty have free admission. General admission is eight dollars. UTPA students get in for free.