A GAPC ENTERTAINMENT PRODUCTION
IN ASSOCIATION WITH documentary CHANNEL
PRESENTS
So You Want to Be a Muslim
A film by Hoda Elatawi
Becoming a Muslim is easy – you just say the Shahada (testimony of faith): I bear witness that there is no God but Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and messenger…and you’re in! But actually choosing to become a Muslim, especially in the West today, is not so easy. It can, in fact, present unique challenges.
So You Want to be a Muslim introduces viewers to five North American individuals who have left their respective faith traditions to embrace Islam.
For these five – Barbara, Stephanie, Rima, Johnae and Eli – the transition from one religion to another can be simultaneously enlightening and daunting. Each of the people profiled in the film takes us on a journey that, collectively, illuminates the striking diversity of the Muslim community.
Even as they find peace and meaning in their new faith, the varied experiences of these “new’ Muslims speak to the reality of the ‘West vs the rest’ mentality. Barbara, Stephanie, Rima, Johnae and Eli all reflect on what it’s like to live between two worlds, often feeling ‘othered’ both inside and outside of their communities.
With words like “extremist”, “jihadist”, and “terrorist” plaguing mainstream dialogue when the subject of Islam and Muslims come up in our Western society, the deeply personal stories revealed by the diverse group of people in this film help break stereotypes, challenge our preconceived notions about Islam, and reveal the struggles and truths around what it means to be a Muslim in the West today.
Barbara
Barbara was a musician in her early 20’s, studying to become an Anglican minister, when she met Abdollah, a young Iranian man, in a History of Christian Thought course at McGill University in Montreal. She left her “born” Christian faith and a possible career in music to marry Abdullah. They were both spiritually curious. “We went to a Hindu temple,” she remembers. “We went to pray at the Benedictine priory. And from there, we went to a Sufi zikr, and we went to a number of different things, looking for a spiritual reality.” Eventually, Barbara became a Muslim in 1987. Barbara & Abdollah’s story spanned 30 years and spawned six children, while constantly living on the edge of poverty. She gave up a lot and felt like she lost herself – that is, until a series of new beginnings, like filing for divorce and becoming the first-ever female Muslim Chaplain in the Canadian Armed Forces. At 62 years-old, she has become a force to be reckoned with. “My journey into Islam was a spiritual search,” she says. “I went through a process of trying to find something that seemed to be missing, something that seemed to be authentic. And I didn’t simply leave my religion. I went more deeply into it. So, that involved looking at the contemplative traditions within Christianity, and that led me to the contemplative spiritual dimensions of Islam. Its beautiful spirituality supports the growth of an internal moral compass, of appropriate self-discipline as part of any kind of spiritual exercise. It’s got all of those elements, and I know it, I love it, and this is where I was led.”
Stephanie
Stephanie is a Millennial who was raised by a Catholic mother and agnostic father in an Acadian home in New Brunswick. Now living in Ottawa, she took the Shahada in 2012 and donned the hijab but decided against forsaking the parts of her life that she enjoyed before becoming a Muslim. In other words, she still drinks alcohol occasionally, enjoys going to a party once in a while, has tattoos, and remains a supportive activist in the LGBTQ+ community – especially to show support for her two gay dads. Stephanie decided to remove her hijab (despite loving it), fearing for the safety and peace-of-mind of her Hindu fiancée (now husband) Ombor, whose family is Bengali-Canadian. He is commonly mistaken for a Muslim man. She continued to debate whether or not to cover her head as she prepared for her wedding in her very homogenous New Brunswick hometown. About converting to Islam she says, “As a Catholic, it wasn’t that far-fetched from the belief that I’d already been brought up believing in. My main issues with the Catholic Church were with the hierarchy of the church, plus I didn’t believe that Jesus was the Son of God. I believe that he was a prophet.” As for her somewhat unorthodox practice of Islam, she says, “The reality is that we all cherry-pick when it comes to any religion, but no, I don’t cherry-pick the same way other people cherry-pick. To me, my priority is my relationship with God.”
Rima
Rima revels in her intersecting identities. Born in South Africa and culturally Jewish, and more recently Muslim, she finds that each religion gives her a richness of experience beyond measure. “For me, the question really has always been what feels good in terms of connecting with the spiritual. I needed a place to go to speak to the Creator”. Rima’s grandmother, who came from a mixed Afrikaner Cape-coloured background, converted to Judaism to marry her grandfather. Growing up, Rima felt like she always got treated as somebody who was somewhat different or odd, and like she never belonged. Moving with her family to Canada as a child, Rima felt strongly about her Jewish identity and culture. “I lost extended family in the Holocaust. Those are stories that are part of who I am. And I experienced real antisemitism growing up in Montreal. Then I went and spent three years in Israel-Palestine, where I had a very powerful experience of walking into the Al-Aqsa, the mosque which is built in Jerusalem, and I just had a strong sense of feeling the divine in that space. It’s a very precious and powerful space.” She recalled her grandmother saying to her, ‘There is only one God, and he doesn’t care what kind of a building you go into to talk to him.’ “And I just thought, yeah, of course.” She moved to Toronto where she became a university lecturer and, later, an elected NDP Member for The Beaches of the Ontario Provincial Parliament. “For me, Judaism and Islam are so close to one another. They’re actually even closer than Judaism and Christianity. I decided to embrace Islam. For me, it was like adding a layer to an already very textured set of identities, not stopping being one thing and becoming another thing. For me, it’s really important that people understand that there is nothing inherently antagonistic about these two faith practices.” As a Muslim, her main inspiration was the liberal El Tawhid Unity Mosque in Toronto, which provided a notable counterpoint to the way Islam is understood by most people around the world. In it, men and women congregate together in a circle, and there are many LGBTQ+ members. Says Rima: “I did not become Muslim because I’m socially conservative or in order to be around people who are socially conservative. I do not experience the Muslim community as one that is socially conservative. Muslims are a diverse group of people, just like any other group of people are. And you can’t make assumptions about who they are exactly. There is no one monolith that’s Islam, and there’s no one monolith that’s Muslim.” Rima now lives and works on Canada’s East Coast.
Johnae & Eli
Johnae and Eli live in New York City’s borough, The Bronx. Both are of African-American and Puerto Rican origin. They both ‘reverted’ to Islam in 2021. Johnae and Eli were brought up Christian: “The first seeds of me questioning Christianity were from high school,” says Johnae. “They’d talk about the Trinity and I would ask for clarification because I didn’t get it. I’m genuinely curious and eventually I thought ‘I’m going to start doing research and I’m going to see what makes sense for me’. The reason why I chose Islam is because I didn’t have to mold myself to fit it. But like, my core, my– like, I’m still Johnae. You know, my physical appearance has changed. Some of my social interactions have changed, but only for the better”. As for Eli, he recounts, “I used to party a lot. A lot of nonsense. I was forced to revaluate my life”. Johnae was already interested in Islam. After they moved in together and learned Johnae was expecting, Eli felt “maybe I should ground myself more in faith. I feel that’s very important when you have a family.” So it was Eli who actually took the initiative and proposed that they take the Shahada and become Muslim.
Filmmaker Biography
HODA ELATAWI
Director/Producer/Co-Executve Producer, Co-Writer
Hoda Elatawi, Senior Producer and President of Ottawa’s GAPC Entertainment, has created award-winning films and television shows in Canada and internationally for almost three decades. Hoda’s passion for education, history, social issues, children’s programming, and the arts has united her with producers and writers from around the world and allowed her to work on a diverse range of television projects.
Hoda has created and produced award-winning concepts across a multitude of genres and platforms. Her directorial debut was with Muneeza in the Middle, a documentary about a young Muslim woman who faces the complex struggle between faith, family, fashion, and ultimately identity. Aired on CBC’s documentary Channel, Muneeza in the Middle was nominated in the Documentary Social/Political category at the Yorkton Film Festival in 2015, scooped an Award of Merit, Women in Filmmaking from the IndieFEST Film Awards, and won Best Director at the Ottawa Independent Film and Video Awards.
Hoda continues to explore identity, religion and intersectionality with her new, feature-length documentary, So You Want to Be a Muslim, an intimate look into the lives of several Muslim converts in North America, chronicling their individual journeys of transformation and spiritual exploration. It will air in October 2024 on CBC’s documentary Channel and also stream on CBC Gem.
Some of her other producing credits include: Christopher Plummer: A Man for All Stages and Oscar Peterson: Keeping the Groove Alive, both one-hour biographies for the CBC; The Letters: Rediscovering the Art of Courtship, an unscripted series for BRAVO!; The Great March, a two-hour docudrama for History Television (nominated for two Gemini Awards); Growing Up Canadian, a six x one hour doc series for History Channel; 20th Century Gals, starring Cathy Jones, for the CBC; The Secret Lives of Butterflies, for Discovery, and many more.
Hoda is currently developing, among other projects, a scripted comedy series, The Arranged Marriage, for CBC; Welcome, a series for and about displaced children, a live-action scripted series starring dogs called The Whiskers; The Polka Dot Way, a feature doc in development with TVO; and I Love Being Me!, a youth doc series for marbleKids and Blue Ant.
Premiere
Sunday, October 20 @ 9 pm ET (6pm PT)
repeats @ Midnight ET (9pm PT)
repeats @ 3 am ET (Midnight PT)
More Repeats
Following Tuesday (2 days after premiere)
@ 9am ET (6am PT)
repeats @ 2pm ET (11am PT)
repeats @ 7pm ET (4pm PT)
Premiere
Wednesday, October 23
“So You Want To Be A Muslim”: Film Chronicles Converts’ Struggles and Triumphs
AboutIslam & News Agencies
10 October, 2024
A new documentary, So You Want To Be A Muslim, directed by Hoda Elatawi, is set to premiere on Sunday, October 20, at 9 p.m. ET on documentary Channel, with streaming available on CBC Gem starting October 23.
The film highlights the spiritual journeys of five North Americans who have converted to Islam, exploring the challenges and rewards of their transitions in a Western society that often views their decisions with skepticism, Muslim Link reported.
Elatawi’s feature-length documentary chronicles the diverse experiences of these converts—three Canadians and an American couple—over a span of eight years.
Delayed in part by the COVID-19 pandemic, the film presents an intimate exploration of how adopting Islam has reshaped the lives, identities, and relationships of its subjects.
A Journey of Faith & Identity
One of the featured individuals, Barbara, was a promising musician and aspiring Anglican minister in her early 20s when she converted to Islam after marrying a Muslim man.
Despite the eventual breakdown of her marriage, her faith journey took her in unexpected directions, ultimately leading her to a fulfilling new role as a chaplain in the Canadian Armed Forces.
Stephanie, a Millennial and francophone Acadian from New Brunswick now living in Ottawa, embraced Islam and adopted the hijab.
However, she continues to embrace parts of her pre-conversion life, including occasional social drinking and LGBTQ+ activism, particularly in support of her two gay fathers.
Rima, born in South Africa and raised in a culturally Jewish family, found her new Islamic identity in sharp contrast with the prejudice and Islamophobia she faced from her own relatives.
Her conversion to Islam brought her face to face with the biases within her family, complicating her rich sense of identity.
Johnae and her husband Eli, an African American couple from Puerto Rico now residing in the Bronx, also converted to Islam.
The pair live more conservatively than they did in their younger years, but their reversion to Islam has deepened their relationship with each other and their faith.
Breaking Stereotypes
The documentary reveals the complexities of living as a Muslim convert in the West. The individuals often feel torn between two worlds, struggling to find acceptance within their communities while also facing Islamophobia and misconceptions from the broader society.
Through their diverse stories, the film underscores the universal quest for meaning and belonging.
Director Hoda Elatawi hopes So You Want To Be A Muslim will serve as a tool to challenge widespread stereotypes about Islam.
“With words like ‘extremist’, ‘jihadist’, and ‘terrorist’ plaguing mainstream dialogue when the subject of Islam and Muslims come up,” Elatawi explains, “I hope the deeply personal stories revealed by the diverse group of people in my film will help break stereotypes and challenge preconceived notions about Islam.”
Produced by GAPC Entertainment, So You Want To Be A Muslim is supported by the Canada Media Fund, Ontario Creates, and several other cultural institutions. Elatawi aims to bridge the gap between Muslims and non-Muslims by focusing on the shared humanity and struggles revealed through the lens of these personal, transformative journeys.
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