paradise now
watched this film last night. my first reaction was how delightful it was to watch a movie about muslims, by muslims, even in arabic, so that there was no fakeness to their method of prayer or the islamic words dropped into their speech - and islam is NOT the subject of the movie. i was amazed to think this is actually my first such movie... there have got to be others out there!
at the end i thought maybe "paradise now" wasn't the best title for the movie, because it really wasn't about would-be suicide bombers wanting to go to heaven... but a short discussion with my fellow viewers made me see it more as these two young men wanting to get out of the hell they endured each day. and that is a nuance those who accuse the militants of hankering after immortal virgins would do well to understand...
i remember, back in my days as an islamonline reporter, a panel discussion in the national press club on suicide bombing, pre-9/11 (i don't think such a panel would have worked afterwards!). actually, i wrote an article about it, lemme see if i can find it... found it! okay, it's not a very good article as articles go, and it's sort of editorializing, but oh well. this movie echoed the points of one of the panelists there, who said that that trying to understand suicide bombing in terms of anything other than its "human dimension" is to completely misunderstand it. that is what "paradise now" provides, a human dimension to this side of the conflict.
a friend of mine once told me how she thought it was difficult for non-muslims to understand what it means to die for the sake of Allah - look, she said, at the eagerness of the companions of the Prophet to go into battle next to him, and to risk their very lives for His sake. it's part of our tradition - indeed, i remember it well from all those islamic books i read growing up, stories of the companions, young men who led armies at an age when most of us are high school whiners.
and i agree with her - i could only hope for the kind of iman, the level of desire for closeness to Him, that would allow me to meet death freely if it was for His sake. (now i am going to get a visit from some Men in Black!!! FBI man (or woman), please read on before you get all excited.) and certainly a willingness to die for one's beliefs is not an islamic tradition alone - give me liberty or give me death? BUT. what i cannot wrap my head around is for someone to decide that fate THEMSELVES. doesn't that sort of take the glory out of it? like, hey Allah, i want to die for You, so, i'm going to do it, whether you want me to or not... it just can't be right. and yes, i'm sensitive to the human dimension and the lack of alternatives to palestinians fighting the illegal occupation. but - aside from the fact that it does perpetuate the violence, aside from the fact that targeting innocent civilians with such acts only makes it even more heinous - in itself, i don't see how strapping a bomb to yourself to blow up some other people can be put in the same category as fighting in a battle for the sake of Allah and being killed by somebody else. it's not martyrdom... just suicide and murder.
so the film tackles some of these points, though - with two of the main characters being the son of an executed "collaborator" and the daughter of a famous "martyr" - it focuses less on the islamic legitimacy of suicide bombing and more on the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of this method in stopping the occupation. it is a moving story, well acted, well paced, suspenseful. and one of the best aspects - there is no violence in it!!! well, meaning, you don't see any. hope i haven't spoiled it for you.
baby is fussy. he will not eat his mashed peas and not-mashed rice. i know he wants to nurse but i want him to eat something solid...
oh, totally off-topic, i did some online shopping at old navy for him earlier today... so exciting for me because i never do shopping - and i got all this stuff to last him the next couple of months of winter coz it was allll on sale, like half off!! i am more excited to see him in new clothes than to see myself in new clothes...
at the end i thought maybe "paradise now" wasn't the best title for the movie, because it really wasn't about would-be suicide bombers wanting to go to heaven... but a short discussion with my fellow viewers made me see it more as these two young men wanting to get out of the hell they endured each day. and that is a nuance those who accuse the militants of hankering after immortal virgins would do well to understand...
i remember, back in my days as an islamonline reporter, a panel discussion in the national press club on suicide bombing, pre-9/11 (i don't think such a panel would have worked afterwards!). actually, i wrote an article about it, lemme see if i can find it... found it! okay, it's not a very good article as articles go, and it's sort of editorializing, but oh well. this movie echoed the points of one of the panelists there, who said that that trying to understand suicide bombing in terms of anything other than its "human dimension" is to completely misunderstand it. that is what "paradise now" provides, a human dimension to this side of the conflict.
a friend of mine once told me how she thought it was difficult for non-muslims to understand what it means to die for the sake of Allah - look, she said, at the eagerness of the companions of the Prophet to go into battle next to him, and to risk their very lives for His sake. it's part of our tradition - indeed, i remember it well from all those islamic books i read growing up, stories of the companions, young men who led armies at an age when most of us are high school whiners.
and i agree with her - i could only hope for the kind of iman, the level of desire for closeness to Him, that would allow me to meet death freely if it was for His sake. (now i am going to get a visit from some Men in Black!!! FBI man (or woman), please read on before you get all excited.) and certainly a willingness to die for one's beliefs is not an islamic tradition alone - give me liberty or give me death? BUT. what i cannot wrap my head around is for someone to decide that fate THEMSELVES. doesn't that sort of take the glory out of it? like, hey Allah, i want to die for You, so, i'm going to do it, whether you want me to or not... it just can't be right. and yes, i'm sensitive to the human dimension and the lack of alternatives to palestinians fighting the illegal occupation. but - aside from the fact that it does perpetuate the violence, aside from the fact that targeting innocent civilians with such acts only makes it even more heinous - in itself, i don't see how strapping a bomb to yourself to blow up some other people can be put in the same category as fighting in a battle for the sake of Allah and being killed by somebody else. it's not martyrdom... just suicide and murder.
so the film tackles some of these points, though - with two of the main characters being the son of an executed "collaborator" and the daughter of a famous "martyr" - it focuses less on the islamic legitimacy of suicide bombing and more on the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of this method in stopping the occupation. it is a moving story, well acted, well paced, suspenseful. and one of the best aspects - there is no violence in it!!! well, meaning, you don't see any. hope i haven't spoiled it for you.
baby is fussy. he will not eat his mashed peas and not-mashed rice. i know he wants to nurse but i want him to eat something solid...
oh, totally off-topic, i did some online shopping at old navy for him earlier today... so exciting for me because i never do shopping - and i got all this stuff to last him the next couple of months of winter coz it was allll on sale, like half off!! i am more excited to see him in new clothes than to see myself in new clothes...
posted by Ayesha | 7:08 PM
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