The next edition of "All-American Muslim" explores the lasting impact the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks had on the cast and their community, producers said.
"When I first heard it was a Muslim extremist that had done this, immediately, my thought, like every other Muslim's thought, was these people are not Muslim. Who are these people? Where did they come from? I've never heard of the Taliban. I've never heard of Osama bin Laden," docu-series star Nina Bazzy says in the episode. "They've labeled themselves as Muslim. But they are not Muslim. A real Muslim would never do anything like that."
"'All-American Muslim' offers us a unique opportunity to step into the shoes of our Muslim neighbors and experience the pain and suffering they have endured, not just once, but twice," the Rev. Dr. Katharine Henderson, president of Auburn Seminary in New York, said in a statement Thursday. "The first time because terrorists attacked their country on 9/11 and the second time because some fellow Americans turned on them, simply because of their religion, which is absolutely unacceptable."
"At a time when perceptions of Muslims are at an all-time low, 'All-American Muslim' has managed to flip the switch and help many Americans see the commonalities we share with one another," said Eboo Patel, president of Interfaith Youth Core and a member of the White House Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships advisory council. "By showing the gray areas, not just the black and the white, the series has laid bare the complex and valid range of emotions that these families have experienced over the past ten years. And, instead of soundbites, this nuance adds value by showing very real, very human responses to the events that changed our world."
