by Maryam Spahic Â
GOMBAK, 5 April 2016: The renowned Canadian spoken-word poet and writer, Boonaa Mohammed, attended the live screening of the movie written by him entitled ‘Tug of War’ organised by the Department of Quran and Sunnah in collaboration with The Muslim Heroes at ADM LT 4 yesterday.
The fictional movie, inspired by actual events around, aimed to fight extremism as it portrays a timely tale of two young Muslims who decide to embark on a holy war in the Middle East after becoming exposed to radicalised Islam.
Boonaa Mohammed plays the main character, Khalil, who reconnects with Islam after serving four years in prison alongside Mohammed Zeyara as Anas who becomes a Muslim extremist after having his life ruined by the intelligence agency.
During a discussion after the screening that was moderated by the founder of The Muslim Heroes, Muhammad Kashmiri, Boonaa explained that there are many influential factors that attract extremists to these type of militancy, much of which is unknown to the rest of the society. They have been miseducated, hence, have a false understanding of Islam.
œThe person we see on the screen that were all ashamed of, I wanted to show you a little bit of their back story; what leads a person to that particular way of thinking, Boonaa said.
Malaysia is among the many countries Boonaa has been travelling to for live screenings of ‘Tug of War’ movie. His aim is to start the trend of Muslim cinema genre as a new field of dawah. He is currently working on two new movies that will be shot later this year.***
Photo credits to Zakaria Mohiuddin