Eat With Muslims Web Series
Donation protected
Ilays Aden and Fathia Absie, Co-Founders of EWM © 2018, William Mebane
Eat With Muslims Dinner, 2017
Hello, our names are Fathia and Ilays from Seattle, WA. We are looking for support to create a new way to connect Muslims and non-Muslim together through food and story telling.
After hearing so much anti-Muslim rhetoric for the past few years, we decided to do something that can help educate people and bring Muslim and non-Muslim Americans together. We believe that sharing a meal with someone and having an open dialogue is a powerful way to do this. We want to go further by filming the gatherings and conversations as a web series called Eat With Muslims. We hope that people across the country can watch the web series, which will show diverse groups interacting and asking questions without judgment. We hope that more and more people across the country will watch it, be inspired by it, and bring people together in their own communities.
As of May 2018, we have hosted 21 dinners, gatherings, and events across the Seattle Metropolitan area, bringing together over 1,000 non-Muslims and Muslims. We now have people reaching out to us from all over the country so we know the interest is there more than ever!
Therefore, we would like to shoot 8 Eat With Muslims episodes. The purpose of this program is to highlight the stories of American Muslims and inspire others to do the same. We will be telling the background stories of the host families or individuals and their counterparts, whether they are neighbors, co-workers, classmates, or strangers. This will let the audience know who they are as they enter the journey with the groups. Throughout the meal, we will be filming and pulling people aside to conduct smaller interviews.
During each dinner, we will have four or five questions that we pose to the group and use to facilitate the discussions. We hope that the conversation will flow from there naturally, however, we can bring it back on track if we need to. We would like to ask the participants what questions they consider important or relevant based on the relationship they have with each other.
We will then provide the meals from a Muslim restaurant or allow the host to cook traditional food. We will let the host introduce the food and its origins.
Guests enjoy food from around the world. © 2018, William Mebane
The purpose is to give ethnically diverse American Muslims a chance to share their own lives and practices and to demonstrate how they follow Islam. It’s an opportunity to shine light on our humanity as American Muslims and as human beings. Moreover, this show is all about educating people of all faiths and atheists. We plan to have people from diverse professions and beliefs be apart of the show.
Furthermore, Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie stated, “The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.” EWM works to change the “only story” that is told about Muslims by shining a light on our everyday American experiences and how we all relate. We hope that Eat With Muslims, will create beautiful friendships and build lasting relationships.
We are turning to GoFundMe in order to raise $25,000 for this national endeavor. The funds we are requesting will go towards hiring a professional videographer and editor, food, space to host, travel costs, and materials required to make this happen. Please take this journey with us and donate generously!
http://kuow.org/post/dont-know-muslims-these-seattle-women-invite-you-dinner
About Us:
Fathia Absie is a Somali American writer and filmmaker. She is a former Voice of America broadcaster. Ms. Absie was a social worker before she decided to pursue a life-long dream of storytelling.
Ms. Absie's first film is Broken Dreams, a documentary that explores the collective outcry against the recruitment of the Somali youth in Minnesota by religious fanatics. The case brought unwanted attention from the U.S. government to the Somali community in Minnesota and around the country. Following the disappearances of the young Somali men, the FBI launched the largest US counterterrorism investigation since the 9/11 tragedy.
Her second film is a narrative called The Lobby, a story about friendship and cultural differences. In 2014, Absie also published the graphic novel The Imperceptible Peacemaker, through the CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. An allegory on vigilante justice, its superhero protagonist and a tech billionaire creates a suit that gives him the ability to become an invisible force for good, fighting tyranny and injustice around the world. Ms. Absie also worked with Twin Cities PBS where she hosted countless programs and the documentary, Giving Thanks!
Ilays Aden is also a Somali American who has lived in Washington D.C. and Seattle. She attended University of Washington, where she studied Economics and African Studies, and American University for law school. She has been an advocate for immigrants and asylum seekers from all different backgrounds. She wants to continue her fight for social justice and equality.
Please help us make these conversation a realities, and donate today. Thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts!
Eat With Muslims Dinner, 2017
Hello, our names are Fathia and Ilays from Seattle, WA. We are looking for support to create a new way to connect Muslims and non-Muslim together through food and story telling.
After hearing so much anti-Muslim rhetoric for the past few years, we decided to do something that can help educate people and bring Muslim and non-Muslim Americans together. We believe that sharing a meal with someone and having an open dialogue is a powerful way to do this. We want to go further by filming the gatherings and conversations as a web series called Eat With Muslims. We hope that people across the country can watch the web series, which will show diverse groups interacting and asking questions without judgment. We hope that more and more people across the country will watch it, be inspired by it, and bring people together in their own communities.
As of May 2018, we have hosted 21 dinners, gatherings, and events across the Seattle Metropolitan area, bringing together over 1,000 non-Muslims and Muslims. We now have people reaching out to us from all over the country so we know the interest is there more than ever!
Therefore, we would like to shoot 8 Eat With Muslims episodes. The purpose of this program is to highlight the stories of American Muslims and inspire others to do the same. We will be telling the background stories of the host families or individuals and their counterparts, whether they are neighbors, co-workers, classmates, or strangers. This will let the audience know who they are as they enter the journey with the groups. Throughout the meal, we will be filming and pulling people aside to conduct smaller interviews.
During each dinner, we will have four or five questions that we pose to the group and use to facilitate the discussions. We hope that the conversation will flow from there naturally, however, we can bring it back on track if we need to. We would like to ask the participants what questions they consider important or relevant based on the relationship they have with each other.
We will then provide the meals from a Muslim restaurant or allow the host to cook traditional food. We will let the host introduce the food and its origins.
Guests enjoy food from around the world. © 2018, William MebaneThe purpose is to give ethnically diverse American Muslims a chance to share their own lives and practices and to demonstrate how they follow Islam. It’s an opportunity to shine light on our humanity as American Muslims and as human beings. Moreover, this show is all about educating people of all faiths and atheists. We plan to have people from diverse professions and beliefs be apart of the show.
Furthermore, Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie stated, “The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.” EWM works to change the “only story” that is told about Muslims by shining a light on our everyday American experiences and how we all relate. We hope that Eat With Muslims, will create beautiful friendships and build lasting relationships.
We are turning to GoFundMe in order to raise $25,000 for this national endeavor. The funds we are requesting will go towards hiring a professional videographer and editor, food, space to host, travel costs, and materials required to make this happen. Please take this journey with us and donate generously!
http://kuow.org/post/dont-know-muslims-these-seattle-women-invite-you-dinner
About Us:
Fathia Absie is a Somali American writer and filmmaker. She is a former Voice of America broadcaster. Ms. Absie was a social worker before she decided to pursue a life-long dream of storytelling.
Ms. Absie's first film is Broken Dreams, a documentary that explores the collective outcry against the recruitment of the Somali youth in Minnesota by religious fanatics. The case brought unwanted attention from the U.S. government to the Somali community in Minnesota and around the country. Following the disappearances of the young Somali men, the FBI launched the largest US counterterrorism investigation since the 9/11 tragedy.
Her second film is a narrative called The Lobby, a story about friendship and cultural differences. In 2014, Absie also published the graphic novel The Imperceptible Peacemaker, through the CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. An allegory on vigilante justice, its superhero protagonist and a tech billionaire creates a suit that gives him the ability to become an invisible force for good, fighting tyranny and injustice around the world. Ms. Absie also worked with Twin Cities PBS where she hosted countless programs and the documentary, Giving Thanks!
Ilays Aden is also a Somali American who has lived in Washington D.C. and Seattle. She attended University of Washington, where she studied Economics and African Studies, and American University for law school. She has been an advocate for immigrants and asylum seekers from all different backgrounds. She wants to continue her fight for social justice and equality.
Please help us make these conversation a realities, and donate today. Thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts!Organizer
Fathia Absie
Organizer
SeaTac, WA
