A HBO television drama created by an Oscar-winning director and a Canadian-Somali rapper has infuriated many in Minnesota's Somali community who say the show will perpetuate unfair stereotypes of Muslims.
Touted as a window into the lives of Somalis in Minneapolis adjusting to life in the U.S. Midwestern city, many community members instead fear "Mogadishu, Minnesota" will stoke Islamophobia if it airs. Filming on the pilot episode was scheduled to end last week.
At a time when opposition to immigrants and anti-Muslim sentiment have featured heavily in rhetoric by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, Minnesota's Somali community members, especially men, are worried the possible TV drama will brand them as potential terrorists.
"I'm completely against it," Mahmoud Mire, 20, a first-generation Somali-American, said of the show. "As Muslims, as blacks and as refugees, people have their misconceptions about us already."
Those feelings have been echoed by others in protests against the show. Somali residents in one Minneapolis housing complex voted earlier this month to block crews from filming in their building.
Even the involvement of Somalia's best-known celebrity, Canadian-Somali rapper K'naan Warsame, as writer, director and executive director has not quelled mistrust. He is working with executive producer Kathryn Bigelow, who won an Oscar as best director in 2010 for "The Hurt Locker."
HBO officials declined to discuss the issues around the pilot other than to confirm the cast and provide a short synopsis, describing it as "a family drama that grapples with what it means to be American – among the Somalis of Minneapolis."
The filming of a pilot does not ensure it will air or be made into a full series.
Somalis began to arrive in Minnesota's Twin Cities in the late 1980s and early 1990s, fleeing a civil war in their Horn of Africa nation. There are around 39,000 living in the state of 5.5 million people, according to U.S. census data from 2014. That is up from around 32,000 in 2010.
Somali-Americans are particularly sensitive about how they are perceived after a trial earlier this year at which three young men from the community were convicted of trying to join Islamic State. Six others pleaded guilty to supporting the militant group in a case that some in the community denounced as an example of government entrapment.
Then last month a 20-year-old Somali-American stabbed 10 people at a shopping mall in St. Cloud, Minnesota, before being fatally shot by an off-duty police officer. An Islamic State-linked media outlet described the attacker as a "soldier" of the group.
"Anything that happens with Somalis, our community is thrown under the bus," said Mubashir Jeilani, 21, a Somali-American from Minneapolis. He is executive director at the West Bank Community Coalition (WBCC) in the city's Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, the hub for the area's Somali community.
Great distrust
In the current environment, many Somali-Americans in Minnesota are leery of Hollywood storytellers.
"There is a great distrust between this community and the directors and producers in Hollywood," said Jaylani Hussein, 34, who immigrated to Minneapolis from Somalia in the early 1990s when he was around 10 years old. He is now executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, an advocacy group.
Hussein decries movies such as "Captain Phillips" in 2013, which dramatizes an attack by Somali pirates on a U.S.-flagged cargo ship, and Ridley Scott's 2001 film "Black Hawk Down" about a failed U.S. military mission in Mogadishu, for their portrayals of Somalis as pirates or terrorists.
"There are real consequences in the stories we tell," he said.
Early concerns
The backlash to "Mogadishu, Minnesota" started last year after early reports on the show, which the Hollywood Reporter said in December 2015 was titled "the Recruiters."
The trade publication, quoting an unnamed source, described how the drama would "draw open an iron curtain behind which viewers will see the highly impenetrable world of Jihadi recruitment."
The filming of the pilot is expected to have employed some 350 people and to have generated roughly US$4 million in spending for the local economy, Minnesota officials said. But that failed to impress many in the local community.
In September, protesters objecting to the show interrupted a K'naan concert in Minneapolis and clashed with police.
K'naan has met several times with community members and local organizations to address their concerns. The WBCC's Jeilani said K'naan assured him the show would portray the community as more than just a "hub for recruitment."
K'naan could not be reached for comment. Last month he told a Somali journalist that the project was "pretty historic," and that he had hired Somalis to work on the production in an effort to train a new generation of filmmakers.
While a local Somali city councilman has publicly backed the TV show, others say they remain skeptical due in part to Bigelow's involvement, which brought considerable buzz in Hollywood.
"Kathryn Bigelow is notoriously known for being successful by projecting a very negative view of Muslims," said CAIR's Hussein.
Bigelow's most successful films have centered on U.S. military operations in Muslim countries. "Zero Dark Thirty" in 2012 was about the hunt for Osama Bin Laden, while "The Hurt Locker" depicted a bomb disposal team in Iraq.
Bigelow's agent could not be reached for comment.
Reuters
Sun Oct 30 2016
Somali-Canadian poet, rapper, singer, songwriter K'naan Warsame (centre) talks to Somali refugees during his visit to the Dadaab refugee camps in northern Kenya, Aug 23, 2011. - Reuters/Files
Pelancong dari China, India meningkat 78.2 peratus berikutan pelan liberalisasi visa
Pelan liberalisasi visa telah merancakkan kemasukan pelancong ke dalam negara khususnya dari China dan India dengan peningkatan sebanyak 78.2 peratus dalam tempoh tiga bulan pertama tahun ini.
AWANI Ringkas: Delegasi ke Gaza jalani latihan antikeganasan
Ikuti rangkuman berita utama yang menjadi tumpuan sepanjang hari di Astro AWANI menerusi AWANI Ringkas.
Bursa Malaysia dibuka meningkat, pelabur tumpu saham dengan rizab tunai tinggi
Pada 9.22 pagi, indeks petunjuk utama FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) menokok 4.86 mata kepada 1,549.62 daripada penutupan Khamis iaitu 1,544.76.
[LAPOR LANGSUNG] Israel serang Iran, peluru berpandu Zionis bedil Isfahan
Letupan kedengaran di lapangan terbang di bandar Isafahan di Iran tetapi puncanya masih belum dapat dipastikan.
"Itu fake news, saya tidak tahu siapa reka cerita" - Angeline Tan jawab dakwaan hamil
Kata Angeline, pada usia begini, dia dan suami mahu hidup tenang serta memadai timang cucu sahaja.
Polis buru suspek pecah rumah sebabkan kerugian kira-kira RM5,000
Polis berjaya mendapat kesan cap jari dipercayai milik suspek.
Penerbangan ke Tehran, Isfahan dan Shiraz digantung
Penggantungan itu berkuat kuasa serta-merta, tetapi penerbangan belum dibatalkan, kata pengarah itu.
RHB tingkatkan sasaran perkhidmatan kewangan mampan kepada RM50 bilion menjelang 2026
RHB tingkatkan sasaran perkhidmatan kewangan mampan 2026 kepada RM50 bilion berbanding RM20 bilion sebelum ini berikutan pencapaian kukuh setakat ini.
Ringgit dibuka rendah berbanding dolar AS
Ringgit susut berbanding dolar AS pada sesi awal Jumaat ketika unit negara maju itu meneruskan pengukuhannya.
[TERKINI] Peluru berpandu Israel jatuh di Iran
Peluru berpandu dipercayai milik Israel mengenai sebuah tapak di Iran, menurut laporan ABC News memetik seorang pegawai tertinggi Amerika Syarikat (AS).
Agensi berita Iran FARS pula berkata, letupan kedengaran di lapangan terbang di bandar Isafahan di Iran tetapi puncanya masih belum dapat dipastikan.
CNN turut melaporkan beberapa penerbangan yang melalui ruang udara Iran telah dilencongkan.
Agensi berita Iran FARS pula berkata, letupan kedengaran di lapangan terbang di bandar Isafahan di Iran tetapi puncanya masih belum dapat dipastikan.
CNN turut melaporkan beberapa penerbangan yang melalui ruang udara Iran telah dilencongkan.
Mahkamah India halang Al Jazeera tayang filem keganasan perkauman
Mahkamah di negeri Uttar Pradesh di India menghalang penayangan filem Al Jazeera bertajuk "India....Who lit the Fuse?", yang menangani isu keganasan anti-Islam di negara itu.
Sidang Kemuncak KL cari penyelesaian isu dihadapi dunia Islam
Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad nampaknya bersedia untuk mengetengahkan seruan penyatuan untuk dunia Islam berjuang mendapatkan semula kegemilangan yang pernah dikecapi dahulu.
Sonny Bill Williams puji tindakan halang serangan ke atas wanita Islam hamil
Sonny B Williams memuji tindakan berani orang awam yang menghentikan serangan seorang lelaki warganegara Australia yang memukul seorang wanita hamil beragama Islam.
Wanita bertudung ini sangat berani
Shaymaa bertembung dengan penunjuk perasaan anti-Islam dan terus meminta rakan mengambil gambarnya di hadapan kumpulan tersebut.
Pemimpin DAP perlu kerja keras ubah stigma terhadap DAP
Setiausaha Organisasi DAP, Anthony Loke, berkata kepimpinan parti perlu memainkan peranan mendekati pengundi.
Dapat 25 'markah' jika tarik hijab, polis UK siasat kempen serang umat Islam
Antara kandungan surat tersebut adalah mengenai 'ganjaran' ke atas serangan yang dilakukan terhadap umat Islam.
Trump dikritik di AS, Britian kerana kongsi video anti-Islam
White House mempertahankan tweet Donald Trump, mengatakan apa yang dilakukan adalah untuk memberi kesedaran tentang isu keselamatan.
Kit Siang mahu saman Abdul Hadi berhubung dakwaan anti-Islam
Lim berkata beliau bukanlah seorang yang anti-Islam.
Dulu anti-Asia, kini Pauline Hanson dakwa Australia dibanjiri umat Islam
Pengasas parti One Nation di Australia Pauline Hanson mencadangkan larangan terhadap burqa dan pembinaan masjid-masjid baharu.
Anti-Islam di AS: Lebih ramai wanita Islam belajar seni pertahan diri
Aktivis hak asasi manusia Rana Abdelhamid yang merupakan pemegang tali pinggang hitam dalam karate Shotokan berkata wanita yang berhijab sering menjadi mangsa sentimen anti-Islam.