Twentieth Century Fox
Tony Shalhoub plays the "good" Muslim in "The Siege."

Besieged
by controversy

The film "The Siege"
raises Muslim objections

Hawaii's Muslims offer information
to counter negativity

Nadine Kam
Star-Bulletin

In Hawaii, members of the Islamic community handed out leaflets at the opening of "The Siege" at Restaurant Row. They also invited the public to an open house at the Islamic Center of Hawaii, and will be hosting another open house at the center from 4 to 6 p.m. Saturday at 1935 Aleo Place.

The film juxtaposes terrorist acts and Muslim imagery which those in the Muslim community want to counter.

"To show things like this makes it difficult to talk to people about what's really going on," said Abdul-Rashid Abdullah of the Islamic Information Office. "There are 6 million Muslims in the United States. If we were all terrorists, the U.S. would be burning every day."

The open houses, he said, are a way of saying, "Come out, get to know us. Here's a chance to meet real people.

"We had good talks with people on the street. Our purpose is not to protest the movie, but to try to provide a little more information."

Even so, his office received negative phone messages, in which the callers who did not leave their names or numbers, would say things like, "You get what you deserve."

"The negative imagery is something that's really hard to combat," Abdullah said. "Sometimes it doesn't matter what you do.

"We're still pretty young in terms of population in the states, so it's hard to be recognized.

Abdullah, who became a Muslim in 1990, said Islam is a beautiful religion. "We're against alcohol, gambling, fornication, the different ills of society. We are for society, marriage, peace, good things. So when people want to say bad things, we're like, 'huh?' "