is it your first time in in the Middle
East yes what's your impression I'm
doing it it's fine
well I'm asking because you know the
image of Middle Easterners in Hollywood
is not the most positive one and you
last year you said that American Muslims
are the new blacks yes my question is
how could Muslims reach what African
Americans have achieved in Hollywood
let's talk about how because this year
if you look at the movies we see vying
for awards fences loving moonlight it's
incredible success okay how Muslims can
achieve that do you think I don't know I
guess if you're asking cinematically
though right yeah Hollywood the stories
and stories have to be told I guess and
I guess the wider appeal for the film or
young you know Muslim Americans start
telling their stories the same way you
know African Americans you know fought
and found ways to make films about their
lives and their experiences and letting
people know that their experiences
living in that particular space aren't
any different than anyone else living in
that space you got the same you know get
up every day problem that everybody else
has and the stories need to be
compelling and I guess you know as usual
with everything else you know something
that relates to the common experiences
of the people who come in to see those
film from your experience in Hollywood
do you think Hollywood has contributed
to this negative image of Muslims and
Arabs and by the way I would like to
remind you
rules of engagement was kind of by it
was considered by the Arab American
League of anti-discrimination as the
worst film in terms of racism - really
yes yeah didn't you hear about
you know paramount had to apologize no I
had no idea yeah but they don't know
here's about those things I mean that's
like upstairs somewhere so when you read
this script you didn't feel anything
wrong about it it was a story about
American soldiers in a place you know
doing something it was no different than
a story to me about Vietnam and the
things that you know soldiers did when
they were out there in the heat of
battle and sometimes people make
mistakes so it was one of those you know
war mistake movies for me you know and I
thought it was important to tell and I
said the characters were compelling the
situation was compelling I had an
opportunity to go make a movie in
Morocco it was shot in Morocco yeah you
know what is that
well they I recall the Yemeni ambassador
also complained go duty we didn't know
about Yemen is where we're portrayed as
terrorists all of them even the little
girl was a terrorist well then you would
like them that's the question in the
movie yeah did they have guns that did
they not have guns did they attack the
embassy did they not attack the embassy
I mean there have been other movies made
about the very same thing you know
recently you know so no we didn't know
about it as an actor we just tell the
stories you know I go in there I hung
out with those people a lot you know but
I guess they were Moroccans but you know
so the question was did that little girl
have a big gun in her hand or did she or
was she just standing there were those
people actually shooting at the embassy
me the bullet holes in the embassy came
from somewhere so everybody has decided
story they just didn't tell that side of
the story
unfortunately so I don't know when you
doing stories about terrorism now that's
that happens to be the thing you know
way back when when they made war movies
it was always you know Japanese the
Germans they're still making those mood
I mean Brad Pitt just did that so so a
deal buddy gotta be the bad guys
sometimes yeah and I guess you know if
you make your movies we can be the bad
guy on your move out oh I will
definitely come and be the ugly American
in any movie you want to make about it
no I don't want you to be the ugly
you've suffered enough to go and wear
that that hat is not fair
but I want to ask you now about the
filmmakers you saw this there are film
Arab filmmakers here trying to change
that how important do you think those
voices voices of filmmakers from the
Middle East very important we want to
know where you came from how you exist
everyday and what forms the opinion in
your life the majority of Americans
probably think that every Muslim in this
part of the world wants to kill him or
they don't realize that you know there
are moderate Muslims there extremists
there you know whatever like in every
society we have crazy Christians you
know same thing and only way we'll find
that out is by these young filmmakers
telling their stories and telling some
stories where religion has no part in
their lives whatsoever because everybody
doesn't get up every day you know and
pray five times a day you know there are
people that don't do that too
so the only way for us to find that out
is through these young people telling
their stories and telling the story of
their lives and what their similarities
are and what their frustrations are in
terms of trying to reach their life
goals or how easy it is for some people
to do it how difficult it is for others
to do it well
the day-to-day struggle is for some
people as opposed to the ease of life
that other people have or raising a
family and taking your kids and
and hoping for a brighter future what
that future is that you wish for your
kids and how you want to achieve that
particular thing and the way you raise
them and what you teach them about the
world you know America's one of those
strange kind of countries I mean
everybody thinks it's you know the gold
standard or something but you know it's
like 70% of Americans don't have
passports so they don't have a real
world view other than the one that they
fed so if you're filmmakers are telling
their particular stories you can feed
them that you know and hopefully they'll
be interested enough to you know watch
it but do you feel or are you concerned
by the rise of the trumpism that
includes all the white supremacists and
the race racism that is kind of these
days is rising yes we were doing
something with the BBC called the BBC
Arab festival for that purpose to bring
our art and our porous than their work
and show it to the world and present the
positive image you're talking about how
important such project is in your
opinion
oh very the the huge concern that the
rest of the world has with the Muslim
sensibility has to do with the few
people we see that perform extreme acts
so to find out that everybody is not
complicit in that it's a very important
thing you know to show the rest of the
world that you are as shocked and as
appalled as everyone else is that this
is not the majority opinion because
we're out here trying to do this that
and the other we're trying to live a
certain way and we want to live in peace
and harmony with everyone else in the
world in a certain way and this is what
we do to try and achieve that
everybody's not doing that okay
and that's you know that's that's the
important thing for everyone to know and
you think film can achieve that of
course