Can Hollywood really be Halal?

You have heard about Hollywood , but have you heard about Halalywood, a new industry created to entertain Muslims and provide dawah to non Muslims. Halalywood is the first of its kind with a mission to fund, create and produce films for both Muslims and non-Muslims. The creator of Halalywood is Omar Regan, who starred in Rush Hour 2 and other films in Hollywood, but now has a new film by the name of American Sharia. Halalywood aimes at providing, the right representation of Muslims, and a halal movie option for you and your family to watch. Mr Regan said, “In every film Muslims are associated with terrorism and we are not, we nothing about terrorism.” American Sharia, is an action/comedy and is based on a police officer in America trying to take down rogue government officials using Islamophobia to maintain power and control the mass.   Mr Regan tries to portray a balanced view of what a Muslim is in today’s society and the many challenges we face. After the wrongful killing of his father, by the government Mr Regan used his platform to change the perception of Muslims and Islam. “… I have to do something within myself to change that (portrayal of Muslims)…” However, a film like this has been met with criticism, stating that the movie promotes haram, e.g. flirting with the opposite gender and music. Even though these are scenes shown from the trailer, and have further scenes in the movie which are not shown in the trailer, explaining that these sorts of things are against the religion of Islam., and are some challenges we as Muslims face, as we are humans who commit sin. “I have been called kafir,” Omar Regan says in his interview with Malaz Majanni on Spotlight.   Through this film Omar Regan hopes to challenge the idea of what a Muslim is in today’s society and how we can encourage and assist the youth. “If we live in a bubble there is a poor representation of a Muslim, and there is no room for the youth to look up and say we need to grow up, we need to be better.”