'A Sinner in Mecca' impresses at Hot Docs Toronto festival

Thousands of Muslims circling the Kaaba in Mecca,
as seen in 'A Sinner in Mecca'

I attended the world premiere last night of director Parvez Sharma's controversial new documentary 'A Sinner in Mecca.'   It played at Toronto's Hot Docs film festival.

Sharma is an openly gay Muslim filmmaker who previously directed 'A Jihad for Love.'  His new film chronicles his own personal and spiritual journey to visit Mecca, a journey all Muslims are supposed to make at least once during their lifetimes.

The CBC ran stories about Sharma and his film yesterday: 

"The Hajj is the highest calling for any Muslim," he told CBC News. "For years I felt I really needed to go, so this film is about me coming out as a Muslim. I'm done coming out as a gay man."

He videotaped his journey to Mecca surreptitiously on his iPhone and other small cameras that looked like phones since filming isn't permitted in Saudi Arabia and homosexuality can be punished by death.

"I was terrified because they reserve the death penalty for people like me," Sharma said.

Several times he had his equipment seized and video files deleted by authorities. But he persevered with both his spiritual journey and his film.

"I was there making this pilgrimage for the thousands of gay Muslims who were too scared to go to Saudi Arabia, who would feel they would never be welcome," Sharma said. "I felt I was doing it for them."

...The film's very existence has earned Sharma hate mail and death threats from angry Muslims.

The film was also denounced by the Iranian government for promoting homosexuality. The Hot Docs festival has added extra security for the filmmaker's safety and for patrons attending the three sold-out screenings."

My take on the film: it is a stunning journey documented with meticulous detail by Sharma that I won't forget.   As a non-Muslim Westerner (and non-religious person) who will never be able to journey to these locations, it was incredibly illuminating.

Sharma's voice over accompanying his visuals make clear the immense physical challenges he and others endure to make this trip, including the pushing through mass crowds circling the Kaaba (pictured above) as most try to touch it.  The circling goes on 24/7.  "There is nothing kind" about this, remarks Sharma.  Instead of being a moment of solemn prayer and reflection, it's an exhausting shoving match not for the faint of heart, it seems.   Near this holiest of Muslim sites, Saudi royalty has seen fit to allow a Starbucks franchise and various other commercial outlets to be opened. The clash between solemn religion and modern capitalist hypocrisy couldn't be more stunning.

Sharma even sacrifices a goat to fulfil his journey, the final step in his religious purification, he says. The bloody scene is awful to watch.  In the end, Sharma says he feels empty, but relieved he made the journey.  He also states the experience bolsters his desire to see a "reformation" in Islam.

Non-Muslims will see things in this film they will never otherwise see.  I'd say the same goes for Muslims as well.  As a gay man who has also struggled to find a place within organized religion, I found Sharma's journey and film to be fascinating.   I highly recommend it.

'A Sinner in Mecca' plays again this weekend at Hot Docs, and later in May will screen at Toronto's LGBT Inside Out film festival.

Edward Snowden, Bill C-51 and the scary growth of government surveillance

I recently watched the chilling, superb documentary Citizenfour by director Laura Poitras.  The film, which won the Best Documentary Feature award at this year's Academy Awards, chronicles in detail the 2013 interviews by Poitras, Glenn Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill with Edward Snowden, the infamous whistle blower.   It also outlines how the National Security Agency (NSA) in the U.S., in cahoots with other world governments and agencies, have expanded their spying to include virtually all human digital communications, not just on those suspected of terrorism. 

The film is must-see for everyone.  I have to admit I didn't fully understand the full extent of Snowden's revelations when they first came to light in June 2013.   I recall the revelations getting a bit blurred in the coverage of the attacks on Snowden's character by the intelligence establishment and his fleeing from authorities to Russia. 

But the film returns the focus back to the secret documents that Snowden revealed which proved the full extent of the NSA's surveillance program, which has grown to intercept virtually all digital communications of Americans and citizens of other countries without any safeguards for privacy rights.   Data of every email, every Google search, every Facebook post, every phone call, every online purchase of virtually every human being they can monitor is being captured using NSA technologies and partnerships with other government's agencies including the Canadian government and is being stored for future reference.   Should governments decide to target anyone, they are able to utilize their vast surveillance archive to retroactively investigate them. 

Essentially, this represents the greatest invasion of privacy in history.

In late 2013, Barton Gellman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who led the Washington Post's coverage of Snowden's disclosures, summarized the Snowden leaks as follows:

"Taken together, the revelations have brought to light a global surveillance system that cast off many of its historical restraints after the attacks of Sept 11, 2001.  Secret legal authorities empowered the NSA to sweep in the telephone, Internet and location records of whole populations."

No doubt, the full implications of these disclosures are still permeating through the public consciousness two years later.  Many people still barely know what Snowden revealed, let alone understand it.  Thus, the vital importance of the film and why it continues to be important to hear from Snowden, as we thankfully continue to do.  

Citizenfour's interviews of Snowden flesh out a man of principle who went to incredible lengths and personal sacrifice to reveal the despicable overreach of his bosses into the lives of all of us. 
 


Snowden's had some critical things to say about Canada's spying regime and lack of adequate oversight, as well as the Harper government's proposed Bill C-51, which would expand the powers of the Canada's spy agency.

This past weekend saw numerous protests across Canada against Bill C-51.  This follows what seems like plummeting public support for the legislation. 

I've struggled to dissect the implications of Bill C-51, reading both good and bad about it.  Without enhanced oversight provisions, I can't help but be wary of it.   This Walrus article by Craig Forcese and Kent Roach helped me greatly with my understanding.

Justin Trudeau's decision to vote for Bill C-51, despite concerns over the bill's lack of enhanced oversight provisions, puts the Liberal Party too far on the side of the security establishment which clearly has grown too big.  Sure, the Liberals' decision to vote for it is pure politics, in response to the Conservatives' exaggeration of the terrorist threat.  In truth, there's little real difference between the Liberal position and the NDP position on C-51, except for the symbolic votes either for or against the legislation.  Both opposition parties are promising to similarly tinker with the law should either of them form a government.  The Conservatives' majority ensures they can control passage of whatever bill they wish this year.

But we need more than tinkering.  We need more than just a new parliamentary committee to keep an eye on CSIS and other government agencies after the fact (although that would be an improvement).   We need a full-scale, public investigation into this new status quo revealed in Citizenfour and how to roll it back to return some degree of privacy to our lives.  We can't trust Stephen Harper to do that as he probably approves of the NSA's abilities to spy on every Canadian.

The issues raised in Citizenfour and by C-51 are not entirely the same, but clearly they are linked.   They both deal with growing government power snuffing out individual freedoms.   We need to pull back the powers we have handed over to these forces to ensure better balance so we don't continue down this scary road.   If we continue, years from now, we'll all be horrified to see our society transformed into a police state, where lack of privacy and freedom is the norm, not the rare exception.  

The next step in this fight is to create a critical mass of awareness.  Once more and more of the public realizes that their privacy no longer exists, we will hopefully stop giving deference and support to the Harperites of the world and demand our governments roll back surveillance of our lives.   On this issue, I have to admit the NDP has its priorities right.  I can only hope that politicians like Trudeau soon catch up. 

In the mean time, watch Citizenfour and look forward to more films on the subject that can continue to pierce the public's awareness.

Michael Coren is my new hero

I really like the new Michael Coren, who's undergone a mellowing that looks very good on him.

Watching him debate the horrible Charles McVety in this Power & Politics debate this week on Ontario's new school curriculum was immensely enjoyable.

So I'm happy to post it here:

Religion is a drug best served with moderation and skepticism...

On this Good Friday, when all North Americans (and many others in the West) get a statutory day off - a privilege not extended to any other faiths, yet some Christians still say they feel like victims of unfair treatment - I'm reflective upon the role of religion and faith in our society.

Canada is a country of great moderation, secularism and pluralism I am proud to call home.  I'm glad to say the vast majority of Canadians decades ago threw off the shackles of social conservatism.  Debates about women's rights, abortion, same sex marriage, equality and many others seem to be completely settled here.  Attempts to revisit those questions invariably go nowhere, even though an unhappy few still unsuccessfully try to champion those old causes.  More often than not, they do their own causes more harm, like when anti-abortion activists circulated postcards recently to try to hurt Justin Trudeau. 
  
Most Ontarians recently responded with shrugs and "It's about time!" to the long overdue school curriculum revamp, despite cries of opposition from religious fanatics, who mostly misrepresented the changes to try to attack them.   Some social conservatives continue to make noise against it with the help of some misguided Conservative leadership candidates, but it seems Ontario's tenacious premier Kathleen Wynne will be more than happy to face them down.  These days, siding with secularism and pluralism in Ontario is a political winner. 

Am I complacent now in Ontario?  It's hard not to feel a little secure when we re-elected our openly lesbian premier last year.  There has been much progress.  But of course, instances of homophobic violence and discrimination do still occur.  But it does seem that homophobia in the culture continues to decline.  The culture shift seems to be permanent.

That's why when I look at other countries like the U.S. or Brazil which still debate these questions, I am confident that eventually they too will achieve the kind of peace that we have mostly won here in Canada. 

Why has Canada progressed this far, while pockets in America and other countries still resist full equality?

The answer is simple: Religion.  Fundamentalist or conservative religion to be precise.

To me, religion is like a drug.  And not all drugs are bad.  Caffeine is a drug.  Sugar is a drug.  Red wine is a drug.  Money is a drug.  Marijuana is a drug.  Heroin is a drug.

Of that list, I'd only advise against trying heroin.  Why?  Because it seems heroin can't be enjoyed in moderation.  It's an "all-in" experience, and one that easily becomes addictive.

To me, fundamentalist religion is like heroin.  It's "all-in".  Followers of fundamentalist religion - be they Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, or whatever - are so desperate for some kind of perceived salvation that they cling to sets of beliefs that "guarantee" it.  Of course, those sets of beliefs often compel them to do strange things, wear certain clothes in public, and also impose their values on others, like recently in Indiana and other U.S. states.  Sometimes, those beliefs are so extreme that they turn believers into murderers, like we saw this week in Kenya.  

What is the cure for these fundamentalists?  I'd say moderation and skepticism.

I grew up in a Roman Catholic family.  My parents were so-called "smorgasbord Catholics."  Sure they believed in the basic concepts of the Catholic faith involving Christ being the Son of God, who came to Earth to show humanity how to live and how to face death, with a glimpse of eternal life, etc., etc.   But their faith was fluid.  It allowed for skepticism.  It evolved when my parents learned new things or read new ideas, like 'The Pagan Christ.'

Such an open-minded approach to religion is just fine, in my books.  Sure, you can attend mass every week if it gives you a sense of community and ritual.  I can appreciate such needs.  If you also refuse to impose your religion on others, then I think that's wonderful.  These are people who are using the drug of religion in moderation.  They are healthy.  And there is much good that religious people can do in this world, including helping their fellow human beings. 

I am not a religious person. I am agnostic.  I decided long ago that all organized religions were inherently corrupt and fallible.  Adherence to any one religion is misguided, in my estimation.  I simply cannot tolerate the injustices still rampant in most of them (including the discrimination of the Catholic Church.)  I don't judge those who still need a religious outlet in their lives, but only if they oppose discrimination and embrace real equality for all human beings.   

While I've embraced the secularism of our society, there's no doubt that my religious upbringing formed a foundation for my beliefs.  I'm not some boat flailing in stormy waters without a sail.  I do think there is much good in the story of Jesus Christ as a role model.  But I consider the story to be fiction.  Like all religious stories about saviours.

My firmest spiritual belief: human beings can never know the absolute truth of the universe.

Religions try to offer that absolute truth to their followers, but the dogma they provide is mostly false. 

Sure, it's healthy to learn about various religions and ideas.  Perhaps even follow one or two from time to time.  But it's best to allow your beliefs to continue to evolve with new experiences and information.  And not tie yourself to one religion for life. 

In the mean time, I find it best to borrow from the Christian tenet: love your fellow human beings as yourself.  That's an idea I and all of us can most definitely live with.