1
00:00:00,667 --> 00:00:03,866
I'm a blogger, a filmmaker and a butcher,

2
00:00:03,866 --> 00:00:07,068
and I'll explain how
these identities come together.

3
00:00:07,068 --> 00:00:08,764
It started four years ago,

4
00:00:08,764 --> 00:00:11,420
when a friend and I opened
our first Ramadan fast

5
00:00:11,420 --> 00:00:14,045
at one of the busiest mosques
in New York City.

6
00:00:14,045 --> 00:00:17,943
Crowds of men with beards and skullcaps
were swarming the streets.

7
00:00:17,943 --> 00:00:21,548
It was an FBI agent's wet dream.
(Laughter)

8
00:00:21,548 --> 00:00:25,046
But being a part of this community,
we knew how welcoming this space was.

9
00:00:25,046 --> 00:00:28,363
For years, I'd seen photos 
of this space being documented

10
00:00:28,363 --> 00:00:30,470
as a lifeless and cold monolith,

11
00:00:30,470 --> 00:00:34,181
much like the stereotypical image
painted of the American Muslim experience.

12
00:00:34,181 --> 00:00:36,474
Frustrated by this myopic view,

13
00:00:36,474 --> 00:00:38,876
my friend and I had this crazy idea:

14
00:00:38,876 --> 00:00:41,877
Let's break our fast
at a different mosque in a different state

15
00:00:41,877 --> 00:00:43,302
each night of Ramadan

16
00:00:43,302 --> 00:00:45,454
and share those stories on a blog.

17
00:00:45,454 --> 00:00:47,734
We called it "30 Mosques in 30 Days,"

18
00:00:47,734 --> 00:00:49,540
and we drove to all the 50 states

19
00:00:49,540 --> 00:00:52,905
and shared stories from over 100
vastly different Muslim communities,

20
00:00:52,905 --> 00:00:56,234
ranging from the Cambodian refugees
in the L.A. projects

21
00:00:56,234 --> 00:00:59,426
to the black Sufis living
in the woods of South Carolina.

22
00:00:59,426 --> 00:01:02,795
What emerged was a beautiful
and complicated portrait of America.

23
00:01:02,795 --> 00:01:04,820
The media coverage
forced local journalists

24
00:01:04,820 --> 00:01:06,557
to revisit their Muslim communities,

25
00:01:06,557 --> 00:01:10,177
but what was really exciting
was seeing people from around the world

26
00:01:10,177 --> 00:01:13,184
being inspired to take
their own 30-mosque journey.

27
00:01:13,184 --> 00:01:15,001
There were even these two NFL athletes

28
00:01:15,001 --> 00:01:17,277
who took a sabbatical
from the league to do so.

29
00:01:17,277 --> 00:01:20,614
And as 30 Mosques
was blossoming around the world,

30
00:01:20,614 --> 00:01:23,273
I was actually stuck in Pakistan
working on a film.

31
00:01:23,273 --> 00:01:26,894
My codirector, Omar, and I were at 
a breaking point with many of our friends

32
00:01:26,894 --> 00:01:28,559
on how to position the film.

33
00:01:28,559 --> 00:01:30,646
The movie is called "These Birds Walk,"

34
00:01:30,646 --> 00:01:32,406
and it is about wayward street kids

35
00:01:32,406 --> 00:01:35,242
who are struggling to find
some semblance of family.

36
00:01:35,242 --> 00:01:38,710
We focus on the complexities
of youth and family discord,

37
00:01:38,710 --> 00:01:42,495
but our friends kept on nudging us
to comment on drones and target killings

38
00:01:42,495 --> 00:01:45,304
to make the film "more relevant,"

39
00:01:45,304 --> 00:01:48,810
essentially reducing these people
who have entrusted us with their stories

40
00:01:48,810 --> 00:01:50,777
into sociopolitical symbols.

41
00:01:50,777 --> 00:01:52,553
Of course, we didn't listen to them,

42
00:01:52,553 --> 00:01:55,973
and instead, we championed
the tender gestures of love

43
00:01:55,973 --> 00:01:58,295
and headlong flashes of youth.

44
00:01:58,295 --> 00:02:01,374
The agenda behind our cinematic 
immersion was only empathy,

45
00:02:01,374 --> 00:02:03,958
an emotion that's largely 
deficient from films

46
00:02:03,958 --> 00:02:07,233
that come from our region of the world.

47
00:02:07,233 --> 00:02:11,453
And as "These Birds Walk" played at film 
festivals and theaters internationally,

48
00:02:11,460 --> 00:02:13,943
I finally had my feet
planted at home in New York,

49
00:02:13,943 --> 00:02:17,505
and with all the extra time
and still no real money,

50
00:02:17,505 --> 00:02:21,190
my wife tasked me to cook more for us.

51
00:02:21,190 --> 00:02:24,577
And whenever I'd go to the local butcher
to purchase some halal meat,

52
00:02:24,577 --> 00:02:25,946
something felt off.

53
00:02:25,946 --> 00:02:29,313
For those that don't know,
halal is a term used for meat

54
00:02:29,313 --> 00:02:33,855
that is raised and slaughtered humanely
following very strict Islamic guidelines.

55
00:02:33,855 --> 00:02:37,209
Unfortunately, the majority
of halal meat in America

56
00:02:37,209 --> 00:02:40,151
doesn't rise to the standard
that my faith calls for.

57
00:02:40,151 --> 00:02:42,852
The more I learned
about these unethical practices,

58
00:02:42,852 --> 00:02:44,900
the more violated I felt,

59
00:02:44,900 --> 00:02:48,092
particularly because businesses
from my own community

60
00:02:48,092 --> 00:02:51,211
were the ones taking advantage
of my orthodoxy.

61
00:02:51,211 --> 00:02:55,225
So, with emotions running high,
and absolutely no experience in butchery,

62
00:02:55,225 --> 00:02:57,474
some friends and I opened a meat store

63
00:02:57,474 --> 00:03:00,034
in the heart of the
East Village fashion district.

64
00:03:00,034 --> 00:03:01,394
(Laughter)

65
00:03:01,394 --> 00:03:03,234
We call it Honest Chops,

66
00:03:03,234 --> 00:03:06,947
and we're reclaiming halal by sourcing
organic, humanely raised animals,

67
00:03:06,947 --> 00:03:10,668
and by making it accessible and affordable
to working-class families.

68
00:03:10,668 --> 00:03:12,817
There's really nothing like it in America.

69
00:03:12,817 --> 00:03:16,939
The unbelievable part is actually
that 90 percent of our in-store customers

70
00:03:16,939 --> 00:03:18,479
are not even Muslim.

71
00:03:18,479 --> 00:03:21,206
For many, it is their first time 
interacting with Islam

72
00:03:21,206 --> 00:03:23,601
on such an intimate level.

73
00:03:23,601 --> 00:03:28,347
So all these disparate projects --
(Laughter) --

74
00:03:28,347 --> 00:03:30,522
are the result of a restlessness.

75
00:03:30,522 --> 00:03:34,106
They are a visceral response
to the businesses and curators

76
00:03:34,106 --> 00:03:37,625
who work hard to oversimplify
my beliefs and my community,

77
00:03:37,625 --> 00:03:41,787
and the only way to beat their machine
is to play by different rules.

78
00:03:41,790 --> 00:03:43,976
We must fight with an inventive approach.

79
00:03:43,976 --> 00:03:48,306
With the trust, with the access,
with the love that only we can bring,

80
00:03:48,317 --> 00:03:50,777
we must unapologetically
reclaim our beliefs

81
00:03:50,777 --> 00:03:53,419
in every moving image,
in every cut of meat,

82
00:03:53,419 --> 00:03:57,565
because if we whitewash our stories
for the sake of mass appeal,

83
00:03:57,565 --> 00:03:59,074
not only will we fail,

84
00:03:59,074 --> 00:04:02,401
but we will be trumped by those
with more money and more resources

85
00:04:02,401 --> 00:04:04,211
to tell our stories.

86
00:04:04,211 --> 00:04:08,914
But the call for creative courage
is not for novelty or relevance.

87
00:04:08,914 --> 00:04:13,767
It is simply because our communities
are so damn unique and so damn beautiful.

88
00:04:13,767 --> 00:04:19,840
They demand us to find uncompromising ways
to be acknowledged and respected.

89
00:04:20,603 --> 00:04:22,358
Thank you.

90
00:04:22,358 --> 00:04:24,982
(Applause)