Source: The Harvard Gazette
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2009/10/new-muslim-cool/
Growing up in Worcester, Mass., Jason Perez started dealing drugs at age 9. He had two recurrent dreams: that he would go to jail, and that he would die at 21.
Then came Islam, a religion that Perez embraced one day in a sudden street-corner conversion. “At 21,” he said of his old life, “I experienced the death of all my paths.”
Perez — who still favors stiff brim gangster hats and baggy pants — changed his first name to Hamza and brought to Islam what he had: Puerto Rican culture, street savvy, and a knack for hip-hop. His duo M-Team delivers a deep-beat message of faith, mercy, and forgiveness.
Call it “New Muslim Cool.” That’s the name of a documentary film about Perez released earlier this year by producer-director Jennifer Maytorena Taylor. A screening last weekend (Oct. 10) drew a packed crowd of 220 to the auditorium at the Arthur M. Sackler Museum.
It was the first such screening at Harvard, but will be “the first of many” because of the film’s educational value, said Diana L. Eck, director of the Pluralism Project, a screening sponsor.