Project Nur Announces the Third Annual D.C. Muslim Film Festival

November 5, 2009

WASHINGTON, Nov. 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Project Nur announces the third annual D.C. Muslim Film Festival November 10th -22nd with films exploring issues including freedom, oppressive regimes, hijab, virginity, faith, honor killings and more.

Award-winning films and documentaries include Persepolis, Virgin Diaries, Faith without Fear, They call me Muslim, Honor Killings in the Middle East and more. Screenings are followed by guest speakers including filmmaker Parvez Sharma, Dr. Mehrzad Boroujerdi, writer Golbarg Bashi and more influential lecturers who have experienced first-hand some of the battles the characters in the film go through. Film schedule can be found on www.muslimfilm.org.

The screenings are taking place in various campuses throughout the D.C. area. Venues include: Georgetown University, American University, George Washington University, George Mason University, and the University of Maryland, College Park. The screenings are open to everyone and look to draw in people from all backgrounds and majors to raise awareness on issues that are crucial to the Muslim community and to the larger universal community.

Project Nur's goals of hosting the screenings are to promote freedom of expression and to expose the reality of situations that are occurring in war torn countries. It is to raise awareness and give a voice to the people who are living within oppressive regimes and ignored due to strict censorship. These films serve to show the diversity, pluralism, experience, history, and cultural richness that the Muslim world has to offer to the Western world. Film schedules can be found on www.muslimfilm.org.

Project Nur ("PN") is a "new light on campus" that creates a distinct and alternative Muslim voice: a civic identity grounded in pluralism and moderate thinking and action, one that dispels the perception of a monolithic Muslim voice. PN is a student-led initiative of the American Islamic Congress which was created after 9/11 as a non-religious, civic initiative challenging increasingly negative perceptions of Muslims by advocating responsible leadership and understanding. PN emphasizes civic action, and does so with the goal of forging a cohesive and mutually respectful multicultural community. It is PN's belief that only in taking action with different people, addressing issues affecting all humans, do we truly come to understand the meaning and reality of co-existence. As such, PN is a multi-cultural and diverse community of civic-minded university students who are committed towards the advancement of human rights, civil rights, social justice, tolerance, understanding, and co-existence.

SOURCE Project Nur