M-Team<\/a> \u2013 and a single dad to two kids. <\/p>\nNew Muslim Cool<\/i> explores a world that few Muslims are aware of, a streetwise scene filled with mixed cultures, economic hardships, and hip hop. The hip hop angle, in particular, is most interesting, as scores of documentaries could be made on the burgeoning hip hop scenes hidden from view worldwide. As with most exceptional documentaries, real life provides the best stories. The FBI raids Perez\u2019s mosque, leaving Hamza to make some tough decisions about his identity and faith, as well as his place in a multicultural and multireligious American society.<\/p>\n
New Muslim Cool<\/i> is in limited release in San Francisco, with a screening at the Kabuki Theatre on May 4th. After that, it is scheduled to open PBS\u2019 POV<\/i> series on June 23 at 10 PM.<\/p>\n
Zahed Amanullah is associate editor of altmuslim. He is based in London, England.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Described as “spellbinding<\/a>” by the San Francisco Chronicle, the new documentary New Muslim Cool<\/a><\/i> by San Francisco filmmaker Jennifer Maytorena Taylor tells the story of Puerto Rican American rapper Hamza Pérez, who quit drug dealing 12 years ago and started down a new path as a young Muslim.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":531,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-visions"],"yoast_head":"\nFilm "New Muslim Cool": Playing it cool<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Described as "spellbinding" by the San Francisco Chronicle, the new documentary New Muslim Cool by San Francisco filmmaker Jennifer Maytorena Taylor tells the story of Puerto Rican American rapper Hamza Pérez, who quit drug dealing 12 years ago and started down a new path as a young Muslim.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2009\/04\/playing_it_cool\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Film "New Muslim Cool": Playing it cool\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Described as "spellbinding" by the San Francisco Chronicle, the new documentary New Muslim Cool by San Francisco filmmaker Jennifer Maytorena Taylor tells the story of Puerto Rican American rapper Hamza Pérez, who quit drug dealing 12 years ago and started down a new path as a young Muslim.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2009\/04\/playing_it_cool\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"altmuslim\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-04-29T18:59:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.altmuslim.com\/ee_images\/new_muslim_cool.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"zahedamanullah\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"zahedamanullah\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2009\/04\/playing_it_cool\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2009\/04\/playing_it_cool\/\",\"name\":\"Film "New Muslim Cool": Playing it cool\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-04-29T18:59:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-04-29T18:59:33+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#\/schema\/person\/871b6e097b0060bce500f444bd5940ba\"},\"description\":\"Described as \\\"spellbinding\\\" by the San Francisco Chronicle, the new documentary New Muslim Cool by San Francisco filmmaker Jennifer Maytorena Taylor tells the story of Puerto Rican American rapper Hamza Pérez, who quit drug dealing 12 years ago and started down a new path as a young Muslim.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2009\/04\/playing_it_cool\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2009\/04\/playing_it_cool\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2009\/04\/playing_it_cool\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Film "New Muslim Cool": Playing it cool\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/\",\"name\":\"altmuslim\",\"description\":\"Global perspectives on Muslim life, politics & culture\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#\/schema\/person\/871b6e097b0060bce500f444bd5940ba\",\"name\":\"zahedamanullah\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/68e9dbf4389ab27835e68d36332be3f9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/68e9dbf4389ab27835e68d36332be3f9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"zahedamanullah\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/author\/zahedamanullah\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Film "New Muslim Cool": Playing it cool","description":"Described as \"spellbinding\" by the San Francisco Chronicle, the new documentary New Muslim Cool by San Francisco filmmaker Jennifer Maytorena Taylor tells the story of Puerto Rican American rapper Hamza Pérez, who quit drug dealing 12 years ago and started down a new path as a young Muslim.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2009\/04\/playing_it_cool\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Film "New Muslim Cool": Playing it cool","og_description":"Described as \"spellbinding\" by the San Francisco Chronicle, the new documentary New Muslim Cool by San Francisco filmmaker Jennifer Maytorena Taylor tells the story of Puerto Rican American rapper Hamza Pérez, who quit drug dealing 12 years ago and started down a new path as a young Muslim.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2009\/04\/playing_it_cool\/","og_site_name":"altmuslim","article_published_time":"2009-04-29T18:59:33+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.altmuslim.com\/ee_images\/new_muslim_cool.jpg"}],"author":"zahedamanullah","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"zahedamanullah","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2009\/04\/playing_it_cool\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2009\/04\/playing_it_cool\/","name":"Film "New Muslim Cool": Playing it cool","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-04-29T18:59:33+00:00","dateModified":"2009-04-29T18:59:33+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#\/schema\/person\/871b6e097b0060bce500f444bd5940ba"},"description":"Described as \"spellbinding\" by the San Francisco Chronicle, the new documentary New Muslim Cool by San Francisco filmmaker Jennifer Maytorena Taylor tells the story of Puerto Rican American rapper Hamza Pérez, who quit drug dealing 12 years ago and started down a new path as a young Muslim.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2009\/04\/playing_it_cool\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2009\/04\/playing_it_cool\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2009\/04\/playing_it_cool\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Film "New Muslim Cool": Playing it cool"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/","name":"altmuslim","description":"Global perspectives on Muslim life, politics & culture","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#\/schema\/person\/871b6e097b0060bce500f444bd5940ba","name":"zahedamanullah","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/68e9dbf4389ab27835e68d36332be3f9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/68e9dbf4389ab27835e68d36332be3f9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"zahedamanullah"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/author\/zahedamanullah\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/531"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3046\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/www.altmuslim.com\/ee_images\/new_muslim_cool.jpg\")
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n