‘Jihad Rehab’ Filmmaker Responds to Islamophobe Criticism of Sundance Doc: ‘This Film Seeks to Challenge Stereotypes’ (Exclusive)

thewrap.com:

including here at TheWrap), but has drawn fire on social media for the fact that the film calls the men “terrorists,” and because the filmmaker herself is not Muslim.

One typical tweet by writer Jude Chehab of Turkish news website TRT World says: “When I, a practising Muslim woman say [the film’] is problematic, my voice should be stronger than a white woman saying it’s not.”Smaker, who spent five years making the film, told TheWrap that the movie challenges assumptions about people Americans regard as terrorists, while also offering a never-before-seen perspective into the men who embraced the ideology of groups like al Qaeda.

The film focuses on three Yemenis who were detained for as many as 15 years by the U.S. in Guantanamo and then sent to the Saudi center.

After years of brutal captivity in some instances, the men are now living at the rehabilitation center where they can take art therapy and learn “interpersonal relations,” as part of training for reintegration into society. “The film was crafted so that it’s not just a journey for these men,” Smaker told TheWrap. “It was intended as a journey for the audiences who see it.”But though the response by film critics that reviewed the movie has been overwhelming positive, “Jihad Rehab” has also been met with a torrent of attacks from commenters on Twitter accusing the documentary of jingoism, stereotyping, and Islamophobia. “The bottom line is such: when I, a practising Muslim woman say [the film ‘Jihad Rehab’] is problematic, my voice should be stronger than a white woman saying it’s not.