Tikun Olam-תקון עולם: Make the World a Better Place

Thanks to former NPR reporter and former ABC news producer and bureau chief Deb Amos, who forwarded to me this wonderful YouTube video which I’d never seen before. The graphic technique has been used often before, but it tells a wonderful story of Arab-Americans who are just like you and me, while being of another religious and ethnic tradition. The differences between us are no more nor less than the differences between any one American and another.

You almost have to watch the film and devote your attention fully to it and then do the same for the song because each make very strong statements. The latter is especially interesting I think. You have a Muslim-American writing a country music song that affirms traditional Muslim values that are also traditional American values. It’s really quite masterful. Another beautiful irony of this song is that it adopts the same musical genre, country music, which after 9/11 inserted so much jingoism and Islamophobia into American popular culture.