FREEDOM (short version)

"And he who brings the Truth and he who confirms it those are the righteous - They will have whatever they desire with their Lord. That is the reward of the doers of good - That Allah may remove from them the worst of what they did and reward them their due for the best of what they used to do." [Quran 39:33 - 35]

Praise be to Allah for giving us the opportunity to serve Him and to produce this pioneering film in the field of Da'wah.

I became a Muslim in 2012 in the Philippines while working on my music album and from the very beginning I had a passion for Islam and I've always wanted to introduce our beautiful religion to non-muslims. In 2015, I became the General Manager of New Muslim Care (NMC), a program that supports new Muslims in Canada, Australia, Philippines and Malaysia (HQ) and started to meet and become friends with converts from all around the world.

In January 2016, NMC organized a spiritual/educational retreat for converts for the first time in Kuala Lumpur and to my greatest pleasure, 30 of them came to participate in this program. During the retreat, a short video with 11 converts from 11 different nationalities was produced. The video was featured on the Facebook of the Deen Show and more than 100,000 people watched it. The video received more than 6000 likes with overwhelmingly positive comments from Muslims all over the world and was shared repeatedly.

This outcome started to put some seeds into our minds. What if we could produce a feature film of 90 minutes featuring 50 converts from 25 different nationalities that will boost the faith of our Ummah as well as introduce Islam to non-muslims in a positive light? The rest is history, as they say, FREEDOM was produced.

Alhamdulillah, converts just came our way and everything started unfolding beautifully. It seemed that Allah had paved the way for our casting. For instance, in the first week of our production, we met an American convert married to an Australian convert who was in town for a quick visit. A few days later, we received a phone call to help two deaf men from Poland who had just embraced Islam after touring a Masjid. No story was the same and each was such an inspiration. Since March 2016, we have interviewed 20 converts from 14 different nationalities and we can't wait to interview them all, with the help of Allah. Why did we call our film FREEDOM? I will let you discover it through the words of my partner in life and in this ambitious project, my wife: Zara Shafie.

Julien Drolon

**********

In the Name of God Allah, the Most Gracious and Most Merciful. All Praise is due to Him and May all Peace and Blessing be upon His Messenger.

Islam is being misrepresented in the western media in so many ways. It is often pictured as an oppressive religion and that it is against freedom. However, the fact that seems to escape our minds is that freedom both concept and value, have been seized from individuals, groups, and nations as a result of greedy hands' desire for economic power rather than religious gain. Freedom to do, say and be anything one wants is in reality, a threat to society. In truth, there must be some limitations of one sort or another if a society is to function at all. Islam teaches freedom, cherishes it, and guarantees it for Muslims and likewise, non-Muslims. The Islamic concept of freedom applies to all voluntary activities of man in all walks of life. This movie will inshaa Allah, shed light on how Islam liberates mankind from all kinds of oppressions.

This ambitious project is so timely and cannot be done without the support of a dedicated group of Muslims who truly wish to share the beautiful values of Islam to the whole world. What if we were able to change the narrative and show the rest of mankind that Isam is not part o the world's problems but a remedy prescribed to the world?

Why converts?

Language barriers are one of the key factors in limitations towards acquiring a message. This movie will uphold the native languages spoken by the converts to preserve the soul of the message. We also believe that converts are the best ambassadors of Islam in non-Muslim nations, especially in this day and age. This should not be strange to us as Allah has done it through His Messengers throughout mankind's history.

Indeed, Allah says in the Qur'an "A similar (favour have you received) in that We have sent among you a Messenger from your own people to show you evidence about Me, to purify you, to teach you the Book, give you wisdom and teach you that which you did not know." [Quran 2:151]

Zara Shafie