Sunday night means spending another hour with the most unbearable show on television - HBO's Here and Now, a show about a Portland (of course) academic, his wife (who runs an empathy training initiative for high schoolers), and their kids, one biological, the others adopted from countries that they believed had been wronged by America in some way. No, really. The Bayer-Boatwright family is that cliche.
In the March 4 episode "Hide and Seek," we get to know the Shokrani family a little better, as well as their thoughts on their Islamic religion, which ranges from not liking Muslims to calling strict Muslims "Republican."
We know Dr. Farid Shokrani (Peter Macdissi) as Ramon Bayer-Boatwright's (Daniel Zovatto) therapist. We did know he wasn't religious, but didn't really know why. In this episode, he has dinner with his religious wife Layla (Necar Zadegan) and her Imam, Chuck (Michael Weaver). Layla is a lawyer with the ACLU working with refugees, in case you thought there was anyone on this show who was not a liberal cartoon. But Farid has a surprising view of Muslims.
Farid: But I won't be coming to your mosque. I have a problem with Muslims.
Chuck: We all have a problem with each other, but there's plenty of room in Islam for that. But let's be tolerant and generous. Let's... let's talk about everything. Hmm.
Farid: Muslims like to think they're special.
Chuck: We are. That's part of our charm.
Layla: Doesn't everyone?
Farid: Muslims like to self-victimize. We love to blame outsiders, but... we never take any responsibility for our own immoral acts.
Chuck: Islam is a mercy. If you see its opposite, cruelty, then you know that is not Islam.
Farid: I'm not talking about terrorists, and-- and ISIS. I'm talking about Sharia law, honor killings. Acid in women's faces.
Chuck: I agree with you.
Farid: Children being forced to take part in Ashura.
Chuck: And these are all things that we need to face as a community. You could help us with that.
Farid: Mm-mm. Not me.
Pretty shocking for a show this over-the-top politically correct to face some ugly realities about any religion other than Christianity, isn't it? I thought so. Never fear, though, a later scene made up for it.
Kristen Bayer-Boatwright (Sosie Bacon) has been paired up with Farid and Layla's son, Navid (Marwan Salama), for a school project. Well, I say "son," but he's "gender-fluid," and has, shockingly, not supplied us with the correct pronouns, so I'm just guessing that that's the correct term to use. Anyway, when Kristen gets to Navid's house, he's wearing makeup and a hijab, which is very different from how his parents have him dress in public. She asks him about it, he says he is "gender fluid," and she replies, "Oh my God, I wish I was." Kristen has previously thought she wasn't interesting enough because she's white, and now she wants to be gender-queer. Maybe Kristen needs to schedule some time with Dr. Shokrani like her brother, because she is clearly a deeply unhappy person.
Navid's identification as "gender-fluid" leads Kristen to ask him about his religion.
Kristen: Um, so, are you, like, a real Muslim?
Navid: What does that mean?
Kristen: You know how, like, some people go to church, but they don't believe in anything?
Navid: Uh, I believe. I'm a real one. Yeah, but not like a Republican Muslim. I don't tell anybody what to do with their religion. Nouman Ali Khan says, "Don't force Islam on anyone. Show them its beauty through your own practice."
Kristen: But aren't you scared? I mean, they burned down that mosque in Seattle last month.
Navid: Not too scared. Some men came to our mosque once. They were drunk, and shouting and waving signs. Confederate flags.
Kristen: Dumbshits. Oregon wasn't even a state during the Civil War.
What does "Republican Muslim" mean? A Muslim who is a Republican, or is Republican supposed to mean telling people "what to do with their religion? I highly suspect he means the latter, which is ridiculous, considering how hard conservatives have been fighting for the Constitutional right to exercise freedom of religion. The left wants freedom from religion. It only gets complicated when the government has far too much involvement in a person's life, so much that it can conflict with a person's religious beliefs.
I can't find any evidence that a Mosque was attacked in Seattle, but kudos to the writing team for adding in the boogeyman Confederate flag as a detail. Maybe it was actually a Norwegian flag and they got confused - people in Seattle seem to have a hard time telling the difference.
When Here and Now was honest about some of the ugly things that happen in the name of Islam, I thought it was too good to be true. Having the next conversation about Islam have a couple of random digs at conservatives and the confederacy made a lot more sense when it comes to this insane show.
