Chronicler of Muslim experience to keynote college's global conference

TED Fellow and independent filmmaker Bassam Tariq will make a free presentation titled “The Global Muslim’s Dilemma” at 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 5, in SUNY Oswego’s Marano Campus Center auditorium to keynote the college’s annual Hart Global Awareness Conference.

Tariq, director of “These Birds Walk” and owner of a sustainable halal butcher shop (a vendor of meat prepared in accordance with Muslim law) in New York City, shares intimate stories of Muslims around the world as he talks about social entrepreneurship, overcoming stereotypes and what it is like to be a Muslim today.

The Global Awareness Conference is a day and a half on-campus session that gives students, faculty, staff and members of the community the opportunity to learn about other cultures and global issues as well as to present on topics they are passionate about.

The theme this year is “The Muslim Experience” with a focus on the Syrian refugee crisis. This year’s quote is from the Dalai Lama: “My religion is simple. My religion is kindness.”

Tariq’s 2013 Sundance-funded documentary film “These Birds Walk,” about street children in Karachi, Pakistan, made the New Yorker, IndieWire and Sight & Sounds Magazine’s best of the year lists. His “30 Mosques” adventure blog, where he visited Muslim communities from around the country, made the front page of Time.com and CNN.com twice. It was named CNN’s most notable story of 2011. Tariq also made Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 Directors to Watch” list.

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