Interview with Director Mark Claywell

I had a chance to interview Mark Claywell after the last screening of his film, American Jihadist. Some context before viewing a short video of his comments:

The documentary is about Isa Abdullah Ali, an African-American man raised in Washington, DC, who came of age during the tumult of the 1960s. After coming home from service in Vietnam and facing racial injustice, he experienced a religious conversion to Islam and dedicated his life to going to wherever Muslims are under attack. He helped the Mujahadeen fight off the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and arrived in Bosnia with weapons and skills to train Muslims to defend themselves against Serb forces.

Isa Ali is not someone most viewers will like -- he is a killer, and hearing him talk about that is uncomfortable, especially when it's about his part in the civil war in Lebanon, my parents' homeland, on the side that I have always thought of as the enemy.

But if I were persecuted and powerless to defend myself and he came to help with grenades, guns and camo, I might want him on my side.

With terrorism and homeland security on everyone's mind, it is tempting to lump Isa Ali in with terrorists, but there is a difference. Ali does not target civilians. He shows up to help the Muslim civilians train to fight organized forces bearing down on them.