'Mayor Mohamed'
SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — Jeffrey Togman, Seton Hall University professor of political science and film, as well as the director and producer of the documentary “Mayor Mohamed,” will have a screening of the film on Thursday, Oct. 20, at 6:30 p.m. as part of the university’s 2022-2023 Diversity Film Series. The event will be held on the South Orange campus, 400 South Orange Ave., in the Schwartz Building, Room 113, and doors will open for seating at 6:15 p.m. The screening is free to both the University community and the public on a first-come, first-served basis.
“The film focuses on Mohamed Khairullah, a Muslim immigrant from Syria who moved to the United States in the 1980s, and who has been the mayor of Prospect Park, N.J., since 2006,” Togman said.
The film won a Special Jury Award at the Montclair Film Festival and had its world premiere at the Brooklyn Film Festival. “Mayor Mohamed” also made its international premiere at the Arabisches Filmfestival in Germany, with screenings in Tubingen and Stuttgart.
Khairullah is the longest-serving Muslim elected official in New Jersey and the documentary gives the audience a glimpse into the sacrifices and risks he takes to bring humanitarian relief into Syria while simultaneously fighting the forces of Islamophobia in the United States. When he is accused of imposing Sharia Law by a local politician, who later runs a campaign to unseat him as mayor, Khairullah must confront these forces of Islamophobia and reckon with the larger question of what it means to be an American.
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