(soft music) - [Announcer] A new documentary, "Three Chaplains" filmed at military bases all over the country, premiers this month on PBS' "Independent Lens."

- Alright, everybody have a seat.

- The film follows a story of three Muslim chaplains in the US military as they navigate issues around Islamophobia, religious freedom, multiculturalism.

- [Reporter] Filmmaker, Razi Jafri based here in Metro Detroit, he made the recent doc "Hamtramck, USA," this time the producer, working with David Washburn, who directed "Three Chaplains."

- Three chaplains evolved out of a short film series that I did, with Muslim military veterans over several years.

I came across a story of two chaplains.

It's their religion, it's serving others, it is about religious freedom.

- Yes, it does, it does.

- These chaplains are not just chaplains and caretakers for Muslims on base, they're caretaking educating everybody.

- Chaplain Lantigwa, can you say that?

- [All] Chaplain Lantigua.

- [Reporter] Two chaplains, Rafael Lantigua, Air Force Chaplain, and Army Lieutenant Colonel Khalid Shabazz.

They're joined by Air Force Second Lieutenant and chaplain to be Saleha Jabeen.

- I'm an immigrant from India.

I came to America to study MBA.

After taking prerequisites, and having conversations on campus with seminarians, I prayed and I was really guided.

So I approached my parents and I said, I wanna do Islamic studies.

- You, so you see that a chaplain is an individual, who is a clergy person that works at a institution, and obviously they're military, right?

- You see in the first scene how one of the chaplain goes in front of about 700 young trainees on this Air force base, and he's wearing a kufi, and he's clearly identifiably Muslim.

And I was wondering, while filming that scene, I was like, how many people, is this the first time, they've had a commander or a leader who's in their life anywhere, who's Muslim?

And what are they thinking as he's speaking to them?

- I would assume that a number of you have heard it before.

Yes?

- Yes sir.

- I got to know Rafael really well throughout the course of producing this documentary.

And I think that moment really exemplifies his magnetism, his charisma, his charm, and really his ability to connect with people.

- Yes sir.

- So you will see us journeying with you as you go through basic military training.

- [Reporter] Three Chaplains shows us military life stateside, no overseas battle scenes here, but stressful enough with basic training.

Enough for many recruits to seek out spiritual guidance.

- There are approximately 3000 chaplains on active duty, and there are less than 20 Muslim chaplains, but they represent something much larger.

- The Quran says in chapter 49, 13, "I have made you into many tribes and families, not that you despise one another," what?

That you get to know one another, whether they're Christian, whether they're Jewish, whether they're pagan, whether they're sabians, whether they're zoroastrians, it does not matter.

- One of the main messages of the film is interfaith tolerance and interfaith dialogue.

First of all, David and I are an interfaith team.

You know David's Jewish American, I'm Muslim American.

- Oh yeah, it's right here, it's right here.

- We came together to work on this film together, and I think we brought, both of us brought something unique from our backgrounds to the storytelling process and to developing the project.

(upbeat music) - All right, fantastic.

So how you been?

- One of my favorite scenes in the film is when you're seeing several young people converting to Islam.

- This is a space, a sanctuary in which we are able to make Salah, to make our daily prayers.

All right?

So anytime that you're able to get away from the training, and you're afforded that two hours per week, all right?

To come to this location, to the Interfaith Chapel, - Many of these young people who intern to the military, they're exposed to Islam for the first time.

They're allowed to go to, voluntarily so, allowed to go to Islamic education classes, and they're learning about this religion, which they've misunderstood or they knew very little about.

And so eventually some of them really get into it, and take the next step and choose to become Muslim.

- Alright, so here we have two English translations of the Quran.

- He doesn't proselytize.

They come to him asking that they want to do this.

And he says, well, this is my role as a chaplain to assist you in your first amendment right.

- When I decided to become a Muslim chaplain, I knew that there were gonna be associated dangers with that because of just the nature of what's going on in the world.

The news footage continues to propagate this idea that Muslims are terrorists, Muslims are the bad guy, the boogeyman, you know, they're coming to get you.

(sings in foreign language) - When you see these scenes, where a Muslim military chaplain is assisting young non-Muslims to to choose to become Muslim, - Mohammedan - Mohammedan - And doing it in front of everybody, including the commander on the base, and everybody claps afterwards.

It really is kind of mind opening.

And when I was filming those scenes, I was really excited.

I was like, I want other people to see this because this is like, this is this idea of like religious freedom in action.

- [Announcer] Today shock and mourning in Christchurch, New Zealand, and lots of questions about the terrorist attack that killed 49 people, and injured dozens more at two mosques in the city.

- After the tragedy of the Christchurch shooting where worshipers were killed in New Zealand, you have this really incredible moment at the Islamic Center of Denver where you have Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs.

- There's something that is connecting these events that I think challenge us who are people of faith.

- People from all different backgrounds gathering in this mosque in a show of solidarity.

And I think it's one of the main messages of film.

- And we've seen this too often in many mosque, and temples, and synagogues and churches all across our nation.

It's time for the people of faith, to turn up our volume and not to be ashamed of what we believe in, not to be ashamed of what we stand for, and not to fight against each other.

We need Christians, we need Jews.

- Let's go on.

We need to start on time people.

- [Reporter] Saleha Jabeen's story documented in "Three Chaplains," history captured on camera, sworn in by chaplain Steven Shike, air Force Major General.

- So help me God.

- So help me God.

- Please welcome.

(audience clapping) - [Reporter] Jabeen, the first female Muslim chaplain in the US military.

(audience clapping) - I think others will follow in Saleha's footsteps, you know, as well, and she's followed in other people's footsteps, who have opened doors for her and others.

I just hope that that journey for my community continues where we continue to gain more visibility and more acceptance in American society, and we play larger and larger leadership roles in our society as well.

- What we would like to do with this film is kind of show that the world is much more nuanced than traditional news media creates, and definitely social media, that we need to be open, and free thinkers and not bring us so much prejudgment to those people that we're seeing out in the world.

(audience clapping)