Film documents NBA player’s spiritual journey to Islam

A screening of the 2004 film “By the Dawn’s Early Light: Chris Jackson’s Journey to Islam,” which explores a protest of the national anthem by Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf (formerly Chris Jackson), his subsequent suspension from the NBA in the 1990s, and the national debate it sparked about race, politics, religion, and freedom of speech, will take place on Wednesday, Oct. 26 at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium of Henry R. Luce Hall, 34 Hillhouse Ave.

Zareena Grewal, filmmaker of “By the Dawn’s Early Light” and associate professor of American studies and religious studies at Yale, will lead a talk with Abdul-Rauf following the screening. Abdul-Rauf will discuss the similarities and differences between the political climate in the 1990s and the movement in sports today inspired by Colin Kaepernick and the #blacklivesmatter movement.

The event is co-sponsored by the Council on Middle East Studies at the MacMillan Center and the Yale Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration. It is open to the public free of charge. ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” will be on site filming at the event.