Documentary about thwarted Muncie mosque bombing nominated for Oscar

A documentary featuring a Muncie couple and a plot to bomb a Muncie mosque has been nominated for an Oscar.

“Stranger at the Gate” is nominated in the Best Documentary Short Film category.

It tells the story of U.S. Marine Mac McKinney’s plan to bomb the Islamic Center of Muncie.  That’s until he’s befriended by Afghan refugee and Muncie resident Bibi Bahrami, her family, and her community.

Bahrami speaks simply in the film’s trailer about the man who wanted to kill her and her family.

“That was the time I invited him over for dinner.  He didn’t know anything better.”

Bahrami fled Afghanistan as a child after the Soviet Union’s invasion.  She met her husband, Dr. Saber Bahrami, in a refugee camp and the couple came to Muncie in 1986.

In 2002, Bahrami founded AWAKEN, a non-profit supporting women and girls in Afghanistan.  Since the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, AWAKEN has helped bring more than 100 Afghans to live and work in Muncie.

The film is directed by Joshua Seftel and can be seen online now and in theaters nationwide on February 17.