Britz is a new British drama on Channel 4 about two young British Muslims who are opposites - the sister becomes a terrorist - dreaming of becoming Britain's first female suicide bomber and targetting London's Canary Wharf - and the brother joins MI5 and investigates a terror cell.
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Written and directed by BAFTA award-winning Peter Kosminsky, Britz is a gripping two-part thriller about a young brother and sister, both British-born and Muslim, who are pulled in radically different directions by their conflicting personal experiences in post 9/11 Britain. Part one follows the story of Sohail (Riz Ahmed - The Road to Guantanamo ). Sohail’s desire to assimilate into every aspect of contemporary British culture sees him driven into the open arms of MI5. Soon, he is forced to question where his loyalties really lie.
Riz Ahmed (The Road to Guantanamo) and Manjinder Virk (Bradford Riots) play brother and sister Sohail and Nasima.
Sohail is an ambitious law undergraduate who signs up with MI5 and, eager to play a part in protecting British security, begins an investigation into a terrorist cell.
His sister Nasima is a medical student in Leeds who becomes increasingly alienated and angered by Britain's foreign and domestic policy after witnessing at first hand the relentless targeting of her Muslim neighbours and peers.
With action set in Pakistan, Eastern Europe, London and Leeds, both feature-length episodes detail a tragic sequence of events from two distinct perspectives. At the heart of this thought-provoking drama is a revealing examination of British Muslim life under current anti-terror legislation. Britz ultimately asks whether the laws we think are making us safer, are actually putting us in greater danger.
Written and directed by the acclaimed Peter Kosminsky, Britz marks his return to Channel 4 after the BAFTA-winning success of The Government Inspector.
Facts
According to the Director General of the Security Service MI5, the 7/7 suicide bombers were motivated by a sense of injustice faced by Muslims in Britain and throughout the world.
Eliza Manningham-Buller, the Director General of MI5 said in a speech at Queen Mary and Westfield College on 9 November 2006:
"The video wills of British suicide bombers make it clear that they are motivated by perceived worldwide and long-standing injustices against Muslims; an extreme and minority interpretation of Islam promoted by some preachers and people of influence; and their interpretation as anti-Muslim of UK foreign police, in particular the UK's involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq." Read the full transcript on the MI5 website.
81% of British Muslims think the War on Terror is a war on Islam. 91% think the War on Terror has increased the threat of terrorism in Britain.
Both statistics are from The 1990 Trust, 'Muslim views: Foreign Policy and its Effects' (Oct 2006). To read the full document, download it from the Black Information Link website.
Thirty six Justice bills, six anti-terror bills and five asylum and immigration bills have been introduced in Britain since 1997. Many young Muslims feel this legislation is aimed directly at them.
A Populous survey in June 2006 found that 50% of British Muslims aged 18-24 feel that Britain's laws are applied unfairly to the Muslim community.
For more details on the legislation, visit the Liberty website.
"I have a horrible feeling that we are sinking into a police state..." – George Churchill Coleman, Former Head of Scotland Yard's Anti-Terrorist Unit.
The Guardian reported on 28 January 2005 that George Churchill Coleman said:
"I have a horrible feeling that we are sinking into a police state, and that's not good for anybody. We live in a democracy and we should police on those standards... I have serious worries and concerns about these ideas on both ethical and practical terms. You cannot lock people up just because someone says they are terrorists. Internment didn't work in Northern Ireland, it won't work now. You need evidence."
Read the full story on the Guardian website.
Moazzam Begg, a Briton who was once detained in Guantanamo, has watched Britz:
The former Guantanamo Bay detainee, now an author and human rights campaigner, writes:
"The invited audience reacted with pin-drop silence for several minutes as the credits began to roll after the screening of Peter Kosminsky's new two-part drama, Britz, at Channel 4's studios last week.
Britz is undoubtedly a gripping thriller in its own right, let alone a film that dares to address so many sensitive issues. It is, quite literally, an explosive piece of work. But no one - including me - got up at the end for a round of applause. It's not the sort of thing you feel like doing after watching something like this.
Shown in two parts, the cleverly interwoven, yet idiosyncratic stories of Sohail and his sister, Nasima, Britz is designed to bring these young, thoroughly British (Asian) Muslims into our homes and humanize them before sending them on a journey that takes both characters onto paths of opposite extremes, shocking our stereotypical attitudes towards them every inch of the way. But this is not a film about Islamic fundamentalists. When Nasima is told that she will be 'sitting at the right hand of God' and replies 'that's not why I'm doing it,' the viewer is already aware of what she is planning by now and praying she doesn't. But the empathy for her is probably even more profound than it is for her 'patriotic' brother.
Even as an MI5 operative Sohail (played by Riz Ahmed of The Road to Guantánamo) undergoes racist abuse at the hands of the police, which he points out only alienates people further. And when seeking assistance from the British Consulate in Islamabad he says, 'I didn't think these places were for people like me,' it echoed of a time when the British Embassy there refused me any help when I'd been abducted. However, one of the scenes takes Sohail to a secret detention facility in Eastern Europe where he interrogates a suspected Al-Qaida mastermind, despite his appalling physical condition and the absence of any due process. This especially resonated with me and when I met MI5 agents in places no dissimilar to it. And my sympathies for him began to shift. My work with Cageprisoners.com highlights the multitude of such abuses as almost commonplace within the world of 'ghost' detention.
Nasima is a secular activist who believes in democracy, not at all an Islamist. But she is challenged by one, who asks her: "Name me one piece of legislation that your political action has over-turned. Name me one new law, designed to turn Muslims into second-class citizens that you've even come close to denting. You can't, can you?" Her response in the negative help's to shape the rest of the film.
Peter Kosminsky came to the front of the theatre, after the stretch of silence, at the end, to answer questions from an audience which consisted of, surprisingly to me, only four Muslims. I asked him about why he chose to make this film. He replied that it was to make people ask more questions about internal and foreign policy; about spooks as well as suicide bombers. Indeed, it was to boldly ask the question whether the effects of personal trauma - in this case Nasima's best friend who is detained without trial and then subjected to a control order - , coupled with societal hostility and a sense of political impotence can lead someone to the path of violent extremism. And if it can, are we able to understand? He also commented that this film was not at all aimed at the Muslim community - quite the opposite.
Nasima's recorded message at the end is haunting, yet chillingly familiar in content, even if not in style. It is followed by some statistics and a statement:
81% of British Muslims think the War on Terror is a war on Islam.
91% think the War on Terror has increased the threat of terrorism in Britain.
Thirty six Justice bills, six anti-terror bills and five asylum and immigration bills have been introduced in Britain since 1997. Many young Muslims feel this legislation is aimed directly at them.
"I have a horrible feeling that we are sinking into a police state..." - George Churchill Coleman, Former Head of Scotland Yard's Anti-Terrorist Unit.
There are some improbabilities in this film: for example, Islamists would never interact with Nasima in the way depicted in this film, and vice versa. But people will be talking about the issues raised in Britz long after the award ceremonies are over".
Moazzam Begg on Wikipedia
Books by Moazzam Begg
Enemy Combatant: My Imprisonment at Guantanamo Bay, Bagram and Kandahar.
Enemy Combatant: A British Muslim's Journey to Guantanamo and Back.
Enemy Combatant: The Terrifying True Story of a Briton in Guantanamo.
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