Don't forget to give your feedback to Channel 4. Contact Details:

Phone: 020 7306 8333

Online Enquiry Form

Letters: Viewer Enquiries, Channel 4 Television, 124 Horseferry Road, London SW1P 2TX

(Dispatches 'Britain Under Attack', 6/8/07, 8pm.)

Here are some points you could make in your own words:
1) Thank the programme-makers for highlighting the central role of foreign policy in causing radicalisation, and the government's refusal to acknowledge this fact.
2) Complain that the trailers and promotion of this programme were sensationalised and inflammatory, portraying Muslims as a threat.

Some further points:
- A broad range of Muslims were interviewed and views such as those of Moazzam Begg made an important contribution.
- The programme mentioned the problem of draconian new anti-terror laws that have been introduced.
- Although Channel 4 billed the programme as being about British Muslims, Abu Mohammed and Omar Bakri who were in the programme representing the extremists are not based in the UK. It is vital to remember how unrepresentative their opinions are and not to provide them a platform to preach their hatred.
- The Islamic prohibitions against harming civilians should have been mentioned.
- The programme should also have shown the efforts of British Muslim organisations such as MPACUK to channel anger at foreign policy into effective action to create change peacefully through the political process.
- The programme addressed Muslim concerns that the government in their work to de-radicalise young British Muslims, are attempting to delete chunks from our religion, such as Ummah and Jihad. Muslims are outraged by this and want the government to understand and accept Islam for the peaceful religion that it is.
- In the scene where the RUSI conference was shown, policy-makers described the views of extremists as a “cancer” when it is in fact an ideology just like the BNP. It could be solved if the government accepts the role of the foreign policy in fuelling extremism and takes the necessary steps to address the issue.

With more and more documentaries about Islam and Muslims it is more important than ever that we make our voices heard - it will only takes 5 minutes to contact Channel 4 with your comments. All comments from the public are logged and circulated to the programme-makers, to inform future programmes.

Review:

Phil Rees produced an interesting documentary on this sensitive topic. He has covered it from many angles, speaking to people from all sides of the arguments. Among the many points that were critically examined were the idea that Islam and the West are incompatible and that Muslims see the 'War on Terror' as 'War on Islam'. There was also a discussion of the theological argument used by extremists to justify attacking Britain and whether the presence of British troops in Muslim lands has broken the covenant between Britain and its Muslim citizens.

The programme also talked about the Muslim allegiance to the Ummah and whether this was more important than nationhood. It looked at government-supported programmes to de-radicalise young British Muslims (details of which were extremely secretive) and efforts to promote a depoliticised Sufism as the acceptable face of Islam in the U.K.

Watch the programme at www.channel4.com/4od

Sufi Muslim Council sings the government tune again...

The programme highlighted the way the government is keen to promote Muslim groups that are prepared to ignore foreign policy and the suffering of the Ummah - groups such as the Sufi Muslim Council. Haras Rafiq, a member of the Sufi Muslim Council filmed by Channel 4's Dispatches said Muslims have more important concerns than Iraq and Palestine, such as GCSEs and overdrafts. He also repeated his scaremongering about British Muslims:
"A percentage of people actually agree and support proactively the people that are deciding to blow themselves up. It varies; it can be 7 per cent, 5 per cent, 9 per cent."

From where does he get his figures!? Just think of a number, any number....

---