A
year-and-a-half after the critically acclaimed film Undercover Mosque
was first screened, Dispatches goes undercover again to see whether
extremist beliefs continue to be promoted in certain key British
Muslim institutions.
Undercover
Mosque: The Return
A
year-and-a-half after the critically acclaimed film Undercover Mosque
was first screened, Dispatches goes undercover again to see whether
extremist beliefs continue to be promoted in certain key British
Muslim institutions. The film also investigates the role of the Saudi
Arabian religious establishment in spreading a hard-line,
fundamentalist Islamic ideology in the UK - the very ideology the
Government claims to be tackling.
A
female reporter attends prayer meetings at an important British
mosque which claims to be dedicated to moderation and dialogue with
other faiths. She secretly films shocking sermons given to the
women-only congregation in which female preachers recite extremist
and intolerant beliefs. As hundreds of women and some children come
to pray, a preacher calls for adulterers, homosexuals, women who act
like men and Muslim converts to other faiths to be killed, saying:
"Kill him, kill him. You have to kill him, you understand. This
is Islam."
Worshippers
are repeatedly told they must lead separate lives from non-believers
and not tolerate other religions. Christian teachings are described
as "vile and disgusting, an abomination." And at private,
invite-only prayer meetings linked to the mosque, the reporter films
the leading preacher from the women's prayer circle issuing strict
dictats on women's personal freedoms - decreeing they must not travel
far without a male member of the family to escort them, and
instructing them not to integrate with British society or work in a
non-Islamic environment.
In
the same mosque, the reporter visits the bookshop and discovers books
and DVDs still on sale, promoting extremist, anti-Semitic,
misogynistic and intolerant messages. Unbelievers ('kuffaars') are
described in one DVD as: "Evil, wicked, mischievous people - you
can see the evil in their face". Whilst Jews, "have
abominated, filthy, disgusting gross belief - their time will come
like every other evil person's time will come." Moderate Muslims
and Islamic academics tell Dispatches they reject and condemn these
teachings. Dispatches traces the links between the teachings and
materials at the mosque and the Saudi Arabian religious
establishment, and examines the extent to which Saudi Arabia exports
such teachings around the world through the funding of literature,
schools, mosques and other organisations.
Dispatches
also interviews a former teacher at a Saudi-run faith school who
describes how the official Saudi educational curriculum was taught in
the school. He shows Dispatches official Saudi textbooks from the
school which featured anti-Semitic and anti-Christian teachings.
As
part of the investigation, the undercover reporter also films inside
a key Saudi-funded Muslim organisation which claims to promote
tolerance and integration yet distributes literature which promotes
intolerance for non-Muslims, an extreme version of Sharia law and
teachings which support discrimination against women.
The
Government claims Saudi Arabia is its partner in tackling extremism,
but a former Foreign Office Minister tells Dispatches he believes the
Government should take a stronger line. The film also features
interviews with Islamic academics who condemn these messages of
intolerance and segregation and warn of the impact this version of
Islam is having on British society. One imam at a leading university
accuses the Saudi religious establishment of the: "distortion of
Islam itself, the abuse and misuse of this great faith of mine and
not only mine but of my children as well."
Part one - Men
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