His schools indoctrinated children, and Among the Believers isn’t shy about showing adorable kids parrot slogans such as: “We will destroy you in the name of jihad!”.

There’s point of view in every cut. Mike graduated from The College of Saint Rose in Albany with a degree in communications, and is ready to dole out critical analysis of all your pop culture fixations. In 1998 Naipaul published a sequel Beyond Belief: Islamic Excursions among the Converted Peoples. A young boy delivers a sermon early in the film, declaring hatred and screaming “Death to America” with a fiery passion that is, frankly, terrifying. It has been translated into German, Italian[2] and Spanish.[3]. A final title card announcing Aziz’s placement under house arrest is presented as a first step towards victory in a necessary social battle. The Peshawar school massacre in December of last year, which had clear connections to the Red Mosque, appears to have been the last straw for a silent majority to demand change. What I like about Among the Believers, a portrait of radical Islam in. There’s point of view in every cut. Among The Believers is at its best when it turns its focus to the children being taught by the Red Mosque.

Photograph: T Mughal/EPA, ifteen minutes into your first film theory class, and you’ll learn how no documentary can ever be objective. The film largely focuses on radical Islamic extremists, much of which is tied to ISIS. This is the evidence that is often presented by groups accused of terrorism. That’s a daunting task, but the filmmakers find plenty of material to explore to allow them to do it. Fifteen minutes into your first film theory class, and you’ll learn how no documentary can ever be objective.

When that ended, radical elements endured. Mike Smith is an avid filmgoer from New York who loves to hear his own voice - luckily his work as a podcaster on FilmBook allows him to do just that. But directors Mohammed Naqvi and Hemal Trivedi, as well as credited writer Jonathan Goodman Levitt, seem aware of this fact. While much of what’s on screen may reassure the reactionary Fox News crowd, the tone is a world away from hate-fueled infotainment. It allows us a glimpse into the world of radical Islam, and dares to ask us to sympathize with them. The documentary asks the question, “Who are the people being affected by all of this?” It is in these small, poignant moments where the film really shines and shows the audience something it has rarely seen before – a sympathetic ear to the plight of radical extremists. Among the Believers is a frank, arresting documentary that tries to do the impossible, and often succeeds. V.S. … A flashpoint in Aziz's holy war took place in 2007, when the government leveled his flagship mosque to the ground, killing his mother, brother, only son and 150 students. Beyond Belief: Islamic Excursions among the Converted Peoples, https://www.adelphi.it/libro/9788845918025, http://www.elboomeran.com/obra/460/entre-los-creyentes-un-viaje-por-el-islam/, Learn how and when to remove this template message, The Overcrowded Barracoon and Other Articles, The Return of Eva Peron and the Killings in Trinidad, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Among_the_Believers&oldid=968074643, Articles needing additional references from April 2008, All articles needing additional references, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 17 July 2020, at 02:42. Much of the film follows Maulana Aziz, a man both charming and fearful at the same time. Among the Believers: An Islamic Journey is a book by the Nobel laureate V. S. Naipaul.Published in 1981, the book describes a six-month journey across the Asian continent after the Iranian Revolution.V.S.

There are some heartbreaking side stories, too, like a family in the village of Bumi Bekh trying, and ultimately failing, to build an independent school. (I wonder if they printed out programmes?) Among the Believers is, of course, the name of a book by VS Naipaul about the desire to create a religious state in non-Arabic Islamic countries. The proposed aim of the author was to study cultures which have a long pre-Islamic history and their modern attempts to establish a religious state. Other than a strange episode when Aziz tries to flee an arrest by hiding beneath a woman’s burka (and then gives a TV interview from beneath a veil), there aren’t too many moments that pop. He meet poets in Jakarta and he make a trip to visit the Koranic schools, called pesantren. Naipaul's views on Islam in the Indian sub-continent have been contested by William Dalrymple, for example.[1]. Islam in Indonesia is mixed with former beliefs and there are forces that want to make Islam more pure. Naipaul explores the culture and the explosive situation in countries where Islamic fundamentalism was growing. The mujahideen were praised by President Reagan as they waged guerrilla warfare against the Soviet Union.

Alas, the sequences outside of the classrooms, while of great geopolitical importance, are a bit dry as cinema.