Controversial documentary on Islam returns to Channel 4
Tuesday, August 26th, 2008
The Second Coming of controversial C4 doc
Channel 4 has announced the return of its highly acclaimed documentary Dispatches: Undercover Mosque.
The original documentary showed an undercover investigation into extremism in British Mosques featuring preachers who called for homosexuals to be killed, advocated male supremacy and predicted jihad.
Just three months ago, Channel 4 was awarded libel damages and a police apology after receiving false accusations of misleading the public. West Midlands Police and the Crown Prosecution Service paid a six-figure sum to the broadcaster as well as to the production company - coincidentally named Hardcash - who were responsible for the programme.
West Midlands Police had taken Channel 4 to Ofcom, claiming in a statement written jointly with the CPS that the broadcaster had “heavily edited” the words of the Muslim preachers featured on the programme so that the meaning behind their words was “completely distorted”. However, Ofcom ruled that the programme had not been deceptive, but rather “dealt with the subject matter responsibly and in context”, prompting the two companies to sue for libel.
On Friday, Hardcash announced that they would be producing a follow-up documentary to “see whether extremist beliefs continue to be promoted in certain key British Muslim institutions”.
The second programme promises to be no less shocking than the first. It follows a female reporter who attends prayer meetings in a mosque that prides itself on its commitment to “dialogue with other faiths”. However, far from promoting moderate beliefs, preachers to the all-female congregation are seen inciting hatred in their followers. One preacher calls on the women to kill homosexuals, adulterers, women who act like men and converts to other faiths. A trip to the mosque bookshop reveals “books and DVDs still on sale, promoting extremist, anti-Semitic, misogynistic and intolerant messages”.
The documentary goes on to investigate “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 range of voices can be heard throughout the programme, from hard-line jihadists to liberal Muslim academics, as well as non-Muslim politicians.
Dispatches: Undercover Mosque: The Return will air on Channel 4 on September 1 at 8pm.
