Battle for Islam, The
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Subjects:
Anthropology, Conflict Resolution, History, Islam, Law, Terrorism, Women's Studies, World Religions |
Grade Level: SrH-Adult
Producer: BBC
Closed Captioned: |
Running Time: 60 mins
Country of Origin: Great Britain
Study Guide: No |
Copyright Date: 2005
Available in French: No
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9/11 was a pivotal moment for the Muslim world. For some Arab/Muslim terrorists, it was an opening salvo to threaten Jihad not only against Israel, but against the whole of the non-Muslim world. This is the story we know. But there's another story. Atrocities like Beslan have led millions of Muslims to search their souls. Muslim clerics have begun to question the harsher aspects of sharia law. As a result, large swathes of the Muslim world are changing. In this film, leading Muslim intellectual Ziauddin Sardar travels through the Muslim world, talking to politicians, clerics and scholars moderate and radical. In Turkey, he examines the ways in which a popular Islamic government is moving its people closer to membership of the EU. In Morocco, Sardar discovers that 9/11 empowered the King to introduce a major overhaul of family law, granting women equal rights with men in the home. The new law was supported by Muslim scholars, who reinterpreted the Koran and the Hadith. In Pakistan, Sardar encounters the fundamentalist opinion that is trying to block any attempts at a liberal interpretation of the Koran. In Indonesia, Sardar reveals that a leading traditionalist Muslim organisation has joined forces with a similarly influential modernist Muslim organisation. Together, they are campaigning for the separation of sharia from political life and against corruption, and are resisting radical groups like the army of Jihad, responsible for the Bali bombings. And in Malaysia, Sardar witnesses the attempt by the country's leaders to redefine Islam in progressive terms. Changes in sharia law, however small, hit the bedrock of Islam. This film shows that, in fact, Islam is moving away from extremism and that many clerics and scholars are behind that move. --- "This is a remarkably informative and thoughtful documentary, worrying and reassuring by turns. Highly recommended" - The Times |
Links: http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/ (BBC site on Islam)
