Cineaste Publishers, Inc.

ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALISM AT WAR AGAINST AMERICA: New Documentaries on Religion

and Politics in the Islamic World
Author(s): Robin Bhatty
Source: Cinéaste, Vol. 27, No. 2 (SPRING 2002), pp. 20-23, 61
Published by: Cineaste Publishers, Inc.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41690126
Accessed: 24-12-2017 02:45 UTC

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 cA7 WcAZ cAQcAJJV^y ¿WQ¿2JCcA
public's effort to
In public'slearn
learn the moremore
American effort
the individuals and
organizations that
carried out the ter-
rorist attacks of Sep-
tember 11th, 2001,
and the grievances -
real or imagined -
which motivated
them, the documen-
tary film can play a
central role as a use-
ful, even critical, tool
for Western viewers.
One of the strengths
of the documentary is
that it enables those
engaged in contem-
porary political strug-
gles to speak for
themselves. The hor-
rific events of Sep-
tember 11th have
brought home the
A mujaheddin,
extent to which the
West in general and
the United States in
particular, which
throughout the previ-
ous decade had re-
mained largely aloof
from developing
events in Afghanistan
and the Islamic world
in general, need to Produced by Alberto Vendemmiati, Fabrizio Lazzaretti and Giuseppe Petitto; color, 1 14 itain's Channel
hear the voices of the mins.; in Dari (Afghani) and Italian with English subtitles. Distributed by Karousel Films, Four News early
various forces con- www.karousel.org; or contact the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, 350 Fifth
tending for political
power in those re-
gions.
Two new docu-
Produced by Julie Gal; color, 57 mins., VHS. Distributed by Filmakers Library, 124 East 40th
mentary films, both
of which deal, with
Afghanistan, have
achieved a relatively
high public profile in
recent months. Be-
neath the Veil, which
tells the story of Saira
Shah, a British re-
porter of Afghan de-
scent who penetrated
Taliban- controlled
Afghanistan in order
to film life under the
20 CINEASTE, Spring 2002
%JYcw documentaries on Religion
and /politics in the JslAinic ]^orW
by Robin Bhatty
hard-line Islamic
regime, was fre-
aboutabout to quently broadcast
on CNN last fall.
Jung (War): In the
Land of the Muja-
heddin, a film that
chronicles the ef-
forts of an Italian
physician to build
a surgical hospital
in northern Af-
ghanistan, pre-
miered at the 2001
Human Rights
Watch Interna-
tional Film Festi-
val in London and
New York, and
has since had a
limited theatrical
release through-
out the U.S.
Saira Shah first
visited Afghan-
istan at the age of
an Islamic 'holy warrior/ in Beyond the Veil (photo courtesy of Filmakers Library).
twenty-one and
worked there for
three years as a
Videos Reviewed in This Article free-lance journal-
ist, reporting on
Beneath the Veil the guerrilla war
against the Soviet
Directed by Saira Shah; color, 52 mins, VHS. Order videos from CNN at 1 (800) 266-6397.
occupation. For
Beneath the Veil,
Jung (War): In the Land of the Mujaheddin produced for Br-
in 2001, she visit-
Avenue, 34th Floor, New York, NY 10118-3299, phone (212) 216-1264. ed both the Tal-
iban and North-
ern Alliance con-
Islamic Fundamentalism and Democracy trolled areas of
Street, New York, NY 10016, phone (212) 808-4980. Afghanistan in or-
der to report on
the civil war and
Beyond the Veil the conditions of
Episodes include "The Born Again Muslims," "The Holy Warriors," and "The New Cold everyday life un-
War." Produced by Knakna Documentary in Association with Mundovision Ltd. Each der the funda-
episode is color, 52 mins., VHS. Distributed by Filmakers Library, 124 East mentalist Islamic
40th Street, New York, NY 10016, phone (212) 808-4980.
regime's harsh
social order. Shah
Other excellent sources for documentary films and videos on this subject are First Run/Icarus also introduces a
Films, 32 Court Street, 21st Floor, Brooklyn, NY 1 1201, phone (718) 488-8900, www.frif.com;
personal dimen-
Arab Film Distribution, 2417 10th Avenue E., Seattle, WA 98102, phone (206) 322-0882, sion to the docu-
www.arabfilm.com; Bullfrog Films, P.O. Box 149, Oley, PA 19547, phone (610) 779-8226, Bull-
mentary. Her fa-
frogfilms.com.
ther, Afghan
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scholar Idries Shah, had emigrated to the what subsequently happened, the girls
U.K. from an Afghan city north of Kabul, respond with silence and tears.
which she aims to visit to compare its cur- Through this wartorn countryside, Shah
rent condition with the pleasant land of journeys to her father's old home north of
fountains and parks her father described to Kabul. A part of a larger area of fertile, well-
her as a child. watered plains and low hills known as the
The most shocking portions of Beneath Shamali Plains, this area was, for decades, a
the Veil are those that document life under popular resort area for upper-class Afghans
the Taliban. For those not familiar with the from Kabul. The Afghan royal family main-
extremes of human deprivation, the degra- tained a summer palace on the northern
dation of poor Afghans - particularly edge of the plain and many other families
women - struggling to survive on moldy rented or owned summer homes, as refuge
bread and begging on the streets, is horrify- from the heat and noise of the summer in
ing. Enforcing their harsh version of Islam, Kabul. It is here where Beneath the Veil
the Taliban forbade women to work outside ends. Not surprisingly, the paradise Shah's
their homes. While hardly unprecedented in father once described no longer exists. The
rural Afghanistan, or for that matter in film concludes with an image of a shattered,
many other Muslim countries, this prohibi-Journalist Saira Shah wore a burka in long- dry fountain overlooking a bare, rocky
tion in the Afghanistan of 2000 amounted to Taliban-controlled areas of Afghanistan tolandscape.
a death sentence. With families disrupted orfilm Beneath the Veil (photo courtesy of CNN). While the footage shot by RAWA and the
destroyed by twenty-five years of war, in wedding photographer has the greatest
particular with the men of many families In another powerful section of the film, shock value, Shah's own footage leaves a dis-
dead or crippled, the Taliban's restrictionShah incorporates video footage from cordant
a impression. The scenes of her trav-
left thousands of women and their families wedding photographer who recordedels thein the North seem forced, in part because
with no means of support, reducing them to aftermath of the execution and mutilationof ofher voice-over narration, which consis-
starvation. Yet, what made the Taliban several men by Taliban troops. The film also emphasizes the dangers of her jour-
tently
remarkable in the Afghan context was notincludes numerous eyewitness accounts ney.
ofAfter the RAWA footage of life in
the poverty that accompanied their rule but the shooting of men and women whose Kabul, sole and surrounded by Northern
Alliance soldiers who routinely face the
the brutality and uniformity with whichoffense was the failure to obey Taliban
they enforced their codes of behavior. Exe-orders immediately. same dangers, such comments seem a con-
cutions were common for a large variety of One of the film's most emotionally mov- ceit. Likewise, Shah's footage of her drive
offenses. through Kandahar, which leads to her tem-
ing scenes features an interview with three
The real punch in Shah's film comes notyoung Afghan girls who recount how they porary arrest, as well as that of her producer,
from the scenes she and her crew filmed, butwitnessed the murder of their mother driver,
by and translator, comes off as overly
in footage shot by an underground or- Taliban soldiers, after she resisted their melodramatic. As a Western journalist, Shah
ganization, the Revolutionary Association of actually faced little danger in this encounter.
efforts to kidnap her daughters. When Shah
Women of Afghanistan (RAWA). Thislearns that the soldiers remained in the The truly imperiled parties were the Afghans
group, founded by feminist Afghan intellec-home for several days, and inquires as to
traveling with her, and the film gives no clue
tuals in the late Seventies in Pak- as to what treatment they expe-
istan, maintained an underground rienced. Certainly the footage
network in Kabul, where they in this Kandahar sequence - a
covertly filmed several executions at melange of shots of the street
the soccer stadium on the outskirts and markets taken from a con-
of the city. These executions were cealed camera through the win-
popular entertainment for the peo- dow of a moving vehicle -
ple of Kabul, as well as grim re- seems of little value in light of
minders of Taliban power and ruth- the risks faced by the Afghan
lessness. personnel, if not the journalists
Shah does her best work in inter- themselves.
views with Afghan women in Kabul.
In the intimate setting of these
women's homes and a RAWA secret focuses on the cruelty
school for girls, Shah enables these While focuses of theof
Shah'sthe
Taliban Taliban
on the cruelty film
and and
hitherto silenced women to speak the courage of those Afghans
for themselves, and they prove to be who resisted them, in Jung
remarkably articulate. The depic- (War): In the Land of the Muja-
tions of the courage and dedication heddin , the closest thing to a
of RAWA's adherents, in ways large villain is the war itself. Jung was
and small - one of the most affect- produced by three Italian film-
ing scenes is Shah's visit to an makers, Alberto Vendemmiati,
underground beauty salon, which Fabrizio Lazzaretti, and Gui-
serves as a refuge for some Afghan seppe Petitto, in 1999 andř2000.
women from the Taliban's relentless Originally, the project was to be
drive to hide them from sight - a straightforward documentary
almost unbalance the film. Next to about the ongoing war in
them, the intrepid reporters and Afghanistan, a film which
ferocious mujaheddin alike seemFor Beneath the Veil, Saira Shah (top) visits the soccer stadium used would also be the swan song of
small. It is RAWA's scenes of life,by the Taliban for public executions. Below: One of three young Ettore Mo, an aging Italian for-
courage, and death in Kabul that Afghan girls whose mother was murdered by the Taliban when she eign correspondent who had
linger when the film has ended. resisted their efforts to kidnap her daughters (photos courtesy of CNN). made many trips to Afghan-

CINEASTE, Spring 2002 21

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 Jung and Beneath the Veil are very differ-
ent films. Although Jung's hospital is in
Northern Alliance territory and relies on the
support and protection of the Northern
Alliance leadership, no effort is made to vili-
fy the Taliban. For all the devastation and
pain depicted in both films, they are surpris-
ingly hopeful. Viewers of Shah's documen-
tary will be stirred by the suffering and resis-
tance of Afghan women to the Taliban,
while viewers of Jung will be moved by the
very fact that the hospital is built and func-
tions effectively. If its contributions are
small compared to the suffering outside its
walls, its establishment nonetheless repre-
sents a real achievement.

the militant Islamic challenge to West-

In the ern contrast
ernmilitant culture to and Islamic
culture and Junginstitutions
institutions and challenge Beneathisis thethe
to the West-
focusfocus Veil
of Islamic Fundamentalism and Democracy
and the three-part series, Beyond the Veil
Produced by Julie Gal, Islamic Fundamental-
A portrait of an Afghan child from Jung (War): In the Land of the Mujaheddin.
ism and Democracy is a searching examina-
tion of the range of Muslim thinking on civil
rights and governance issues, including the
istan and whose contacts with a number of military and civilian casualties. The film extent to which Islamic ideals are incompat-
leaders of the Northern Alliance - particu- gives a vivid impression of this hospital as ible with the central assumptions of Western
larly President Burhanuddin Rabbani and an island - of safety, cleanliness, and civi- liberalism, most notably the exaltation of
Northern Alliance Commander Ahmad lized order - amidst the continuous fighting individual worth and freedom underlying
Shah Masud - facilitated their entry and into the desperation of the refugees living in the Western-inspired rights to freedom of
northern Afghanistan and gave them access encampments outside its walls. worship and political equality for minorities
to the front lines and to transportation, no Jung is a paradox. It has no argument to and women. Gal's film largely lets Muslims
small issue in the northern areas in 1999. advance; rather, it simply records the con- speak for themselves, featuring a wide range
When the filmmakers and Mo encounter struction of a hospital over a period of some of interviews conducted throughout the
two driven individuals - British nurse Kate eighteen months. The periodic intercutting Muslim world, including those with a
Rowlands and Italian doctor Gino Strada - of fast-paced combat footage into long Kuwaiti engineer, a female Jordanian jour-
scenes of Western aid workers talking
the film takes a very different course. A sur- nalist, political leaders such as the now-
geon and founder of an Italian nongovern-amongst themselves or traveling between deceased King Hussein of Jordan and Presi-
mental organization named Emergency,meetings with various officials suggests that dent Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, and violent
which provides medical services for victimsthe filmmakers were somewhat uncertain fundamentalists such as Sheikh Omar
of war, Strada is a huge, perpetually di-about the story that began to dominate theirAbdel-Rahman, now serving a life sentence
sheveled bear of a man who dominates the in a U.S. federal prison for his role in orga-
film. But its narrative structure and straight-
film almost from beginning to end. First forward chronology, with dates appearing nizing the 1993 attack on the World Trade
encountered in Tajikistan at the end of Feb-onscreen regularly to mark the passage of Center. The number of Western 'talking
ruary 1999, on his way by helicopter to thetime, provide Jung with great power as heads' a is mercifully kept to a minimum and
Panjshir Valley, Strada is traveling to assessdocument of the Afghan condition as ittheir comments generally serve to illuminate
the need for a surgical hospital and identifyexisted in late 1999 and 2000 in the southern the issues under discussion.
a site for the facility. reaches of the Panjshir Valley. Gal's film stresses that the rise of militant
Five months later, Strada and Rowlands Islam may have less to do with a hypotheti-
are back in Afghanistan, beginning the labo- cal Muslim fondness for violence than with
rious effort to assemble donors and supplies. the desire of long-suffering populations for
A Taliban offensive has caused tens of thou- a better life than is possible under corrupt,
sands of refugees to flee 'into the Panjshir, as ineffective governments that persistently fail
Strada and Rowland struggle with feelings of to deliver even the most basic public ser-
inadequacy and helplessness in the face of vices, such as medical care and education.
the large-scale suffering of the refugees. By The popularity of organizations such as the
the end of Augùst, construction of the hos- Muslim Brotherhood, which has branches in
pital has begun at Anobah, the site of a half- Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, among other
built police college and dispensary. Several countries, is shown to be based on a solid
trucks arrive bearing supplies from Italy, program for the delivery of just such public
including medicine, machinery, clothing, services. Like their kindred spirits in North
and tools. Given the logistics affecting the America and Western Europe, average
movement of goods into northern Afghan- Egyptians or Jordanians are strongly -
istan, Strada's accomplishment is awe- although not necessarily exclusively - con-
inspiring. cerned with achieving competent public
By January 2000, the hospital is a clean, administration and feeling a sense of materi-
well-lighted facility staffed by Afghans, Ital- al progress in their daily lives.
ians, and Kurds. Insisting only that firearms Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman is interviewed In interviews with President Mubarak of
be left outside, the hospital accepts both in Islamic Fundamentaism and Democracy.Egypt and King Hussein of Jordan, the film

22 CINEASTE, Spring 2002

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emphasizes the argument that cultural and
practical issues prevent the adoption of
democratic rule in the Muslim Middle East.
The two rulers point to the widespread illit-
eracy and poverty afflicting their nations as
real stumbling blocks in any efforts to
involve ordinary citizens in political activity.
Yet the film also notes that democratic insti-
tutions, at least in some contexts, do work
effectively in these countries when given a
chance. Professional unions in Egypt, for
example, routinely conduct free and fair
elections for important and influential
union leadership positions - this in a coun-
try that remains a dictatorship in all but
name under emergency laws imposed and
never repealed after the assassination of
President Anwar Sadat in 1981. Indeed, the
film would have been much the stronger
A demonstration of the Islamic Jamaat Islamiya in Islamabad.
had it explored this situation further and A scene from "The Holy Warriors" episode of Beyond The Veil.
presented more information on local demo-
cratic institutions. In interviews with leaders of the Muslim
new cold war" quickly become distracting
The treatment of democracy ends on a and manipulative, especially since evidence Brotherhood in Egypt and Jordan, and the
troubling and paradoxical note. Gal finds of the likelihood or necessity for such a war similar Jamiat party in Pakistan, who claim
that where democracy is practiced, militant is mixed at best. to be nonviolent moderates, the film also
Islam wins. Whether the popularity of such Part one, The Born Again Muslims , focus- presents a provocative theory to explain the
movements is a function of their efficient es on the role and status of women. In rela- shifting levels of violence displayed by
delivery of social services or the genuinetively liberal urban Turkey, wearing the veilIslamist groups both within Muslim coun-
popularity of their opposition to creeping is a matter of individual choice; in Sudan, ittries and externally. Repression against
cultural Westernization is unclear, but mili-
is compulsory only for Muslim women and moderate Islamists in countries such as
tant Islam appears fundamentally hostile notthen only in public; and in Iran, all women Egypt and Algeria has led younger adherents
only to the continuing practice of democra- must be covered, with the law enforced by ato turn to violence in their desire to force
cy but also to the cultural values whichspecialized militia. In all three countries, thechange on corrupt secular elites. In Pakistan
underlie it. Political groups contending that
specifically religious function of the veiland Jordan relative openness to moderate
legitimate authority derives from divine willappears to mean less than the respectiveIslamic political parties has meant that vio-
rather than a popular mandate cannot nec-political context. The choice to wear a veil inlence by Islamic groups has not been direct-
essarily be trusted to surrender political Turkey represents a gesture of defianceed at the authorities in those countries.
power if and when they lose popular sup- towards the corrupt, secular elite that runs The implication is that a more open
port. As Randa Habib, a female Jordanian the country; not wearing the veil (or wearingpolitical system might divert the energies of
journalist states, if fundamentalist Islamists
it in such a way as to minimize its conceal-young militants into more productive chan-
get to power by democratic means, democ-ing effect) in urban Teheran represents anels. The film further suggests that the risk
racy will be the first victim. gesture of defiance towards the conservativeof terrorism to Western society would be
Similarly, a variety of interviewees -mullahs who control that country. In Sudan,reduced if Western countries forced secular
Muslims and others - declare that Islamic
a compromise approach has at least theoret-elites in states such as Algeria to recognize
law as represented in the Sharťa does not
ically depoliticized the veil as a form of pro-the results of elections in which Islamist par-
recognize equal rights for women or minori-
test. Although the film discusses the com-ties have triumphed. Such a policy would
ty groups. Indeed, the Koran explicitly con-
plaints of the Christian minority in Sudan,abort the rabid anti-Western sentiment that
fers inferior status upon them. Such stric-
there is no mention of Islamic dissent there. has become such a prominent feature of
tures are incompatible with the Western The role of violence and the circum- Islam. The film asks if the West would not
liberalism that informs modern democratic stances under which Muslims see it as an be wiser to accept relatively moderate Islam
practice in North America and Europe. In acceptable political tool is the subject of rather
The than face a new cold war with an end-
light of this basic incompatibility, conflict Holy Warriors, part two of the series. Essen-
less number of Islamic terrorist groups and
between militant Islam and the liberal West
tially, violence is justified only when direct-
regimes.
may be an inevitable and permanent featureed at non-Muslims and only when motivat-It is an argument worth considering, but
of the world of the future.
ed by a desire to defend Muslims from harm the episode also notes that the 'moderate'
or free Muslim lands from occupation.Islamists
In may be nothing of the sort so far as
many ways the second episode is the best Westerners
of define the term. For example, a
Democracy , Beyond the Veil uses inter- key component of Western 'just war' doc-
the three; it does a creditable job of outlin-
Like views Democracy
views Gal's with with
Islamic , MiddleMiddle
Beyond Fundamentalism
EasternEastern the Veiland
and uses North
North inter- and ing the complicated Muslim doctrine trine of is discrimination between legitimate
African Muslims of varied political mind- military targets and illegitimate (usually
what the West sees as 'just war,' and it large-
sets, along with comments by American and civilian) targets. While Islamic jurispru-
ly succeeds in putting violence against Israel
French experts on Islam or the moderninto a context which makes suicide bombing dence contains similar prohibitions on the
Middle East. A three-part documentary,tactics seem, if no less repugnant, at least deliberate slaughter of noncombatants, the
Beyond the Veil devotes each of its hour-long somewhat more comprehensible. From Muslim the Brotherhood leaders interviewed
episodes to an examination of various issues perspective of Islamists in Jordan and else-refuse to condemn any terrorist act against
affecting the ongoing political debate withinwhere, the war against Israel is a just strug- Israel, no matter how indiscriminate. The
the Muslim world. Beyond the Veil. , however, Brotherhood
gle to free occupied Muslim territory and to has also resorted to terrorism
makes much greater use of narration than end the oppression of Muslims by non- and violence against secular Muslim leaders
does Islamic Fundamentalism . The narrator's
Muslims; the use of violence, therefore, in
is the past. Nor do the Brotherhood leaders
numerous references to the dangers of "alegitimate. Continued on page 61

CINEASTE 23

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Islamic Fundamentalism (continued) level of nuance toward the West. More often relevant to any discussion of the likely for-
offer any guarantees of minority rights or than not, the narration's references to the tunes of non-Muslim minorities in an
freedom for women. Finally, they leave un- attitudes and policies of "the West" seem to Islamic state.
resolved the issue of whether an Islamist refer to the United States. Yet the West is at
least as diverse in its opinions as is the Mus-
party would accept an electoral defeat.
Western governments may be forgiven lim
for world. Collectively, Europe differs great-
Although
ly from the United States about what consti- Although and ended,ended,
preferring the devil they know, in the form Afghanis and
the therethere the
the Taliban
little Afghan
is little
in Afghan war in civil
civilhisto- is Afghanwar
now hashas
virtuallyvirtually
history histo-
tutes a fair settlement of the Israeli- ry that justifies optimism. The country
of corrupt and repressive secular regimes, to
Palestinian conflict, and individual Euro-
such unpredictable theological revolutionar- remains surrounded by predatory neigh-
ies. pean states practice very different foreign bors, in Iran, Russia, and Pakistan. It is
The central issue in the third episode policies
is towards the Islamic world. Euro- awash in weapons and has little left in the
the extent to which the confrontation pean states - France, Germany, and the way of a functioning economy, except for
between Islamic values and Western values U.K., in particular - now incorporate large opium growing. But the worst enemy of
must become a violent one. Touringimmigrant populations from the Muslim Afghanistan may be the Afghans themselves.
Hezbollah neighborhoods in South Lebanon world, which has had a significant effect on Ettore Mo, the aging Italian journalist in
and Beirut with a young British Muslim national perceptions of Islam. Moreover, Jung, views the Afghans simultaneously with
woman, the filmmakers interview angry and Western social conservatives and religious genuine affection and weary despair. At the
despairing Palestinian refugees who fled thegroups have made common cause with beginning of Jung, drinking with Strada in
new state of Israel in 1948, and have beenIslamic hard-liners in international debates what appears to be a bar in Dushanbe, the
left to languish ever since by Israel, the at the U.N. and elsewhere, often with con-capital of Tajikistan, and apparently fairly
West, and the Arab states. These neighbor- siderable effectiveness, in an effort to limitdeep into his cups, Mo says, "I don't have
hoods are the fortress and the recruiting the role of abortion and contraception in much hope... it will always be the same.
ground of organizations like Hezbollah,family planning. Likewise, many Americans They will always fight each other. They will
whose activities include terrorism. The and Europeans would find little to disagreealways need war to live." With the fall of the
Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon is with in Islamist denunciations of Western Taliban, the predatory warlords who preyed
described as the first Muslim victory civilization as overly permissive and upon most of the population have quickly
over Israel after almost fifty years of reemerged, and tne lighting has
constant defeat. begun again.
Militant Islam, the film con- Jung and Beneath the Veil, for all
cludes, is a reaction by a Muslim their shocking and depressing por-
world that feels itself to be under traits of repression, war, and suffer-
attack by Western cultural, political, ing, are ultimately hopeful. Despite
commercial, and military power in the cruel backdrops, they offer sto-
various guises. Fundamentalists ries of human bravery, resistance,
reject democracy and liberal toler- and altruism that show the strong
ance, claiming that these are merely desire for basic human rights and
additional weapons in the West's genuine democratic reform. Islamic
campaign to destroy Islam. Yet the Fundamentalism and Democracy and
more undemocratic and intolerant Beyond the Veil , by contrast, present
Islam becomes, the more apprehen- more moderate images but offer lit-
sive the West becomes of its ulti- tle encouragement about the future
mate intentions, and the more A Muslim demonstration in London in Beyond the Veil. relationship between the West and
an islamic world in turmoil. Dotn
Western governments feel com-
pelled to combat it. films agree that Islam is essenti
Running through all three episodesobsessed
of with sex and personal gratificationincompatible with Western precepts
Beyond the Veil is an acknowledgement of detriment of community interest anderal democracy. Nonetheless, much
to the
public morality.
the widely varied opinions within the Mus- popularity of Islamic political parties
The series' treatment of Sudan is striking.sented as stemming from their pe
lim world concerning all of these issues and,
Held up as an example of a relatively mod-
more broadly, on the issue of what consti- role in providing essential human ser
erate Islamic state in the first episode, at health and education. Both films see West-
tutes properly Islamic behavior and values.
Indeed, there is so much variety that least it is as far as the veil is concerned, Sudan is
ern governments trapped in a political
not mentioned in the second or third dilemma. Continued support for the exist-
perhaps more properly termed a 'lack of
consensus' or even a 'cacophony.' Of allepisodesthe at all. "Moderate" Sudan, however,
ing regimes means acquiescing in frequently
issues confronting today's Islamic commu- has, for almost thirty years, been the brutalscene
repression of all forms of dissent.
of a brutal civil war between an Arabized Among the victims of this repression are
nity, the only one which appears to enjoy
anything approaching a universal consensus Muslim North, which dominates the state, Muslim fundamentalists, many of whom
is an acceptance of the legitimacy of violence and a Christian, animisi, predominantly have a proven willingness to engage in ter-
against the state of Israel. None ofblack the South. While religion has not been the rorist acts of extreme violence in Europe
Islamists interviewed in the film articulate only issue between the contending parties, and
it North America. On the other hand,
an overarching, coherent program for how has been an increasingly important one in
campaigning for human rights and democ-
they would change their societies for the the Nineties. Even allowing for the possibili-racy on the Western model in today's Islam-
better, however, and one is left with the ty of exaggeration by the various non- ic world effectively aids Islamic partie^ that
impression that much of Islamist popularity, governmental organizations and human seem unlikely to be any more democratic or
apart from the material benefits they distrib-rights groups which have published reports sensitive to human rights than the current
ute through social programs, stems fromof the savagery of the war - which features regimes and, as already seen in several coun-
their role as a 'protest vote.' routine air strikes against civilian settle- tries, could be far worse. Although none of
While the Beyond the Veil series goes toments, the use of hunger as a weapon, the these films, unfortunately, examines alterna-
great length to showcase this variety of polit-recruitment of child soldiers, and alleged tive policies the West might consider, they
ical opinion and belief in the Muslim world,slave raiding by Arab militias paid by the do broach many important political issues
it does not even begin to display a similargovernment - it would nonetheless seem we can no longer afford to ignore. ■

CINEASTE, Spring 2002 61

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