10.00.00 Opening Montage

00.16 With about 1 billion followers Islam is the world’s 2nd largest religion and it’s growing the fastest. Born in the 7th century, Islam is today at odds with the West and with itself.

00.34 Western definitions are vague; they’re Islamists, fundamentalists, Muslim fanatics… like the boys taking on the Israeli army in Gaza.
Gaza youth throw stones Pause

00.49 But Islam has many faces…We explore the mass appeal of the world’s most controversial religion.

01.04 TITLE The Islamic Wave

01.13 Azmi12 year Hamas supporter We fight for Hamas because if we get martyred we will go to heaven. If we have sinned we will be forgiven. They teach us to pray, to fast, and to worship God.

01.29 Boys collect Rocks Boys learn politics young in Gaza. They’re told how Palestinians were expelled from their land when Israel was created after the second world war.
01.39 Azmi12 year Hamas supporter Each time someone throws stones they close the school, to make us ignorant. But we go to the mosques to learn instead. We will continue throwing stones until our land is returned.

02.02 Gaza GVs The Palestinians who were driven out in 1948 have not been able to return. Behind watchtowers and barbed wire, 6 million Palestinian refugees live in places like the Gaza Strip and Lebanon. They can’t pass checkpoints unhindered.

02.22 Mosque night Israel is now the fiercest flash-point of Islamic anger towards the West. In fact the Palestinian question has polarised international politics and driven the Muslim Ummah, or people, to suspect all things Western.

02.43 Settler Building site In the ancient city of Jerusalem new Jewish suburbs are still being built on expropriated Palestinian land. Israel has some of Islam’s holiest sites. Yet Jewish fundamentalists feel that Jerusalem is their god-given right.

03.02 Int Settler I am a religious woman and I believe God gave it to us. Q: What about the people who lived here?They can live here I don’t say that they have to go. But it’s ours.

03.20 House demolished A Palestinian home is being destroyed. An Israeli court has ruled their land be confiscated.

03.29 Woman screams God don’t bless them! Don’t bless them. They’ve taken 8 acres of our land!

03.43 House destruction It’s their punishment for extending their house without permission. Israel’s policy of eroding Palestinian land continues, despite UN resolutions and the Middle East peace process. Such scenes fire Muslim indignation world-wide.

04.01 Angry Woman Is that fair? Is that fair? It’s not fair at all. What sort of government is this? It’s not good government. This is not a good government.

04.12 Jerusalem Israel stands accused of ignoring international norms. Yet it’s subsidised by the US and has good relations elsewhere in the West. Western Realpolitik has forced policy to favour the Israelis, but it’s a stance that has helped foster Islamic extremism. Muslim fundamentalists decry the human rights record of the Israeli army.

04.40 Int Dr Hassan al TurabiSudanese Spiritual Leader Nobody mentions human rights there, human rights only elsewhere, not there. The Israelis sometimes march onto mosques while people are praying and they shoot them by the tens. And they shoot them in the streets and in their apartments and nobody says a word about shooting. They’re acting in self defence

05.00 Turabi v/o Hamas demonstration If people go about shooting people I’m quite sure any human being will in defence go and take a gun and hunt someone down.

05.11 Hamas demo And the Hamas guerrillas of Gaza are just one of many new groups taking up arms. They merge politics and an absolute view of religion to demand political change.

05.28 Palestinian Troops But the Gaza Strip is a perfect microcosm of the broader conflict within Islam…
Motorcade past between Islamists and the old guard of strongman Middle East leaders.

05.40 Arafat In Gaza Yasser Arafat is distant from his people. Palestinian hopes lie in his hands but his new state looks like just another Arab dictatorship.

05.51 Horse & Cart The international help that was to come following the Middle East peace process has been largely siphoned off through corruption.

06.00 Palestinian Police And opponents take their lives in their hands if they offend the powerful clique around Yasser Arafat. For ordinary Palestinians it’s left a bitter aftertaste.

06.14 Dr KronzPalestinian Fraud Investigator It was a great disappointment and also when the people look at some in the government. Those people used to struggle for the sake of Palestine, to struggle to have independence. And today they are misusing their position, or they’re doing something which is against the interests of their own people.
Veiled Woman This makes the people feel disappointed, to feel that this is not what we want. This is not what we struggled for.
Dancing pause

06.49 Rich Palestinian Party The political clique still celebrating Palestinian peace has monopolised the wealth to be had from Gaza. The fear is the party may be nearly over.
07.10 Hamas Training Despite harsh policing Arafat has been no more able than the Israelis before him to control the activists, fighters and suicide bombers of Hamas.
Karate pause

07.25 Hamas We are the soldiers of God, the heroes for sacrifice. If the holy religion calls us we must respond to the call.

07.44 Youth at Mosque Through its religious activities Hamas has cultivated a deeply loyal following.
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07.53 Youths Listening Gaza’s mosques offer themselves as community centres for schooling, worship and meetings. That makes them powerful politically.

08.00 Muslim Preacher Those who first believed in the Prophet Mohammed were a minority. They didn’t depend on the power of America or the power of Russia.

08.13 The message is of the western conspiracy against Islam, it’s one they’ll hear hundreds of times over…
08.22 Al Mutla In Islamist eyes Iraqi defeat in the Gulf war was just another in a long line of perceived Muslim defeats, at the hands of the West. On this road out of Kuwait, at the end of the Gulf War, thousands of fleeing Iraqis were slaughtered by Western troops.

08.42 War memorial A strong sense of historical injustice, a feeling that Islam is under attack, unites the world’s Muslims. Here Egyptian school children learn about the Six Day War with Israel.

08.54 Battleground It’s an atmosphere in which young idealists are easily lead by the Islamists’ point of view. When Islam comes under fire the Muslim holy book, the Qur’an, is firm. Muslims must rise to protect their religion.

09.21 Damascus Storyteller In the chai houses of Damascus the tea is flowing and the coals are hot. A storyteller recounts the Crusades, when Christian fanatics invaded Arabia in the 11th century.

09.34 Storyteller and sword Few in the West know much about the Crusades, but Muslims can describe them in detail.
09.43 Storyteller & audience After the Crusades, the Middle East was ruled by the Turks for centuries. After the first world war it was colonised by Europeans – it’s a history of subjugation.

09.57 Dr Abdel Latif TijaniKhartoum University Not only the crusades but also colonisation. Don’t forget that these people were colonised by these Western powers. They were deprived. In fact they were depressed. All these very tough and very ugly experiences which they got through.

10.16 Qur’an & map The Qur’an, was transcribed in 622 when the angel Gabriel came to the Prophet Mohammed with revelations. A hundred years later, Islam had expanded to China, India, the Mediterranean and into Spain.

10.43 Nomads Its appeal and its strength lay in the cohesion it brought to people who were otherwise helpless. Unlike other religions Islam provides a code of values which covers all aspects of life, personal, religious and political. Life was easier, with all dilemmas under one umbrella.

11.07 Cairo Clinic And Islam also provided a social safety net. Even today Muslim groups in Egypt for example run hundreds of schools and clinics. This one is funded by the Muslim Brotherhood.

11.22 Patient There are no medical facilities near here. We used to go to Al Anyi government hospital and also to private doctors. When we found this clinic near us we came to it.

11.42 Woman doctor and patient This practical alternative to the welfare state is funded by a kind of tithe. The Qur’an requires that Muslims pay 2.5% of their earnings to charity. In Egypt as in other countries the Islamist cause has been helped by government corruption.
12.01 Dr El RienMuslim Brotherhood All of the resources are gone with the wind, as they say, so the government is blamed of course. Because there are no plans for supplying poor areas with health care systems, sanitation projects, education projects, housing and everything like that. And they have a lot of foreign aid and this foreign aid has mostly escaped.

12.35 Senegal Qur’anic School In poor communities Mosques shape the lives of the youngest Muslims. This Senegalese school requires children to memorise the Qur’an from dawn till dusk. It seems a harsh system, but children like these might well die otherwise, with parents too poor to feed and care for them.

13.00 Bassirou NiangIslamic Priest We are poor and we don’t have enough to eat. We all live together, here in this room. Many of the children are sick.

13.13 Qur’anic School Enshrining the Qur’an in the school system means these children are unlikely to forget their faith. No other religion places the same emphasis on the classroom. It meant early Muslims learned to read quickly and fully absorbed the mantle of religion into their lives.
13.32 Malik WadeQur’anic Teacher The Qur’anic school is one of the pillars of Islam. Many people want to send their children to Qur’anic school because times are bad and they want to solve their own problems.

13.50 Qur’anic school Islam’s blanket philosophy remains attractive. The religion is growing at 2.9% per year, that’s faster than the annual increase in the world’s population.
14.01 Bermuda G/Vs But how relevant is the Islamic blueprint today? Take Somalia in the East or ‘Horn’ of Africa.
14.11 UN detritus Following the failed UN ‘Operation Restore Hope’ to save Somalia from starvation in the 1990’s, some areas have at last found peace under the banner of Islam.
Guns pause
14.33 Militia on Gun Car Once the scourge of UN forces these young fighters looted aid from the starving and fought in battles which killed 19 US soldiers. After the foreigners left the elders here decreed that Qur’anic Shariah law would be introduced.

14.52 Sheik Ali al Noor Islamic Judge Before the Islamic Court took over the situation was terrible. Somalia was a chaotic mess. There was looting and killing and rape. When the situation became critical, we, as religious men decided to take to the holy Qur’an.

15.42 Women fetch water/Somali Militia The Islamic court here now rules on women’s issues, the judiciary, education, and tax. Qur’anic law is strictly observed and enforced by the young fighters.

15.57 Islamic Court In a court room without electricity 3 Somali boys stand accused of stealing neon lights from a ruined building.

16.05 3 boys and neon lights It’s a crime for which they face amputation of their hands. Though it seems to Westerners a system out of the dark ages, hundreds of millions of Muslims do still live in conditions not dissimilar to the 7th century.

16.26 Boat on river Left behind by the modern world and ruled by often corrupt governments, impoverished Muslims outnumber the moderate and modernised.
Picking Veg They see in the Qur’an some hope of a fairer system, but thus far only Iran, Sudan and Afghanistan are actually run under Shariah law.

16.46 Sentence given This man denies the offence he is accused of. Two male witnesses have testified to this court that he is the one. The court sentences him to 30 lashes.

17.21 Whipping They were lucky to get off with a whipping, yet Shariah Law is gaining popularity across north Africa.

17.31 Issa MohammedCourt Administrator When a person is flogged and his head is shaved, a sentence in accordance with the Qur’an, he will not repeat his crime.
Jerusalem Music pause

17.52 Jerusalem So which came first –Christianity or Islam? Clues lie in Jerusalem
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18.02 Holy sites For Muslims there’s the Dome of the Rock, where the Prophet Mohammed ascended to paradise. Nearby there’s the Jewish holy site where Solomon’s first temple was built. And for Christians it’s the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where Jesus spent his last hour.

18.25 Icons In fact when Islam & Christianity emerged Jerusalem was already a thriving hub of many religions.

18.36 Islam Christian sequence And rather than having been separate entities, Christianity and Islam borrowed from each other as they developed. Many of their rituals today still reflect their similar historical roots.
18.51 Coptic Church Coptic Christians in rural Egypt take their shoes off before going in to church.
Men and women Men and women are separated.

19.05 Boys kneel And they kneel on the floor to pray. The women cover their heads. Egyptian Christians are coming under attack from Islamic fundamentalists today, and many Christians can’t understand what happened to the relationship they once had.

19.26 Coptic Christian Woman We lived in Al-Isa’af. Our neighbours were Muslims. We were the only Christians. When we visit them they welcome us with enthusiasm and affection. They are like us and even better. Full of love and passion.

19.48 Icons and Streets But Muslims respect many Christian figures and don’t dispute most of the old testament. The Qur’an describes Christians as ‘The People of the Book’ and sets down rules for their kindly treatment.
20.05 Queues Christians and Muslims alike travel distances to visit a Coptic priest who specialises in exorcisms on Sundays. They queue, women on one side, men on the other.
20.20 Exorcist Despite the growing religious tension in Egypt, Muslims continue to visit this exorcist to have spirits removed. He’s one of the few icons left of a time when Muslims and Christians considered each other equals.
20.39 Churches & Mosques The Muslim God, Allah, is the same entity worshipped by the Christians and Jews. Muslims believe Islam is the faith taught by the ancient Prophets; Abraham, David, Moses and Jesus. Mohammed's role as the last of the Prophets was to formalise and clarify the faith.

20.58 Sunset But before Christianity and Islam were the Zoroastrians.
Singer Pause for song

21.09 Zoroaster They worship Zoroaster. Theirs was the religion of the ancient Persian Kings, and a precursor of much that came afterwards.

21.20 Zoroastrian ceremony Zoroastrians were the first to believe in a single God. Satan, heaven and hell were Zoroastrian concepts only much later embraced by Christianity and Islam.

21.34 Mountain pan Islam itself is rooted in the harsh deserts of the Arabian peninsular. Prophet Mohammed was a trader. He travelled widely throughout the region, meeting people from all religions.

21.50 Man on Horse When Mohammed began speaking of his visions it was deeply controversial and he was driven from Mecca, into the deserts he knew so well. There he spent many years, often waging war in defence of the Qur’an.

22.05 Mountains Mohammed’s escape into the desert became known as the Hejira. It’s a sacred legacy.

22.13 Tea with Bedouin When Muslims speak of Jihad, or Holy War, they’re reminded of the Hejira. For some this is interpreted as a commandment to strive for religious perfection.

22.25 Camels Fundamentalists read in it a command to go forth and do battle in the service of Islam.

22.31 Dr Abdel Latif TijaniLecturer – Khartoum University In fact to earn your living you have to make Jihad against a very harsh economic circumstance and conditions. But strictly speaking of course Jihad is to try to defend your country, to try to defend your identity, and try to defend your culture against all kinds of intrusion, encroachment and invasion.

23.07 Kashmir Guerrillas Muslim devotion to Jihad has made Islam a powerful political force and enabled its rapid spread to distant lands. These young guerrillas are Kashmiri separatists. They’re at war with the Indian army, turning to religion in support of their war.

23.28 Kashmir Waterways & map Claimed by both India and Pakistan Kashmir is home to just one of the low intensity wars being waged by extremists in many Muslim countries.
23.46 Kashmir dead & Demo This frenzied crowd is protesting the death of a family, shot dead by Indian paramilitary troops.
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23.55 W/S demo The Qur’an as a unifying factor in the face of adversity is unparalleled. It calls for the total support of every man and woman, a soldier in each devotee.
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24.09 Dead Protestor Central to the Qur’an’s teaching is the greatness of dying in battle.
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24.17 Dead carried Those who become martyrs, known as Shahid, go directly to paradise. So deeply enshrined is the belief, that Islamic fighters often speak of their longing for death.

24.30 Indian police It makes them fearless in the face of superior force.
Camel sound Pause

24.40 Camels Corruption and poverty catalyse Muslim militancy. Islam has flourished partly because it is a good blueprint for resisting oppression.

24.50 Streets But not all Muslims see the world the same way. Modern Islamists or followers of political Islam, are tapping into widespread dissatisfaction with Muslim governments.

25.01 Gulf States They accuse traditional Muslim elites of enriching themselves at the expense of the masses.

25.10 Oil Burner They say Arab leaders have exploited Muslim oil for their own ends, allowing themselves to become Western pawns.

25.24 Cards They blame governments of the Middle East for Islam’s decline.
Places like Kuwait, where rich families control everything…
Rich Kuwaitis a small, autocratic elite. Kuwait has been ruled by the same family and its followers for 300 years.

25.43 Kuwait Parliament There’s little popular representation here. Supporters of political Islam demand pure Shariah law be introduced as in Iran, Sudan and Afghanistan. But Middle East leaders are afraid of allowing Islamic extremists to gain power, especially through free and fair elections.

26.03 Algerian Streets They remember what happened in the Algerian elections in 1991. Islamic extremists won, and would have seized power had the army not annulled the vote. The Islamist FIS party went to war.
Algerian War Pause

26.26 Algerian War The world realised Islamist parties with a vast underclass behind them could, through elections, topple Muslim regimes. So Kuwait defends its closed system with ‘better the devil you know, than the Islamic extremists you don’t’.

26.43 Sheik Saud Nassir Al-SabahKuwait Interior Minister Every country has its own different democratic system. There isn’t one ideal democratic system in this world. There isn’t one that everybody wants to follow. The problem we have here is that every country around the world thinks that any system that’s different than theirs is not democracy

27.00 Kuwait Parliament But Islamists claim popular pressure has made Islam stronger even in countries with moderate, or Baathist regimes.

27.10 Hassan al Turabi All these countries are advancing towards Islam. Even countries with Arab Baathist groups, I mean, like Iraq and Syria are changing from below. Actually they are now a little bit against alcohol and here and there even public life itself is being influenced. Banking Islamic banking is spreading, Islamic insurance companies.

27.37 Hassan al Turabi(laboratory pics) Even in education, Islamic culture generally is penetrating education, which was purely secular in most of these countries.

27.44 Prayers Egypt for example, is not generally considered fundamentalist. The state has in fact been at war with Islamic terrorists. Yet the spread of Islamist influence has been pronounced.

27.56 Cairo University At Cairo university women are wearing the veil again.
Women in lecture Years ago this lecture hall would have seen few hejab, or head scarves. The government tolerates the return to strict Islamic code as it knows the Islamists are popular.

28.12 Dr ZakzukSetup And as society becomes more Islamic the government has to conform. In Egypt the Qur’an has a strong hold on the law. Legislation must be passed by Egypt’s highest Muslim body at the Al Azhar university.

28.26 Dr ZakzukChancellorAl Azhar University All legislation concerning personal law is naturally referred to this university. Other laws also. This is compatible with the country’s constitution. The law states that any law should not contradict Shariah.

28.46 Zoom out Mirror Modern Muslim societies are full of such complexities. Egypt is one of the few that has made limited changes to appease the Islamists. But Egypt’s minorities are distinctly uncomfortable.

29.03 Morris SadiqChristian Lawyer The extreme Islamic ideology has now spread to all government departments. There is now a whole generation of Islamists in leading positions. This is why we ask the government to increase the number of Christians.
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29.30 Protestors shout Islam never die!

29.32 Indonesian Muslim Protest If Africa and the Middle East are at the heart of an Islamic revival, the effects have been felt world-wide. Asian Muslims have traditionally kept religion out of politics, but Muslim violence has surged in Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and parts of China.
Rich Party pause

29.52 Rich Party Some in Indonesia are fabulously rich, but the Westernised Chinese community control 70% of the wealth.
Models pause

30.07 Party The ethnic Chinese elite are the backbone of Indonesia’s business class, and have lived here for centuries. Ordinary people, 95% Muslim, are mired in poverty.
30.22 Demonstration But now the Muslim majority are unleashing a vengeful anger on the Chinese community. Half a millennium of peaceful co-existence has exploded into murderous violence.

30.41 Searching for weapons The army is at pains to stop the religious violence. On Indonesia’s Ambon Island they search every house, Christians and Muslims alike.


30.52 Digging up weapons But once the soldiers are gone, hidden guns are easily dug up. The unrest here may be a bigger time bomb, waiting to explode.
Burning pause

31.07 Burning Because Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world at around 200 million. A wholesale decline towards fundamentalism would be disastrous. There are no easy answers. Ordinary Muslims are using their religious cohesion to make political demands.

31.32 Refugees On Ambon Island the violence has left trails of refugees from both communities.

31.40 Jusef EliAmbon Chamber of Commerce I have many friends of Christian people. We have already lived just like brother and sister. And these crazy riots change everything.
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31.57 Mosque Asian Muslims are demanding a change in the status quo. Islamic militias have recently resorted to hostage taking in the Philippines, but on the whole the Far East’s Islamic revival has not been violent.
African Montage

32.15 Turabi Campaigning Islamic Africa is much closer to the brink. The Islamic front-line zig- zags broadly across the centre of the continent, between the Arabic speaking North and Christian black Africa to the South.

32.32 Sudan g/vs Conflicts are simmering in Somalia, Nigeria, Kenya and others. Islam is growing faster here than anywhere else and mostly at the expense of Christianity.
32.45 Sudan Map But international attention has focused on Sudan, a key exporter of Islamic fundamentalism. Sudan is Africa’s Islamic powerhouse and one the world’s three Islamic states.
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33.10 Hassan Turabi setup Hassan Turabi is the most powerful man in Sudan …
Woman Shouts pause

33.14 … and he’s a vocal supporter of Islamist movements around the world.

33.21 Turabi v/o The whole Islamic world now witnesses a phenomenon of spiritual revival. Sometimes also intellectual renewal of traditional Islamic thought. Of course new phenomena always face some suspicion. People are the enemies of what they don’t know, of darkness.

33.40 Horses and guns Sudan is believed to have training camps for guerrilla groups like Hamas and Egyptian terrorists. Hassan Turabi denies involvement in international terror. Yet he sees no contradiction in endorsing Islamic revolution.

33.55 Int: Hassan al TurabiSudan National Islamic Front I’m interested in social change. And social change comes preferably by evolution. If it’s stopped completely and dominated completely by, Super, I mean, power then you can resist and struggle against it and ultimately evolve into revolution.

34.14 Sudan man & stick Sudan’s constitution, though based on Shariah Law, is in fact more moderate than many in the Arab world. Nevertheless, Sudan remains a haven for extremist Muslims.

34.30 Afghan map Those extremists would also find shelter in Afghanistan, also an Islamic state, and home to one of the most primitive forms of Islam in the world.

34.45 Sunrise Ever since America backed the Afghani rebels against the Russians in the 1980’s the capital
Destroyed Kabul Kabul has been mired in an endless cycle of war and poverty.

34.55 Taliban Fighters on truck In a lightening dash in 1994 the Islamic Taliban militia took control, ousting the warring Mujahedeen who had brought the country to ruin.
Tank Fires pause

35.11 city The Taliban virtually forced women out of Afghan society and introduced rules out of the dark ages.
35.19 Video Tape Video tape hanging off lamp posts is testimony to their laws banning human images.

35.25 Mullah Mohammed Musa Khan Taliban No custom will be allowed without Islamic law, Islamic culture. Nothing will be allowed. All the cultures and all the customs will be going in the way of the Holy religion of Islam
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35.47 Taliban Troops Extreme and enduring hardship motivated Afghanis to accept the Taliban. Their harsh rule has stopped rampant banditry for the first time in decades. But the Taliban also harbour anyone with an Islamist agenda.
36.03 Usama Bin Laden Like Usama bin Laden, wanted for bombing two US embassies. The Taliban allow him to hide in Afghanistan.

36.14 War The Taliban are also crucially placed to influence events in Tajikistan to the north, which has been at war with Islamists.

36.29 Dushanbe Tajikistan stands at a crossroads between fundamentalist Afghanistan on its border and the rest of Central Asia’s Muslim population. An increase in Islamic activity here could ignite Muslim unrest in other former communist states.

36.53 Zoom into River On Tajikistan’s Afghan border fundamentalists have been crossing illegally. Through Afghanistan they bring with them money and influence from the Islamic world. Whilst Russia has given the pro-Communist government forces military and financial backing.

37.11 Destruction Terrible battles were fought over this - the latest Islamic fault line. It was a hidden war in which tens of thousands died to keep political Islam out of Central Asia.

37.26 Oil pumping shots And this is why. The whole world has its eye on the vast oil reserves in the other Central Asian republics of Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan.
37.37 Azeri Shore The economy here is controlled by the secular, often Russian, elite.

37.44 Oil Map New pipelines are the key to controlling the oil. Russia hopes they will cross through Russian territory. Iran wants to use its own pipelines South to the Persian Gulf. And America, especially worried about Islamist agendas, wants Turkey to carry the oil. And throughout the region there are heavily suppressed Islamic groups who’d like to have a share as well.

38.10 Oil Rigs One thing is for sure: when the Caspian Sea’s petrodollars are tapped the yield is likely to be more than Kuwait’s.

38.19 Bill MeserolOil Worker By all accounts we’re talking one hundred, two hundred billion barrels of recoverable oil. That’s a lot. This is a mega area, it’s huge.

38.33 Refugees On Bus Big business will continue to drive interests in the region, but for now Tajik refugees are coming home. 60,000 took shelter in camps in Afghanistan. Many are still there. The Tajik government claims the Afghan Islamists indoctrinated the refugees, and supported their war.

38.55 Refugee Women In March 2000 Tajikistan held peaceful elections, which the Islamists lost. Perhaps Tajik Muslims have less interest in political Islam than their Afghan supporters.

39.16 Madrassa Taliban means ‘students’ – its origins lie not in Afghanistan, but in the religious schools, or madrassas, of Pakistan.

39.26 Madrassa Student Is this a madrassa or a film studio? Don’t you have any shame?

39.32 Taliban Madrassa This one near Peshawar has become a de facto headquarters for an international brotherhood which doesn’t welcome cameras.
Camera shut out pause

39.46 Sami al HaqMadrassa Head We now have Taliban from Arab countries, the far East, Thailand, Central Asia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan. They are also seeking Islam. They were not allowed to read the Qur’an for 100-150 years.

40.08 Sami al Haq setup Sami al Haq recently said that if the US attacks Usama Bin Laden Muslims should undertake Jihad against America. He is a former senator and his views represent a deep undercurrent in Pakistan society.
40.24 Jamaat i-Islamia Pakistan’s main Islamist party, Jamaat I-Islamia, holds a rally in support of Usama Bin Laden. Pakistan law enshrines elements of the Qur’an but if this popular party got in, there’d be a Taliban-styled government. Corruption of the Pakistan elite is at an all time high, and that’s making the Islamists stronger than ever.
40.51 Qazi Hussain AhmadJamaat I Islami We don’t recognise this government as legitimate because of the corrupt system. But we will not come to the streets immediately. We will organise the people. We will look for our chance.

41.06 Pakistani’s in street Less than a third of Pakistan’s voters turned out for the last election. The constitution is viewed as unworkable and many are turning to Islam for solutions.
Soldiers pause

41.19 Musharaf on Heli Pakistan’s latest military leader says he’ll address these issues.

41.23 General Pervez Musharaf Pakistan Military Ruler The people were seeing darkness all around. We have now shown them light. They are seeing light.

41.31 Musharaf His actions may decide whether Pakistan becomes the next fully Islamic nation.

41.42 Musharaf enters palace General Pervez Musharaf seized power by military coup and commands a half million strong army with nuclear weapons.

41.50 Musharaf There was no constitutional solution as such to the ills of the country. To the problems the country was facing. Therefore this spontaneous response by the people and the army of action against the government, of throwing the government out.

42.10 Musharaf at Road Building Musharaf is anxious to persuade the world and Pakistan that he’s a modern man who will do well for the country. First he put his army to work clearing thousands of kilometres of irrigation channels, vital for this agricultural economy.

42.27 Musharaf Shakes Hands If he can follow it through he will earn the people’s respect. But the army he controls may not be so easy to pacify.

42.42 Troops train Pakistan’s army is being slowly Islamicised. These days few officers are from elite families. Increasingly they’re drawn from the Madrassas. Many will have friends in the Taliban. The colonial legacy is being replaced by soldiers whose education was entirely Islamic.

43.02 Ahmed RashidAuthor There has been a phenomenal growth of Islamic fundamentalism within the military and this is reflected now even within senior offices who are in general headquarters. I think there are senior officers who are extremely close to the fundamentalist groups in Pakistan who would like to see a much more Islamic Pakistan.

43.27 Large Mosque Islamabad’s Faisal mosque, the largest mosque in Pakistan. Attending prayers the nation’s elite. Professionals, generals, bureaucrats, diplomats.

44.54 Mujahedeen Fundraisers Outside, the fund raising stalls of the so-called mujahedeen - Islamic groups waging war in Kashmir and elsewhere. It’s a clear signal of the legitimacy and huge popular support in Pakistan for extreme Islamic agendas.

44.12 Mujahedeen Money Collectors Kashmir is a war in defence of Pakistan. Kashmir is a war to terminate the idol worshippers. Kashmir is a war to install the rule of Allah.
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44.27 Among the stalls are young fighters from Harkut ul Mujahadeen, Usama bin Laden’s group.

44.33 Harkut Member Q: Who is your leader? A: Usama bin Laden.Q: What does this say?A: Have faith in God - fight the Holy War alongside the prophet.

44.53 Fundraising It's this scene that enrages the West. They demand Musharaf ban the groups. But it's something he dares not do. The fundamentalists are just too popular.
45.06 Nuclear Statues Recently bizarre nuclear structures have become common place in Pakistan. They celebrate its nuclear capabilities. And the fear is that one day this nuclear arsenal may fall into the hands of religious fanatics.
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45.34 Sunset Mosque/ Women on Streets But Islam has lots of faces. And there are signs that many Muslim societies are becoming more pragmatic. In Algeria, Egypt Central Asia and elsewhere violence has decreased. And change is most apparent in the world’s most populous Islamic state… Iran.

45.55 Khatami procession The moderate leadership of President Khatami is modernising the country beyond recognition. The Mullahs still wield huge power, like the final say on defence and foreign policy. But sensing the will for change, Khatami has clamped down on violence against reformists.

46.11 Majid The main part of people in Iran favour gradual reform from an Islamic regime to an Islamic democracy. So I think President Khatami is the head of this movement – which is not a revolution – it’s evolution.

46.38 Today’s Iranian youth is sophisticated and upwardly mobile. They were children in the 1979 Islamic revolution.

46.50 Riots In July 1999 students at Tehran university lashed out against the Islamists. They were protesting the closure of a reformist newspaper and the choking lack of freedom. Young people could see the outside world but they couldn’t touch it.

47.10 Internet Shop But even if the Mullahs wanted to keep modernity at bay, it’s now almost impossible. The internet has brought the world into Iranian homes.

47.20 Mani AsgariStudent It’s about 3 years since access to the internet has become widespread within the universities – and in the past couple of years it’s been spreading everywhere.

47.39 Hard line web page Whilst hardliners feel Islam is under attack, many Muslim societies are changing.

47.48 Modern Muslim Streets Even some Islamists now agree women should be treated equally and are prepared to reinterpret punishment law. Within the Islamic world there is real debate on compromising the Qur’an with modern realities.
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48.10 Baseeji Islam gives a social framework to a billion people. And for many of the world’s oppressed and impoverished it offers empowerment. It also brings the hand of god to their political yearnings. But until its violent extremists are brought to check political Islam will not find peace with the West.
END



Production Assistant – Helen Cassidy

Production Manager – Jennie Gardner

Author/ Editor – Keely Purdue

Executive Producer – Mark Stucke

A Journeyman Pictures Production in association with

Films for the Humanities & Sciences and

ABC Australia
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