2015 Directed by Mohammed Naqvi, Hemal Trivedi
An unsettling and eye opening exploration into the spread of the radical Islamic school Red Mosque, which trains legions of children to devote their lives to jihad, or holy war, from a very young age. With incredible access and chilling footage, Among the Believers is a timely and relevant look into the causes that have led to the growth of radical Islam in Pakistan and around the world.
Changeworx Manjusha Films JustFilms / Ford Foundation Sundance Institute Tribeca Film Institute Cinephil Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) Chicken & Egg Pictures Women Make Movies
Among the Believers - L'estremismo islamico in Pakistan, Unter den Gläubigen
Presents a disappointingly and perhaps insincerely binary view of Pakistan's struggles with Islamic extremism, inextricably linking Islam as a whole with its worst form of ideologies without making the important distinctions that people can devote themselves to Islam without being violent, and that many who claim they are wholly devoted to Islam aren't quite as religious as they'd like others to believe.
By the end, Among the Believers tries to backtrack and show a more complex picture, but it's too little too late by that point. There's some interesting surface-level discussion to be had here, but those who don't know anything about Islam or Pakistani society could be easily mislead by this film's framing, while those who do know about these subjects will likely find little of substance here.
pretty shallow take on the red mosque movement. watched this for a contemporary islam course and was disappointed in how heavy handed the documentary is in trying to say “see! look how horrifying these people are!” but only briefly goes over the very just outrage over the shitshow conditions motivating unrest in Pakistan
...Fakat bu prensipleri gökten inildiği sanılan kitapların dogmalarıyla asla bir tutulmamalıdır. Biz, ilhamlarımızı, gökten ve gaipten değil, doğrudan doğruya yaşamdan almış bulunuyoruz.
-Mustafa Kemal ATATÜRK
I've got issues with most extremism in faiths, be it Islam or the Church of Hello Kitty. This one covers just one angle of a complicated matter and doesn't always do well in distinctly separating the extremism from the faithful. It leads to a slightly disingenuous side effect of viewers potentially seeing the faith completely as bad, instead of just the extremism that is breeding the issue. Ironically, the film shows this itself as the extremists present a warped and narrow view of western culture that further alienates the young into their extremist clutches. Viewers will scoff at that depiction because they have experienced other incidentals about western culture, unaware that this documentary is just as slighted.
Pretty solid if a little shallow look at extremism in Pakistan. Well worth a look.
A documentary which deals with some of the religious and political divisions within Pakistan (and specifically within Islam in Pakistan), focusing on the activities of the 'Red Mosque' and its preacher. It's at pains, of course, to insist that this isn't the mainstream of Islamic opinion, but it's difficult to watch a feature-length film focusing on ideologies of hatred without feeling a little like this isn't the whole picture. Of course it's not, and there are other voices arrayed against the film's central character. The filmmakers also take a few young people growing up in the desperately poor, underfunded and little cared for areas of largely rural Pakistan where it seems the Red Mosque (and extremist Islamic thought) gathers a lot of its support, which gives the best sense of the way the region's divisions manifest themselves, and I think these are some of the strongest segments.
March Around the World 2018 #15/30 (Pakistan)
With a seemingly detached approach that doesn't preach to the audience and understands that what it shows speaks for itself, this is an important documentary that offers a devastating look at religious fundamentalism brainwashing kids and turning them into terrorists.
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