A film sheds light on Pakistan's conflict

Ideological war

Filmmakers Hemal Trivedi’s and Mohammad Ali Naqvi’s documentary Among the Believers (AtB, 2014) is an exemplar piece on the ideological battles shaping Pakistan and the Muslim world. The relevance of this film in present times is four folds when global superpowers are fighting against dreaded terrorist groups like ISIS, especially in the aftermath of the Paris attack early this month.

The 90-minute documentary sheds light on how an independent individual views a conflict with either prejudice or sympathy. It is their knowledge that shape their beliefs. “In the 2008, Mumbai terror attack I lost a dear friend. I was enraged. I hated Pakistan... I was so angry. I wanted to wage a war against them,” Trivedi tells Metrolife.

However, being a filmmaker, Trivedi chose to end her anger by making a film on how terrorism is building in Pakistan. After meticulously researching on the subject and toiling hard for six years (2009 to 2014), when AtB finally came out, it narrated an entirely different story.

Shot in Pakistan’s capital city Islamabad, it begins with Abdul Aziz Ghazi, chief of infamous Red Mosque, an ISIS supporter and Taliban ally, who is waging jihad against the Pakistani government with the aim of imposing Shariah law. His primary weapon is his expanding network of Islamic seminaries for children who are as young as four. The firebrand cleric in the film makes his intentions clean when he says, “When military failed, democracy failed, judiciary failed, there was a vacuum, and someone had to fill that vacuum, so we did.”

His adversary in the documentary is Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy, nuclear physicist and activist, who wants to end the religious extremism, headed by Red Mosque and such groups, and make Pakistan “just like the other 170-180 countries in the world” (his statement in the film).

Each sequence shot in the Red Mosque is a political and culture shock for liberals. Boys, as young as 10 years old, want admission in the madrasa run by the Red Mosque to become jihadi fighters. The mosque hosts around 200 boys and girls. From where they obtain guns and rifles, isn’t part of the film.

Naqvi, who is a Pakistani citizen has made many political documentaries like Pakistan’s Hidden Shame, Shabeena’s Quest and Terror’s Children for which he has received many international awards, says that this film has opened his eyes to many
new things happening in his country.

“Like many of the children in our film, reading the Quran in school was compulsory for me too in religiously conservative Pakistan. And like them, I could read the script aloud, but I had absolutely no idea what I was reading,” Naqvi tells Metrolife.

“What I knew of Islam was filtered through maulanas (clerics), and I found their teachings were limited and shallow. Ultimately, as a reactionary stance to the ideological force-feeding, I compartmentalised my religious upbringing and made my way to the US for college,” he adds.

He was forced to face his own religious narrative when he moved to New York right after college and personally witnessed the 9/11 attacks. “Many of my films, for this reason, mirror my own spiritual quest. For me, this film will always represent my path to reconnecting with God and a faith that I had abandoned long ago,” he says.

Naqvi agrees it was difficult for him to be completely objective while shooting with Aziz. “Aziz is camera friendly and has no qualms posing his orthodox views about religion.” In the film Aziz says that the military operations at the Red Mosque were funnelled by America to fight the Soviets in 1980s. Then the militants were considered heroes. In the 90s when the Soviets were defeated, America abandoned them completely and Aziz’s father was assassinated on America’s orders. Since then Aziz’s mission is ‘War against America’.

Twelve-year-old Talha and Zarin form another parallel narrative in the film and they too stand as each others’ adversaries. Talha is a believer in Red Mosque’s ideology whereas Zarin feels suffocated with the conservativeness and escapes on her own will. Both represent a longstanding vicious circle in which Pakistan is heading towards.

“Due to poverty many turn to religion, it is not something which is only in Pakistan. These rural children are malleable and are victims of Aziz’s war on America,” says Naqvi.

The facts collected by the filmmakers suggest that the December 2014 Peshawar school attack is one of the many internal skirmishes and attacks its citizens face in their everyday life. According to the documentary, between 2007 and 2014, there were at least 3,700 terrorist attacks and 50,000 lost their lives. Over one million people have been internally displaced within Pakistan as a result of ongoing conflict between insurgent groups and military.

 “After 9/11 when Pervez Musharraf agreed with George Bush’s military campaign ‘War on Terror’ and burnt the Red Mosque’s madrasa, killing many children inside, the revolt brewed further. After a careful study, I realised that ordinary Pakistanis are themselves victims rather than perpetrators. The same extremists who carried out the attacks in Mumbai are actually terrorising their own people on a daily basis, and the country’s very survival is at stake.” Trivedi says.

Trivedi agrees that she is not a reader who reads intellectual books neither is she a political person. Her views on Pakistan are solely based on mainstream media reports in India. She says, “Media cannot provide you everything and not knowing something can make you hate it. Terrorism feeds on hate, the revelation about the state of Pakistan’s liberals has made me sympathise with them.”