Friday 8 March, 7.30pm

The first programme in Channel 4’s Muslim and British Season, The Hidden Jihad, examines the reality of living across Britain’s parallel cultures. Writer and DJ Imran Khan returns to his roots to find out why the friends with whom he spent a carefree adolescence clubbing, drinking and learning about women, have abandoned a western decadence in favour of a separatist and radical form of Islam.
 
Living in London, Khan has always been comfortable combining clubbing and DJing with his Islamic faith. However, as he makes the personal journey back to his home town of Peterborough, Khan finds that for more and more young Muslim men faith and fun are no longer part of the mix. Reunited with his old friends for the first time in ten years, a far cry from their DJ and fast-car days, Khan finds them bearded and dressed in traditional shalwar kameez. Confronted by a form of Islam that he finds dangerous and outmoded, Khan is shocked at the difference in his friends’ appearance and attitudes that question whether young Muslims can reconcile their beliefs with the club culture of modern Britain.

Why are so many Muslims rejecting British life, disaffected by a society that was once theirs? On returning home, Khan sets out to discover whether London is any different. In a capital city where the atheist, the Hindu, the Muslim and the Christian come together to party, there appears to be more room for interpretation and choice. Yet Islamic extremism is much closer to home than Khan once thought. Talking to people who have not withdrawn from society, those who live and work in the mainstream and outwardly appear the same, he uncovers disturbing views. Some young Muslims believe in a kind of international brotherhood of Islam. They hold no allegiance to this or any other county, and believe all man-made systems, democracy, finance, and even British courts of law, are judged un-Islamic and therefore worthless. 

Discovering an extreme set of Muslim beliefs that existed way before September 11, Khan finds a number of young British Muslims who believe Islam is incompatible with British life. These are the sleepers, waiting for the moment when the true Islamic state is established, a state that can legitimately take on the world. Only then can the real holy war  – the Jihad – begin.

Other Programmes in the Muslim and British Season

Culture Clash

Mum, I'm a Muslim

Trouble at the Mosque

Who Speaks for Muslims?