My Week as a Muslim: Analysis

My Week as a Muslim is a documentary in which Katie Freeman, an islamaphobe, goes to stay with a family of muslim’s to try and change her view that is that all muslim’s are terrorists. Fozia Khan created this documentary to try and change the stigma that is held against the muslim community and she state’s this documentary had the ‘intention’ to ‘educate, not offend’ (Khan, The Guardian 2017). The show was done tastefully in the sense that the main contributor was not an aggressive racist that would spout their racist remarks out on television, but to have someone who ‘were ordinary people who just had very little or no exposure to Muslims‘ (Khan, The Guardian 2017).

During the filming of this show, coincidentally the Manchester Bombing came into affect in which a British-born muslim man had a suicide bomb strapped to him that blew up in the Manchester Arena during an Ariana Grande concert. ‘The fear shifts, transparently, from Katie to Saima’ (Rebecca Nicholson, The Guardian 2017) which allowed Katie to see Saima in a vulnerable state and opened her eyes to the fact that many muslims are sickened and distraught by the act of terrorists in their religion.

As we get about 25 minutes into the documentary, Katie’s views are rapidly changing after following Saima to a mosque, dressed in disguise as a muslim herself. She began to understand the comfort of many muslim’s and starts to realise that ‘they are just normal people like me’ and further on stating that ‘they are just the same aren’t they?’ when getting to see Saima’s children without full head dresses on.

To conclude, I believe that this documentary had a valid the point ‘that ignorance really is the breeding ground of prejudice and hate’ (O’Donovan, The Telegraph 2017) and seeing Katie change her views and understanding will hopefully show other likeminded people that they do not need to live in fear of the majority of Muslims.

References

Fozia Khan. (2017). I produced My Week As a Muslim. Its intention was to educate, not offend. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/oct/23/producer-my-week-as-a-muslim-brownface-documentary. Last accessed 5 Nov 2017.

Rebecca Nicholson. (2017). My Week As a Muslim review – a cynical concept and spectacularly odd. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/oct/23/my-week-as-a-muslim-review-a-cynical-concept-and-spectacularly-odd. Last accessed 5 Nov 2017.

Gerard O’Donovan. (2017). My Week as a Muslim was a privileged insight into what it’s like being Muslim in Britain today, review. Available: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/0/week-muslim-privileged-insight-like-muslim-britain-today-review/. Last accessed 5 Nov 2017.