15/11/2005 - 27/11/2005

Islamic Monuments of The World (Part 9 of 13)

The Rais Palace and De Pasha Palace in Algiers; Golconda, a remarkable town in Andhra Pradesh in India; and the celebrated Blue Mosque in Istanbul.

Time: 18:30 to 19:00 (30 minutes long).
When: Tuesday 15th November on Artsworld


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A Question Of Race

An in-depth investigation into whether a deep-seated racism exists in the towns and villages of the region, or if local communities are welcoming strangers into their midst and coping well with the changing demographic. Presented by Tim Backshall.

Time: 19:30 to 20:00 (30 minutes long).
When: Tuesday 15th November on ITV1 Border (English/Scottish)


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Marrakech and Dubai City Guide

Megan McCormack takes in the sights of two very different Islamic cities. In Marrakech, she explores the fantastic souks that have made this city world-famous, and stays in a beautiful renovated riad, before checking the entertainment in the unique square Djemaa al Fna. In Dubai, which is often referred to as the Las Vegas of the Middle East, Megan discovers the beautiful mosques, and the crazy sport of dune-bashing, and visits the only seven star hotel in the world.

Time: 18:00 to 19:00 (1 hour long).
When: Wednesday 16th November on Travel Channel


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7/7: The Day the Bombs Came

The inside story of how the emergency services coped with the worst terrorist atrocity London had ever faced, told through the experiences of those in command and those at the front line. Unseen footage, radio communications and dramatic reconstruction combine to build an hour by hour account of heroism and tragedy on the day London was at the mercy of the suicide bombers.

Time: 21:00 to 22:00 (1 hour long).
When: Wednesday 16th November on BBC 1


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Race

Two programmes looking at racism and immigration. Changing Attitudes looks at the racisms that are forefront of race today, including Islamaphobia, asylum seekers and refugees; Division or Diversity looks at the lives of a cross-section of people who have made a new home for themselves in a new country and explores some of the challenges they face.

Time: 04:00 to 06:00 (2 hours long).
When: Thursday 17th November on BBC 2


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Koran and Country: Biography of a Bomber

What turns a British born Muslim into a suicide bomber? Nasreen Suleaman talks to those who knew Mohammad Sidique Khan, the eldest of the 7th July bombers, and tries to unravel the mystery of what turned this well integrated, popular and intelligent young man into a terrorist.

Time: 20:00 to 20:30 (30 minutes long).
When: Thursday 17th November on BBC Radio Four


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Pathways of Belief: Three Faiths

Religious series aimed at 7-9 year olds. What does it mean to believe in Hinduism, Islam and Sikhism? Presented by children, these programmes explain the basis of these faiths, showing family life and community worship. This episode looks at Allah, studying the Koran and practising Arabic.

Time: 05:40 to 06:00 (20 minutes long).
When: Friday 18th November on BBC Prime


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Radio Ramadan

For British Muslims an increasingly important part of Ramadan is the ability to tune in to local religious radio stations that are given a temporary licence to broadcast 24 hours a day during the holy month. This year there were 36 'Radio Ramadans' around the country. Mark Whitaker met the men and women who staffed some of them during October, and reports on what Britain's Muslim communities have been talking and arguing about.

Time: 11:00 to 11:30 (30 minutes long).
When: Friday 18th November on BBC Radio Four


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Iraq: On The Front Line

Channel 4's critically acclaimed foreign affairs strand, Unreported World, returns for its tenth run. In the wake of the July London bombings, this five-part series looks at the fact and fiction in 'The War on Terror'. In the first film, Iraq: On the Front Line, Peter Oborne travels to Iraq where he joins a US Infantry Division based in Baqubah, near Baghdad. It is a beleaguered town plagued by frequent and unpredictable insurgent attacks. In only two months, 200 of the 1,000 Iraqi soldiers operating in the area were killed in these attacks. But who are the insurgents? Oborne identifies two groups: the first are dissatisfied Baathists - former Saddam supporters and overwhelmingly Sunni - threatened by what they see as an expanding Shia and Kurdish power-base. The second group are Islamic militants, largely from abroad, loosely linked to Al-Qaeda. If the US is to transfer power to the Iraqis long term, they must find a way to increase stability. While many agree that politics - not armed conflict - is the key to finding a solution, can and will the US ever talk to 'terrorists'? As American soldiers work at winning the hearts and minds of the locals, Oborne asks is there a civil war in the making?

Time: 18:10 to 18:40 (30 minutes long).
When: Saturday 19th November on Channel 4


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Reporters at War

War, Lies and Videotape - It is said that in war, truth is the first casualty. This programme examines the oftentimes confrontational relationship between America's media and the U.S. military and how, from the Vietnam War to Operation Iraqi Freedom, the two sides have tried to outwit and outthink each other. Interviews with renowned American journalists Walter Cronkite, Andy Rooney, and Peter Jennings, among others, and Jihad Ali Ballout, head of communications at Al Jazeera, are featured. Final programme in the series.

Time: 20:00 to 21:00 (1 hour long).
When: Monday 21st November on RTÉ 2


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Iraq: The Reckoning

In The Real War on Terror strand, Dispatches exposes both the human and political costs of the coalition's invasion of Iraq. Peter Oborne, political editor of The Spectator, reports on the West's exit strategy for Iraq. He believes the invasion of Iraq is proving to be the greatest foreign policy failure since Munich. Oborne argues that the plan to transform Iraq into a unified liberal democracy, a beacon of hope in the Middle East, is pure fantasy. Reporting on location with US troops in Sadr City, and through interviews with leading figures in Britain and the US, Oborne argues that the coalition and its forces on the ground are increasingly irrelevant in determining the future of Iraq: a future that's unlikely to be either unified, liberal or democratic. The film includes interviews with Richard Perle, Peter Galbraith and Deputy Chief of Army Staff General Jack Keane. Oborne also interviews Rory Stewart, who worked as a deputy governor in Nasyriah and witnessed first-hand the rise of the pro-Iranian fundamentalist parties that are now at the heart of the Iraqi government.

Time: 23:00 to 00:00 (1 hour long).
When: Monday 21st November on Channel 4


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Islamic Monuments of The World (Part 10 of 13)

Uzbekistan City's vast range of Arab and Mughal influences; Zaituna Mosque in Tunis; and Java's royal palace of Keraton in Yogyakarta.

Time: 11:20 to 11:45 (25 minutes long).
When: Tuesday 22nd November on Artsworld


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Marrying a Stranger: Shabba

Deciding to get married is one of the biggest decisions most people ever make. But what if you have never met the person you are going to spend the rest of your life with? Marrying a Stranger is an inside perspective on the struggle that young British Muslims face in trying to satisfy both their parents' traditional views and their own modern desires. The first of two programmes follows Shabba. He is 26, likes hip-hop, football and Versace. His mum, who he lives with in West Ham, has chosen a girl for him to marry. She lives in a village in Pakistan. Shabba wants to get to know her and make his own mind up, but when he arrives in her village the elders won't allow it. He does not set eyes on her until the wedding day. The film follows Shabba over eight months as he struggles to balance his eastern/western influences and find a way to keep himself, his family and his new wife happy.

Time: 21:00 to 22:00 (1 hour long).
When: Tuesday 22nd November on more4


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America's Secret Shame

Channel 4's Real War on Terror strand continues. President Bush's decision to declare war on Iraq has now cost the lives of more than 2,000 American troops and injured another 30,000. With such substantial loss of life and appalling numbers of injured, reporter Deborah Davies investigates how the Bush administration has attempted to suppress the scale of the casualties and so minimise this public relations disaster.

Time: 23:10 to 00:10 (1 hour long).
When: Tuesday 22nd November on Channel 4


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Marrying a Stranger: Sabeena

Deciding to get married is one of the biggest decisions most people make. But what if you have never met the person you are going to spend the rest of your life with? Marrying a Stranger provides an inside perspective on the struggle that young British Muslims face in trying to satisfy both their parents' traditional views and their own modern desires. Twenty-five-year-old Sabeena from Manchester is, according to her parents, getting a bit over the hill. They have given her six months to find herself a suitable husband, or they say they will choose one for her. Programme two follows Sabeena as she turns to a Muslim match-making site on the internet and finds someone who fits her parent's criteria. But will he make Sabeena happy? The film follows her ups and downs as she tries to please her parents and be a good Muslim girl without giving up her life to a man she hardly knows.

Time: 21:00 to 22:00 (1 hour long).
When: Wednesday 23rd November on more4


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Kidnap and Torture American Style

Concluding Channel 4's Real War on Terror strand. As Tony Blair unveils his tough new line on deporting foreign terror subjects following the July bombings, journalist Andrew Gilligan investigates whether these new rules will mean suspects, who have never been found guilty by a jury, will be delivered into the hands of torturers. Gilligan examines the evidence that Britain's support for America's War on Terror has extended to alleged complicity in the practice of extraordinary rendition: the abduction of terror suspects and their removal to regimes with poor human rights records. The film follows the stories of terror suspects, some of them British residents, who have been snatched from streets and airports throughout the world and flown to countries such as Syria and Egypt where they undergo agonising ordeals before being incarcerated, without ever facing an open trial. Testimonies from those suspects allege that Britain has a key role in these shady operations from supplying intelligence information on which interrogations are based, to ordering their arrest and detention.

Time: 23:10 to 00:10 (1 hour long).
When: Wednesday 23rd November on Channel 4


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Koran and Country: Inside a Muslim School

Jenny Cuffe vsits Al-Islah, a privately-run Muslim girls' school in Blackburn. She finds out how Islam affects the curriculum and why parents favour this kind of education. How good is a school like Al-Islah at equipping its students for life in 21st-century Britain?

Time: 20:00 to 20:30 (30 minutes long).
When: Thursday 24th November on BBC Radio Four


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Somalia: Al-Qaeda's New Haven

Unreported World visits one of the most dangerous places on earth to investigate the growth of a militant Islamic network and asks whether Somalia's fertile training ground for Islamic terrorists could provoke a regional civil war. Reporter Aidan Hartley and Producer James Brabazon are the first western journalists to set foot in Somalia since BBC producer Kate Peyton was killed nine months ago while crossing a Mogadishu street. A decade has passed since the UN military mission in Somalia ended following the deaths of 18 US special forces and 1,000 Somalis in the so-called "Blackhawk Down" battle. The state has collapsed completely, with warlords controlling the country and more than half a million people killed over the last ten years by war and famine. But the warlords' hold on the country is now being superseded by a new, well-funded Islamic network. America alleges the militants' leader Shayk Hasan Dahir Aweys is linked to al-Qaeda, and other contacts tell Hartley that rich Saudi businessmen are backing the jihadi network, which is training 3,000 men to spread Islamic revolution all over the African continent.

Time: 18:15 to 18:45 (30 minutes long).
When: Saturday 26th November on Channel 4


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Preachers to be

What motivates young, ambitious, talented people to make one of the most difficult career choices society can throw up? Filmed over two years, this new two-part series follows the remarkable journeys of preachers-to-be in three of the UK's largest religions: Hinduism, Islam and Christianity. From the moment they commit to their vocation, through their struggles to find a personal spiritual pathway - as they learn to translate their conviction into a permanent role - to the moment they step out into the world as leaders of their faiths with hopes to change the world around them, Preachers to Be follows their footsteps.

Time: 19:10 to 20:10 (1 hour long).
When: Saturday 26th November on Channel 4


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Islamic Monuments of The World (Part 11 of 13)

The magnificent Fatehpur Sikri, near Agra, the remains of the Azahara palace in Medina, Spain, and Beijing's 1,000-year-old Niu jie ('Ox Street') mosque.

Time: 19:35 to 20:00 (25 minutes long).
When: Saturday 26th November on Artsworld


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Timbuktu: Centre of the World

Joan Baxter traces the history of a city of great importance in Islamic scholarship.

Time: 21:40 to 22:25 (45 minutes long).
When: Sunday 27th November on BBC Radio Three


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Islamic Affairs Central Network (IACN)
Nottingham, United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0) 115 844 9705
E-mail: info@iacn.org.uk
Website: www.iacn.org.uk