29 March 2024 The Irish Film & Television Network
     
“This was a documentary that needed to be made,” ‘True North: Islam, Belfast & Me’ Producer/Director
06 Mar 2017 : Laura Brennan
Pictured: Róisín, Abdul Barri & Babu one of the families who feature in ‘True North: Islam, Belfast & Me’
‘True North: Islam, Belfast & Me’ offers viewers a unique insight into Northern Ireland’s Muslim community through the eyes of three families. It broadcasts Monday 6th March at 10.40pm on BBC One Northern Ireland.

The 30-minute programme, made for BBC One Northern Ireland by Crawford McCann Media, tells the stories and experiences of Muslim families in Northern Ireland. It sets itself against the backdrop of their community trying to find a new space to meet and worship.

Kelda Crawford-McCann, the film’s Producer/Director, explains: “As a director, I always want to produce films that make the audience think; to look at the world differently and to challenge preconceptions. I hope that this film does all of these.

 “No one has ever made a television film about Northern Ireland’s Muslim community. As soon as I started to make this documentary I was met with a wide range of opinions and attitudes from outside the Muslim community and this just reinforced my belief that this was a documentary that needed to be made. I hope that at the end of watching this film viewers will take away a deeper understanding and acceptance of their fellow citizens.”

Belfast Islamic Centre has been home to this community since the 1970s. It’s a Mosque, a community centre and a social and cultural meeting point. Belfast’s Mosque is unusual as 42 nationalities pray side by side there.

Typically Mosques are formed according to nationality, but in Belfast, it doesn’t matter what nationality you are or what branch of Islam you belong to - all are welcome. However, their existing centre is now too small and the community needs a new place to congregate.

IFTN spoke with Justin Binding the Commissioning Executive for BBC Northern Ireland about the decision behind commissioning ‘Islam, Belfast & Me’ as a part of the True North strand: "It's an attractive story as it’s a world that we don't see very often in our documentary or factual output. It's about a community that has been settled here since the seventies. The compelling part about the film is the advent of getting and opening up a bigger building for their use. There is an opportunity for us to spend some time getting a sense of what it's like to be a Muslim in Belfast.”

Asked why he thought a documentary about Northern Irish Muslims had never been made before now?

Binding replied: "I think it's partly that access can be difficult for filming these types of programmes. And in many ways I guess the community has largely been hidden and it depends often on whether or not the access opens up. I think Kelda [Kelda Crawford-McCann Producer/Director] was very persistent as our producer/directors have to be in unlocking the access. And when that came forward it became, I guess a natural position for us to commission the film at that point. Often it's just about access.”

For many decades Muslims have been living, studying and working in Northern Ireland and True North: Islam, Belfast & Me meets a number of families to hear what it means to be Muslim here today.

Among those featured in the film are Anfal, originally from Egypt, and her husband and young daughter; local woman Róisín, a convert to Islam, and her husband Babu, originally from Bangladesh and their family; and Raied, a scientist, who moved from Mosul in Iraq to Northern Ireland in 1990, to study in Belfast.

Raied says during filming for the programme: “Just now in Europe to be a Muslim is not easy, but the vast majority of people in Northern Ireland are welcoming and understanding. Maybe it’s better than anywhere else in Europe and people are more understanding of the Muslim’s position at this moment in time.”

‘True North: Islam, Belfast & Me’ is on BBC One Northern Ireland, Monday 6th March at 10.40pm and is repeated again on BBC Two on Tuesday 7th March at 10pm.

Production Credits:

Producer/Director: Kelda Crawford-McCann

Executive Producer: Cat Lewis

Executive Producer for BBC Northern Ireland: Deirdre Devlin 





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