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A powerful, insightful and disturbing glimpse at a religious fundamentalism in Europe today, that gets rare access to extremist groups in Norway and London.
Gaining unprecedented access to the lives of religious fundamentalists, Recruiting for Jihad is a powerful examination of extremism in Europe, which makes its UK Premiere at Bertha DocHouse this May.
Following Ubaydullah Hussain, a charismatic proponent of an extreme religious group in Norway, over the course of three years, filmmakers Adel Khan Farooq and Ulrik Imtiaz Rolfsen are offered a window into what turns out to be a recruiter’s daily life, including his visit to London’s group Need4Khilafah, an alias of terrorist group Islam4UK. Farooq and Rolfsen’s footage is both unsympathetic and non-judgemental, and the viewer must reconcile the radical extremist in the headlines with the person on screen.
When the contentious subject matter of Recruiting for Jihad results in a legal entanglement, the making of the documentary becomes part of the film itself. During filming Hussain is arrested by Norwegian authorities, the homes of the filmmakers are raided and the footage is seized by authorities – opening a ground-breaking debate about journalistic freedom in the “age of terror’’. Recruiting for Jihad is a powerful, insightful and a disturbing glimpse at dangerous radicalisation in Europe today.