Airdate: Welcome to the Mosque

Ahead of next week’s Pride vs Prejudice highlights on ABC2, is the UK documentary Welcome to the Mosque.

For 8 months filmmaker Robb Leech (My Brother the Islamist, My Brother the Terrorist) films a Muslim community in East London.

With unprecedented access, this documentary gets inside one of Europe’s biggest Muslim communities, giving a unique insight into the people who make up its congregation.

East London Mosque is one of the largest in Europe – over a quarter of a million people walk through its doors during the month of Ramadan, and up to 7,000 fill its walls for Friday prayers. But for most people outside, it’s a place of mystery.

Having documented radical Islam in My Brother the Islamist and My Brother the Terrorist, filmmaker Robb Leech now asks what it’s like to be an ordinary Muslim living in the West. He follows the everyday lives of the people in the community, experiencing their faith at first hand.

Over eight months, Robb captures key moments in the life of the Mosque, from the rituals of washing before Friday prayers, to preparing Muslim couples for marriage at the centre’s very own match-making service. He also witnesses the effect of gender segregation on community members, and meets young Muslims at the Mosque School, where children learn the tenets of their faith alongside English, Maths and other core subjects from the national curriculum.

Welcome to the Mosque follows the families of the London schoolgirls who fled Britain to join Isis jihadists in Syria. Whether capturing an emotional encounter between the Mosque’s charismatic young Media and Communications Officer and a distraught sister of one of the girls, or travelling to Istanbul with the families of the missing girls to try and track them down, Robb’s distinctive hand-held camera gives an intimate feel to dramatic events.

Wednesday 14 September 9.30pm on ABC2.