RIFLE RANGE BOY: Check out anytime, but can never leave!

Kalifat (Miniseries S1 E1-8, Swedish, 2020)
Netflix

BR Ambedkar, the Indian polymath, an economist, a jurist, a philosopher, politician and social reformer, was once at a crossroad. Having had first-hand experience pulling himself out of poverty and earning himself a myriad of international recognitions, the public's discriminatory behaviour was still palpable. The honour of leading the committee to draft the Indian Constitution meant nothing. Post-Independent India still oozed caste discrimination bigotry.

He ventured into the possibility of leading the whole oppressed and backward communities to embrace another religion. Babasaheb Ambedkar took a deep dive into various religions, including Islam and Christianity, and finally decided upon Buddhism. About Islam, he had this to say. The Brotherhood of Islam is not the brotherhood of Man but an exclusive club to care for their own kind.

Even though the religion preaches egalitarianism, in reality, this is far from it. The Arabs like to think they are superior because the Prophet was an Arab. With their long civilisational history behind them, the Persians would get offended if he is confused for an Arab. The whites are of a different class, but the Asians and Africans go nowhere near the status of the Arabs.

Muslims comprise 21% of the world population, but they share only 5% of its GDP. 57 Muslim majority countries (out of 195) have 1,840 universities (25,000 worldwide). To date, there are only three Muslim Nobel Laureates in the field of science - Mohammad Abdus Salam in Physics (Pakistan),

Aziz Sancar (Turkey) and Ahmad Zewali (Egypt) both in Chemistry. Unfortunately, Abdus Salam, as he is of Ahmadiyya denomination, has naturally been declared a non-Muslim by Pakistan. Interestingly, all these Professors reached their zenith only after leaving their home countries for further education. Even after their successes, they had to settle overseas to delve deep into their research.

Despite all the bad publicity surrounding these countries, there seems to be no concerted effort to correct the situation. It is not business as usual, though. Many of the occupants of these countries lament that all their problems are perpetuated by the enemies of religion. By allowing radical belief ideologies to take a mould, everyone looks contended, seeing all of mankind's progress take a U-turn and move into a retrograde fashion. Women empowerment has gone down the drain, the thirst for knowledge has fizzled out, public amenities have collapsed, but nobody is deterred. They have a bigger calling - to fulfil self-proclaimed God's commands and to prepare for the afterlife. That is it. The cavemen savage laws that our ancestors worked so hard to rectify have made a pompous comeback with the help of petrodollars.

This miniseries, which is set in a country with the capital city with dubious infamy as the rape capital of the world, is said to give a realistic portrayal of what happens at the ground level. It shows how young pubescent girls are brainwashed through radical Islamic teachings and packed off to ISIS territories as jihadi brides. They are given the wrong impression of the supposed land of milk and honey in the palaces of ISIL. The boys are given weapons to fight in the streets of Syria. There are promised a place in Jannah as if the teachers have gone there and have a first-hand account of what goes on there.

The story starts with Suleiman and his two teenage daughters. Suleiman is an Islamic immigrant to Sweden who has personal experience seeing how radical Islam can spoil a nation. His girls lead an everyday Swedish teenage life - school, friends, boys, mobile phones and basketball. However, an assistant teacher who is part of a more significant movement goes on a recruitment drive preying on troubled and confused teenagers.

Meanwhile, in Islamic State, a Swedish girl, Pervin, who ran away from Sweden to become a jihadi bride, wants to return. Now, with a four-month child in her arms and living amidst daily bombing and drone attacks, it is not what she signed up for. She wants out. Through a friend with a mobile phone, Pervin managed to contact a social worker in Sweden.

The miniseries, through the 8 episodes, tells us how the Swedish police try to rescue Pervin and at the same time try to save Suleiman's daughter, who made a dash to Daesh Land. Interesting.

I cannot help but think of Ingmar Bergmann's film 'The Virgin Spring' when viewing this show. 'The Virgin Spring' was set at a time when Paganism was having a hard day keeping its congregation. Christianity was making inroads, and it was the flavour of the times as more of the affluent part of the society took the plunge into Christiandom. Unfortunately, it looks like Christianity has had the same fate a millennium later, trying to ward foreign teachings from permeating their community. Life is cyclical; history repeats itself!