A film inspired by the 2005 London
suicide bombings that killed 52 people explores the mistrust
they stoked between communities and how Islamist radicals
threatened to drown out the voice of moderate Muslims.
"Shoot on Sight," starring Greta Scacchi, is set in the
capital just after the July 7 bombings and follows the story of
a Muslim police officer thrust into the limelight when a Muslim
man is mistaken for a bomber and shot dead.
Tariq Ali, played by Indian actor Naseeruddin Shah, finds
himself caught between police officers who are prejudiced
against him because of his race and religion and a Muslim
community that shuns him for betraying them.
"They don't trust him in the department because he is a
Muslim and they don't trust him at the mosque because he is a
police officer," director Jagmohan Mundhra told Reuters ahead
of the film's release in Britain on August 22.
"I have always admired British society for being the most
tolerant. It's not just lip service, they have actually done
it.
"Then the actions of a few suddenly start causing this
chasm. It becomes us versus them, and I think all these years
of blending, suddenly, in one night, comes to naught."
Mundhra, an Indian Hindu, was in London at the time of the
attacks on the underground train system and a bus, and noticed
how people's attitude to him changed because he was assumed by
many to be a Muslim from South Asia.
Later the same month, a Brazilian man mistakenly believed
to be a suicide bomber was shot dead by police. Mundhra used
the incident as a trigger for his thriller, but made the victim
a Muslim man instead.
He denied that "Shoot on Sight," the first feature film to
deal with the July 2005 events, was insensitive to victims.
"I feel that you can't be an ostrich in the sand, you
cannot ignore what is happening in society."
REAL EVENTS, CHARACTERS
As well as following Ali, a moderate Muslim, "Shoot on
Sight" portrays a radical London cleric who encourages
followers to turn to violence to address injustices he says
have been carried out against Muslims around the world.
Played by Om Puri, imam Junaid is a charismatic teacher
whose ideas appeal on one level and yet border on incendiary.
"Any progressive, liberal Muslim would agree with a lot of
the arguments which he makes," Mundhra said. "But what he's
suggesting to do about it is absolutely unacceptable in a
civilized society."
Mundhra said he read speeches made by radical Muslim
clerics Abu Hamza al-Masri and Omar Bakri Mohammed during his
research. Bakri has been banned from Britain and Hamza has been
jailed.
The director said radical Muslims had succeeded in drowning
out the voice of mainstream Muslims since the September 11,
2001 attacks in the United States and the 2005 bombings in
London.
"The noise caused by the actions of a few radical extremist
Muslims has silenced the voice of the majority," he argued.
"However, I also feel that the Muslim majority, which I
believe my film is representing, should also speak up."
Italian-born Scacchi, star of films like "White Mischief"
and "Presumed Innocent," plays Ali's English wife, and strains
in society at large are reflected in the mixed-race marriage.
The actress said she took on the role in order to confront
her own prejudices in the aftermath of the London attacks.
"My experience, I have to confess, was my own prejudice, my
own fear," she told Reuters.
She said she would "notice if there was anyone getting on
the same bus or tube (subway train) as me, or particularly an
airplane, where your mind can't help leaping to those sort of
possibilities."
But, she added, it had been far harder for Britain's large
Muslim minority, which had "suffered enormously."
(Editing by Paul Casciato)
In Theaters 
