Star Wars actor: Muslims need role models to stop lure of terror
BRITISH Muslims are turning to extremism because they do not see themselves represented as heroes on screen, according to the actor Riz Ahmed.
In a speech at the House of Commons, the Star Wars actor and Golden Globe nominee warned that young people were being seduced by online propaganda because they saw no positive portrayals in television or film.
“When we fail to represent, people switch off. They switch off their telly, they switch off at the ballot box. They retreat to fringe narratives, which are sometimes very dangerous,” he said.
“In the mind of the Isil recruit, he’s a version of James Bond. Everyone thinks they’re the good guy. Have you seen some of the Isil propaganda videos? They’re cut like action movies. Where’s the counter-narrative?
“Where are we telling these kids that they can be heroes in our stories?” He added that black and Asian people felt alienated because so much of Britain’s “national story” is white – from the way history is taught in schools to the glut of all-white period dramas on television.
Delivering the Channel 4 Diversity Lecture to an audience that included Matt Hancock, the culture minister, he said: “What people are looking for is a message that they belong. That they are part of something, that they are seen and heard and valued. They want to feel represented.
“If we don’t step up and tell a representative story, we’re going to start losing people to other stories. We’re going to start losing British teenagers so the next chapter in their lives is written by Isil in Syria.
“We’re going to start losing MPs like Jo Cox, who are murdered in the street because we’ve been sold a story that’s so narrow about who we are and who we’ve been and who we should be.”
Ahmed, 34, was Golden Globe-nominated for his performance in the Sky Atlantic/HBO drama The Night Of, and is currently appearing in the blockbuster Star Wars prequel Rogue One.
But he said he had to move to the US to find lead roles.
“I meet producers and directors here; I think they’re being honest when they say they want to work with me but they say, ‘ We don’t have anything for you, all our stories are set in Cornwall in the 1600s’.”
Ahmed said he had no political ambitions but joked that “as a Muslim socialist creative type, I can’t rule out a leadership bid for UKIP. These are topsy-turvy political times.”