BBC United States of Hate Muslims Under Attack (2016) Movie Script
'In December 2015,
'14 people were murdered in San Bernardino by home-grown Islamists.
'Life for American Muslims would never be the same again,
'as hate and violence was directed at them like never before.'
This religion teaches that women should be raped
for showing their face.
'And when America accepted thousands of Syrian refugees
'politicians joined in.'
Donald J Trump is calling for a total
and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.
'Trump's popularity exposed a country
'polarised by anti-Muslim hysteria.'
There are a lot of incidents that go unreported,
the man that starts beating a young Muslim man,
screaming out, "Trump, Trump, Trump!"
You can't give us any guarantee that your kid might someday
strap on a suicide vest.
You read the same Koran that Isis does!
'I'm going to find out how America has got to a point
'where it's become normal to label a whole community as terrorists.'
If you're 18 years old and your name's Jamal
and you've got the beard and the hat,
kind of goes without saying that you're not allowed.
'And where protesters come armed and ready for war.'
If they think they're going to come to Texas
and pull these jihad attacks like they do in France,
it's not going to happen.
'Are these fears justified? Is America really under attack?'
Do you believe in jihad?
The last year has seen a huge increase
in anti-Islamic hate groups.
Their purpose - to free America of Muslims.
And I'm in Phoenix, Arizona, to meet one of the most controversial.
How's it going?
Hi, I'm Robert. Nice to meet you, man. Follow me.
'Robert is the founder of protest group Bomb Islam
'and is keen to show me how he spends his Fridays.'
Tell us what you're doing here today.
What we're doing right now is we're going to do a little protest,
me and a few of my friends here,
that basically just lets these Muslims know
that they're not going to get comfortable here in my state.
Why specifically have you chosen this mosque?
One, it's the closest one where we can get right to where they enter
so it's easiest to antagonise them here.
Two, the guy that flew the plane into the Pentagon,
this was his mosque.
'Robert's group is a small collection of Army veterans
'determined to uphold American values.'
Do you feel like you need that today?
I think in general there's a chance of terrorist attack
anywhere and everywhere, at any point in time, especially today.
We just know the history of Islam.
Since 632 AD it's been nothing but terror around the world.
We don't want it here. This is America.
See, right here is where you can get all sorts of halal meat.
So if you're into animal torture, this is where you get the meat.
Are you real idiots? You have no clue of what you're living about.
- Oh, yeah?
- Yeah?
- We believe in all the prophets.
- From the first prophet to the last.
- Oh, yeah! Uh-huh?
- You also believe in Sharia law.
- Could you read that?
Yes, this is the most hateful, sexist, racist,
- homophobic book I've ever read.
- When you read the book...
- Can you read it?
- Yeah, absolutely. In fact I'm going to read it...
No, no, no, no, no,
- read from the beginning.
- ..and I'm going to rip it.
'Robert rips out a page of the Koran.
'Under UK law, these extreme protesters could be
'arrested for religious hatred,
'but the First Amendment protects Robert's freedom of speech.'
- You terrorist!
- LAUGHTER
- Why are you doing that?
- Garbage is what this is, this is hate speech.
This is racist, sexist, homophobic,
advocates rape and paedophilia.
Has a Muslim ever done any harm to you?
Not to me personally, no, but they're doing harm to the country.
They want to normalise their religion,
they want people to think that they're peaceful,
that they have a place here in America,
when in reality they do not.
- You Muslim?
- Yes.
So what do you think about Muhammad having sex with a nine-year-old?
Do you think that's paedophilia or do you think it was justified?
Nothing you're saying is going to get me mad...
- Of course not.
- ..because you're ignorant.
Does Sharia law believe in equal rights for women? Yes or no.
- Yes, absolutely.
- Since when?
- OK, have you read it?
How come they got to wear a burka? And they can't show their face.
- That's not equal rights.
- Look... Look...
- Busted!
Careful, you might get acid thrown on your face,
get too close to these guys.
He said that he won't condemn Hamas or the Muslim Brotherhood.
And he won't say the US Constitution.
What are you doing in America?
- Because I love here.
- 'The Big Satan' you consider it.
Why don't you go back to a Muslim country and take Obama with you?
You're a radicalist trying to destroy America.
- Get out.
- No, no, no.
- Yes, you are!
You can't give us any guarantee that your kid might someday
strap on a suicide vest. You read the same Koran that Isis does!
- You guys jealous of Islam.
- You guys suck.
- Jealous of Islam?!
Jealous of Islam, yes.
- Walk away cos you know you're wrong.
- Coward.
- Coward!
- Coward!
Is wrong. This is what cause hate.
I know America - it's a free country.
But you can't do that, you can't come to the mosque here
and cause more hate, that's not right.
'I thought Robert had finished his abuse for one day
'but I was wrong.'
See, we got one right here wearing a trash bag on her head.
You don't even know that woman, you haven't spoken to her,
you don't know anything about her. Why would you want to abuse her?
She's making a statement by wearing that trash bag, saying,
"I'm better than you, I'm a Muslim." You know.
An Islamic supremacist, basically.
They think that we're apes and pigs
and that she is so much better than us that we can't see her hair.
That's ridiculous.
No, it is a ridiculous religion.
'It's difficult for me to understand why Robert feels
'the way he does, but anti-Muslim feeling is racing across America.
'55% of Americans have expressed some kind of negative views
'towards Islam.'
I'm taking a two-hour flight to Dallas, Texas.
Muslims have been living here for over 50 years.
There are now 150,000 in the Dallas/Fort Worth area,
one of the biggest populations in America.
But could this also be the most Islamophobic place in America?
Armed militia groups have been protesting outside the mosques.
The police arrested a 14-year-old Muslim schoolboy
because they thought his science project looked like a bomb.
GUNSHOTS
And a man attacked a Muslim business,
killing one person and injuring others.
But today I'm here at the University of Texas,
where a memorial has been organised
to remember three American Muslim students
who were sought out and gunned down in their own apartment.
This event is called Balloons For Our Three Winners.
Each one of you has a balloon
and on the balloon you have a quote attached to it.
These quotes are from three victims
that were murdered for their religion.
The reason we're having this event is to honour their memory
and show that their legacy still lives on.
Three, two, one...
Go!
Hate crimes targeting Muslims has tripled in the last year.
Fear is affecting Muslims here.
Because...some people, you don't know how far they're going to go,
so some people are being hurt, some people are scared, erm...
I had security cameras installed around my house
because I felt afraid, and I didn't feel like that before.
One time I was driving and the car next to me,
he started imitating, like, some... like, a gun with his fingers,
as if he was shooting me,
and so I got really scared and I took a detour.
I was putting my groceries in the trunk
when an individual approached me from behind.
He was like, "Are you Muslim?" And I was like, "Yeah, I'm Muslim."
And he showed me his gun, and he was like,
"If I could use this right now, I would.
"And I would kill you here right now."
Only 20 minutes away from the university, I'm meeting
one of the most extreme anti-Muslim groups operating in America.
'After months of negotiation, I've finally got access to
'the Bureau of American Islamic Relations, or Bair for short.'
This is the one that takes the AR mags, right?
Haven't got to fire that one yet.
'They think Islam is incompatible with the American Constitution
'and that all Muslims are potential terrorists.
'David Wright III is their leader.'
What are you protecting?
I set up Bair as a resistance against radical Islam
coming to America and killing innocent American people.
We're protecting our state, our country, our families.
- Constitution.
- We're protecting our way of life, the Constitution,
we're protecting all of it, everything.
Everything that you know and understand about America,
that's what we're protecting.
- Men, what are we?
- Free men!
And we're going to remain free.
'Bair have no faith in the government
'and believe President Obama to be a Muslim.
'They claim to run their own homeland security service
'and they want to show me some evidence
'that Bair think the FBI may have missed.'
Y'all are familiar with what's going on up in Oregon right now.
What do you think this place is?
This is one of the areas that we're being told is used as a camp.
It's a suspected terrorist training camp.
Most of the training takes place up here to the right,
in the wood line, where you can't see it.
That is where they do the pistol training.
A lot of the rest of their firearm training is actually done
back in the wood line, with this being their main mosque.
Is it realistic to think there's a training camp here in Texas?
Isis and the Muslim Brotherhood have already admitted that they've
got terrorist training facilities here in the United States.
And what other type of training are they going to do
at a location like this in a rural area?
Why would they need to be in such a rural area
to do any other training except weapons, firearms training
and tactical training, where nobody can see what they're doing?
This is definitely a target of interest
we want to keep our eyes on.
'With the target identified,
'Bair have called an armed training exercise to prepare themselves
'for a war with Muslims that they believe is coming.'
I'm proud to be called Big Daddy Infidel.
- Other guy said Infidel, I said Big Daddy Infidel!
- Yeah, that's it!
If they think they're going to come to Texas
and pull these jihad attacks like they do in France,
things like that, and get away with it, it's not going to happen.
There's a gun behind every blade of grass.
A lot of them are going to see this and they're going to know
that they try their jihad shit in Texas, ain't going to work out!
If you fuck with America, we fuck with you back.
How can we vet them to come into America?
I don't care if they're eight or ten years old,
there's a possibility that they have a problem with us,
and their whole philosophy is "death to America",
so why would they even want to come here
unless they were going to blow something up?
- That's right.
- Or shoot people.
- It's common sense, isn't it?
It's common sense, so...
If you're 18 years old and your name's Jamal
and you've got the beard and the hat,
it kind of goes without saying that you're not allowed.
Yeah, this is like our little training camp,
our little forward operating base.
It's very private and out of the way.
A place we can come to be left alone and...it's quiet.
Until we get started shooting, then it's not so quiet.
Ready to the left?
Ready to the right?
- Send them down!
- Get them out!
- Whoa, yeah!
- Whoohoo!
LAUGHTER
Too bad I can't shake the man's hand that did that for real.
'Seeing the size of some of the weaponry makes me wonder
'what sort of an attack they're expecting.'
- What's this?
- It's a .50-cal BMG.
These are the rounds for it.
LAUGHTER
So what would that do to a person?
You probably wouldn't have much of a head left.
Which actually you wouldn't, I've seen plenty of videos of that.
What are you preparing for?
I think that more or less it's good to be prepared for what's to come,
especially with all these Syrian refugees coming over here.
They just arrested a fella in Houston
that was planning to go blow up a mall over here,
and stuff like that,
so they're not as all peaceful as everybody makes them out to be.
Christians aren't going to take shit from people.
Especially from Muslims.
Europe is what we're trying to avoid here.
The Muslim refugees rioting and things like that,
raping women, and the police not really prosecuting them.
It's absolutely insane.
If that comes here,
we're not going to worry about the police taking care of us.
We're going to take care of ourselves.
'Whilst today was just a training exercise,
'in two weeks' time
'these guys are planning a protest at a local mosque
'with guns and live ammunition.'
'And I can't help worry that this mix of anti-Muslim feeling
'and a passion for firearms could be a lethal combination.
'Especially when you consider the strength of feeling
'second-in-command John has.'
What do you really think about Islam?
I can actually tolerate cannibalism from South America over, er, Islam.
Because I don't see cannibals trying to run out of their territory
and take over the entire world,
where Islam has made it absolutely clear that is their mission.
Islam needs to be banned in the United States.
You know, you want Sharia law, you want your set of rules,
go back to your country, where you came from.
I have come downtown, to meet American-born Omar Suleiman,
one of the most prominent imams in the United States.
He sees Islamophobia everywhere.
SHOUT FROM PASSING CAR
There you go, you got something. I just threw him up a peace sign,
- that's all.
- What did he say to you?
- I don't know.
I'm so used to getting yelled at that sometimes,
I can't even make out what they are saying anymore, so...
I don't know if it's, "Hi, how's it going?"
or it's, "Go back home," or, "Go to hell."
It's always something different,
so you just throw up a peace sign every time.
There are a lot of incidents that go unreported, that we hear about,
that go unreported. So, when someone stalks a Muslim woman
in a parking lot and threatens them with violence,
that doesn't go reported, but it is there
and it is becoming a daily reality for people.
And then you have got the man that jumps off his motorcycle
and starts beating a young Muslim man,
screaming out, "Trump, Trump, Trump!"
CAR HORN BLARES
Where has this come from? How have we got here?
With a very systematic dehumanisation
of 1.8 billion people. That's how we got here.
Through media, through the movies, through our reckless politicians.
Sadly, it is where we're at.
Omar is worried that this is only the beginning
and America could be heading back
to a much darker place in its history.
The reason why I brought you here is that,
just a little over 100 years ago,
a man by the name of Allen Brooks was dragged out
of the second floor of the old courthouse by an angry lynch mob
and they dragged him on the street and they lynched him here,
at this intersection. The fact that this happened in America
only over 100 years ago,
what it shows us is that we have been here before,
that we have had this... we have had this ugly past
that we have to come to terms with.
If we are going to truly say "never again"
then we should not allow ourselves
to fall for the same traps that allowed us to dehumanise people
to the point that they could be lynched
in front of men, women and children
without anyone seeing any problem with that,
any moral conflict with that.
When you dehumanise a people enough, that is what you can do to them.
But it is not history David is concerned with.
It is the future of the America he grew up in.
He is worried that more of his beloved Texas
will be taken over by Muslims.
We're going to go and scout out the area around the mosque.
Drive through the neighbourhoods around there
and tell you guys how they have changed all the street names.
They have Islamic street names now.
When I was a kid, running around that area with my friends,
all the street names were American-sounding street names.
To drive over there now and see these changes...
..it's kind of disturbing.
It makes us feel like they're not trying to assimilate...
..and be American. They are trying to bring the Middle East to America.
I can see David become uncomfortable
as we enter the Muslim neighbourhood.
This one, Al Razi...
HE READ ANOTHER STREET NAME
You want to grab something to eat here at the Kasbah Cafe(?)
Yeah, that's Muslim.
Now, have you seen anyone other than Muslims
in this neighbourhood since we have been here?
Nothing but. Nothing but Muslims in the whole neighbourhood.
And look at all the money that's in here.
I mean, these are some rich Muslims
and they're taking over.
They've got the money to do it.
They've got the money to do it.
See, that is just creepy right there. Did you see that?
That is just creepy.
I mean, it feels Satanic to me when I see these people.
They are dressed in black
and it's all covering their face and their eyes are dark looking.
It's...very Satanic, to me.
David's feelings about Muslims seems to be a weird mix of hate and envy.
But I am keen to speak to some of the younger members up there
and find out why they feel the way they do.
KNOCKING
- Hey, guys, how are you?
- Fine. You OK?
- Yeah, I'm good.
- You guys?
- Yeah.
- Come on in.
'Franklin is 23 and one of the newest members of the group.
'He is also a reformed burglar.'
Tell me where your views about Muslims came from.
Well, my first experience with the Muslim was actually in prison.
That experience was...this man tried to convert me immediately.
Of course, me not knowing anything about it, I was like,
"Well, you guys don't believe in Jesus. That is my saviour."
He started, "No, we do believe in Jesus."
I brushed that off. "I'm not going to convert to Islam."
And then I started picking up the Koran and picking up the Hadith,
which is the words of the Prophet,
to see that it's not just the select few,
that they're taught from a very young age -
indoctrinated, I would say - with these beliefs.
They are instilled with an unwavering hate of Jews,
of all things not Islam.
What percentage of Syrian refugees coming in here
do you think are terrorists or will be terrorists?
Um...
All of them.
- Really?
- They are all reading the same Koran,
they are all reading the same Hadith, so Islam is Islam.
I mean, it will be a cool day in hell
if you can convince me that what I'm seeing is not real.
Franklin's anger at America letting in so many Muslims
has led him to make a big decision.
What have you done about how you feel about the situation?
Well, I mean, with the current state of America,
it has me on edge.
It drove me...to take a stand,
to make a choice in my life that will benefit me and my family
and, hopefully, all of America.
And that decision for me
was to run for office at a national level,
- at a Congressional level.
- This is your website, yeah?
Yeah. What I'm aiming to do is use my salary as a Congressman
and fund other like-minded individuals who will take action,
who will not sit idly by and watch their nation be destroyed.
One of the pages, I noticed, you accept donations or something.
You have asked for money.
Well, if we click on that, what that does is
that takes you to a GoFundMe account for me and, of course,
- I have nothing!
- Where does it say nothing?
- Zero!
FRANKLIN LAUGHS
My goal is to get whatever I can get!
How realistic do you think it is
that you will actually run for office in 2020?
Oh...it's happening.
It's...it's... I will figure out a way.
If I can't get any donations and nobody wants to contribute
and I have to go out and do it alone, I will go out and do it alone
and I will find a way to run in 2020
and I will find a way to win in 2020.
I mean, it's a sure thing. Whoever I run against,
I don't care what committee position they hold
or how long they have been in Congress...I will win.
Franklin has an unwavering belief in himself
and his liberty as an American.
What I want to know is
when does one person's freedom become another person's blasphemy?
Hello! Come on in.
I am meeting Dorrie, an author of books on Islamic extremists,
and someone who sees no problem with upsetting Muslims.
This is, basically, my little corner of the world
where I do all my research and all my study
with many, many, many books.
This is the latest one that came out that I'm working on.
I was asked to speak, two years ago it would have been,
when Isis began to rise.
And one of the things I figured that I absolutely had to have
was this information on these maps,
to see where everything was actually happening.
I do this because it is extremely critical
that people understand what Islam is doing to the world.
Dorrie's belief in free speech
led to her involvement in a controversial art exhibition.
You cannot draw pictures of Muhammad, because it's slander,
and that is something they don't like.
And it's a killing offence.
It is, literally, capital punishment, in Sharia law.
So we all said, "Let's just stand up and show these people
"that you can't do that in the United States.
"We MUST protect our freedom of speech.
"Let's just draw Muhammad, you know? Let's just have some big contest."
The art contest was everybody who wanted to draw something
having to do with Muhammad.
Tom Trento, live from
the Muhammad Art Exhibition -
the first, inaugural presentation of this type.
I was very excited to go to it. It was something that I knew
was going to make a direct effect
on freedom of speech in the United States
and I was happy to do it.
There was a great deal of security before we could get in.
We all went in, we were all checked out.
It was..it was quite secure.
But hosting such a controversial event
was always going to be a security risk.
Get back in the building!
- Shots fired.
- Shots just got fired.
- We don't know that for a fact.
The rumour started from somewhere
that there has been gunshots fired. There is two people shooting at us.
It was surreal. We were inside.
We did not know what was going on outside.
We have a little situation developing, live, right now.
The security people are running like crazy outside.
Somebody said, "We have no idea if shots have been fired."
They were Americans in Islamic clothing,
who were headed for us, to kill us, because they didn't want us to talk.
- Two suspects have been shot.
- Wow.
- Possibly have explosives on them.
- That is what we are worried about right now.
- Were the suspects Muslim?
I have no idea right now.
The two attackers were American Muslims inspired by Isis.
Then, we heard that the two shooters were dead.
And, from that point on, it was pretty much of a party.
This is the winning cartoon. And it's very direct.
They tell us, "You can't draw Muhammad."
And the cartoonist, being very independent,
says, "Well, you can't tell me I can't,
"so that is why I am going to draw you."
- And that is the American spirit.
- Do you realise how offensive
an art competition like that would be to Muslims?
I think it is really just too bad if you're offended.
They offend me all the time.
They tried to kill me.
- Do you think
- that's
- not offensive?
David is a firm believer in his freedoms as an American.
And he is not letting the risk of further acts of terrorism
stop him from protesting.
When these people were having the draw the Prophet Muhammad event,
which, in America, we don't only believe in the Second Amendment -
to carry a gun - we believe in the First Amendment,
which is freedom of speech and expression.
If you want to draw pictures of somebody,
then you should be able to do that.
And someone wants to kill them over that?
It's pretty ridiculous.
So...we're protesting in front of mosques.
It's similar to what they were doing there.
And we know that the terrorists will come and try and attack us,
if they get the idea in their heads,
so why would we not be prepared for that?
And when you're dealing with radical extremists
who set people on fire in cages, cut off heads -
when you're protesting against people like that,
- you almost
- have
- to use your Second Amendment to protect your First.
ISLAMIC CALL TO PRAYER
Today, Irving Mosque is hosting a welcome day
for some of the newly-arrived refugees
who have escaped war in the Middle East.
These are the lucky ones. Since 2012,
only 2,000 have been allowed into America.
They have been through a two-year security vetting process...
..but Bair are still convinced they are terrorists
and have organised a protest at the mosque.
They have come armed and prepared in case the refugees attack them.
What have you got here?
It's an AK, an AK, an AK and a 308.
- And some body armour.
- Just a standard shotgun
with combat shells.
High impact with three steel balls.
Take off a door or knock down a man.
Why do you need guns here?
We've had five protests and we were armed at all of them.
And nobody got hurt, OK?
Terrorists attack unarmed crowds. They do not attack armed crowds.
It's a deterrent. Why do you think they have not attacked us?
HORN TOOTING
We have already had one detractor and one supporter.
The detractor said, "Leave them people alone,
"you fucking country boy."
HORN TOOTING
I am shocked by the support of the passers-by.
Right on, brother!
We've got four approvals and one disapproval, so far.
The silent majority of America is making their voices heard.
MAN SHOUTS
HORN HONKS
Thumbs up. Another thumbs up.
16-2.
THEY CHEER
Only a lone voice stands up for the Muslims.
Who's this lady?
They got a sign.
"Refugees welcome". Uh-oh.
I'm afraid you're going to have to go someplace else.
It's a free country and it's a free sidewalk.
I'm not going to sit here and have another debate
for somebody that's ignorant and doesn't do their research.
You're a white woman, right?
Well, guess what, you'll be their sex slave,
if they decide to keep you around.
You want that shit here?
Look at every country that has accepted these so-called refugees.
Get out of here, sit down.
Why have you decided to come out here today?
I am willing to drag my disabled ass out of bed on a Saturday,
because I heard that armed people might be protesting
the American Islamic Center -
which I consider, basically, to be terrorism.
People like that. She's never picked up a Koran.
Yet she's out here supporting them.
They just want peace.
They've probably done a little bit of LSD in their college days,
and they just - peace, love and happiness.
There are real evils in this world.
..passport and I'll buy your tickets online...
I wonder if I'm seeing the real characters in Bair,
where a group of armed men are happy to bully a lone woman.
You're not a soldier, you've never fought.
- See that? I fought.
- Uh-huh.
I have the right to say what I've got to say. You do not.
HE CHUCKLES
CALL TO PRAYER
Inside the mosque,
the refugees refuse to be intimidated by Bair's protest.
They're just glad to be safe,
having escaped their war-torn homeland.
I was willing to go and talk to them,
because I'm looking to... I'm very open to talk to them,
to listen to the other view, to share my view,
I was afraid maybe someone is going to be a little bit offensive
or something like that.
Despite the hostile reception given to the refugees...
..Omar is preaching a message of understanding in a nearby mosque.
When we see people that are yelling and screaming,
when we see people that hate our guts,
whether they're holding up signs and telling you to go back home
or whether they're just people that are giving you, you know,
nasty stares in public, whatever it may be,
it allows us to not hate them,
it allows us to actually want good for them,
it allows us to be able to go to them
and to try to win over their hearts.
They're not in a position where their minds can absorb anything.
They've been too blocked by the hate.
He may teach tolerance, but I want to know
if he thinks he can prevent extremism in his own community.
I make very well clear
that there are no young people in my community that hold those views.
I talk to them on a daily, on a nightly, basis,
outside of the mosque. If you see me here outside the mosque,
every single day, you will see me talking to people.
I make sure that if those views start to creep into our community,
we crush them right away.
So, I don't know what more I could except that -
and, of course, I counter,
use the online platform that God has blessed me with,
to counter that message - and I've been threatened for it,
and I have, you know, I...
I've been called multiple names for it, many names for it,
and I don't care. I'm going to keep doing it.
Not because of Bair, but because of God
and because of who I believe I should be, as a Muslim.
So, I have no problem assuming that responsibility,
I don't need anyone with a gun standing in front of my mosque
to tell me I need to do that. I'm already doing it.
I've been doing it before this group even existed.
- REPORTER:
- Just another day in the United States of America.
Another day of gunfire, panic and fear.
But the fact is, American Muslims have carried out attacks.
Like the one in San Bernardino,
when 14 people were murdered.
Omar believes that the people who commit these crimes
don't go to mosques or talk to imams like him.
He believes they're commonly radicalised online.
It's here on faceless forums and networks
that extremist views are aired.
It's on one such website I made contact with a Muslim
who is prepared to talk.
He's concerned for his safety,
so we have to meet on his terms and without knowing his real name...
..but we're only 15 minutes from Omar's mosque.
KNOCK AT DOOR
DOOR OPENS
Good. Can we sit down?
- Yes.
- OK.
So, do you want to tell us about how you feel?
Are you angry at America?
America's killed your friends.
Do you believe in jihad?
Is jihad the way forward?
Sharia law throughout America?
And that's what you believe?
How would the American Constitution fit into that?
It wouldn't fit in, would it?
This man lives lawfully in America, and denounces violence,
yet his vision for the future
is at odds with the Texans I've met so far.
THUNDER RUMBLES
The next time I see David, he has his sights on a different target.
Bair are going after the Nation of Islam,
an African-American movement
that believes in both the Koran and the Bible
and are controversial for their links with black supremacy.
If you're after radical Islamists,
why are you going to the Nation of Islam?
Well, because the Nation of Islam is full of radical people
who are Islamic.
They... They have some different methods,
and the Nation of Islam is mostly African-American members.
They have some different ideology
compared to the Arab Muslims in North Dallas,
but when you get down to it,
it's all the same violent death cult, you know?
"If you're not one of us, you die."
So, that's why we're protesting Nation of Islam.
John is researching its current leader.
Louis Farrakhan has called, on multiple occasions,
for a 10,000-man Muslim army to start a race war.
'The Koran teaches persecution is WORSE than slaughter.
'Then it says, we MUST rise up...'
- 'Yeah!'
- '..and kill those who kill us.
'Stop them and kill them
'and let them feel the pain of death that we are feeling.'
And he's preaching straight out of the Koran.
And that's supposed to be the same book
that Richardson Mosque says promotes peace.
They are promoting violence.
But on the eve of the protest,
an online war of words breaks out between the two groups.
John is worried that someone is going to get hurt...
..so, he arranges a meeting with the police.
I'm told it's off-limits,
making me wonder what's really going on.
We're ready to roll.
It's the day of the protest, and all is quiet...
..with only the Nation of Islam members visible,
standing guard outside their mosque.
There's only one person on the premises that could speak
and I'm going to ask him, to go and see
if he would be willing to speak to you.
Hang tight, OK?
Outside the mosque, there's a tension in the air
and it's clear there are others here
who are not followers of the Nation of Islam,
but who are they?
Could you tell us about what's happening today,
- or what's happened so far?
- What's happening here today
is we're having threats of protests from, er...a group.
They're misguided.
I think they need a better education on who they're criticising
and who they're protesting against.
We're not the aggressors,
but we will fight with those that fight with us.
- Thank you very much.
- Thank you.
- All right.
If you turn around,
there's probably a lot of people you can get on camera.
- It'll be much more fun.
- There you go, look.
- There you go, right there.
Out of nowhere, came dozens of heavily-armed counterprotesters,
looking very well prepared for conflict.
If you're unarmed, if you do not have an arm...
Get that camera out of my face, man.
Back off, back off.
Get that camera out of my face, man.
These were not members of the Nation of Islam,
but allied militant black power groups
that feared an invasion of white supremacists.
Why have you come out today?
We're here to monitor and observe the activities of Bair.
That's primarily what our position is.
We heard that they threatened the South Dallas community.
We're here to stand in solidarity with the Nation of Islam
and recognise the brothers and sisters of the
Nation of Islam's God-given right
to practise religious freedom without getting impeded upon.
An hour passed and there was still no sign of Bair.
Eventually, word started to filter out -
they weren't coming.
The white supremacists said they was coming to our neighbourhood,
but they didn't show up.
You know why they didn't show up? Because we were here in solidarity.
They didn't come when they said they was going to come.
A few miles away and I find John back at Bair HQ,
but he doesn't look pleased.
What happened was, we were told by the Dallas Police Department
not to show up to a protest today,
which was the Nation of Islam -
and now it's being put out all over the website
that the counterprotesters are showing up
and still protesting, where we were told to stand down
and we're being called the ones that were the no-show.
I'm pissed.
I hate to take you on that ride,
but you're about to see a side of me you don't want to see.
- Why?
- Because I'm ready to go down there now, hunt them down
and beat the shit out of them.
They want to fight? I'll... I'm your huckleberry.
All right, we're getting ready to move out.
But John's too late.
We appreciate everybody that came out to support the mosque.
Hey, man, hey, man. Get that camera out of my face, man.
And with Bair not coming,
there's an air of triumph for the Nation of Islam supporters.
All right, come on, let's go, let's go.
Come on, come on.
The protest just finished up,
so we can't rally up and go down there, now.
We got caught with our pants down and we got screwed.
Right now, we need to actually do damage control right now,
because we were set up by DPD,
and get that fixed.
I'm sorry. I'm extremely pissed,
to say the least.
In the days that follow, David and John fall out.
John, it seems, was the only Bair member at the police meeting
and David thinks he may have bottled it,
worried about the aggression of the militant counterprotest.
Are you going to kick John out of Bair?
I have no idea.
We haven't gotten far enough in this process
for me to know that, one way or the other, yet.
- Yeah.
- That's as honest as I can be.
I can't say, one way or another, right now, for sure.
But you've got something to replace him?
Well, I mean, yeah,
it's not the end-all, be-all of the whole movement.
If me and John decide to go separate ways, yeah, there is
other people out there, of course.
Does that mean that I'm going to need them? I don't know.
When me and him sit down and talk, if I say, "Hey,
"I would like to do things this way next time, instead of the way
"we did it this time," and he goes, "No, I want to do it the same way,"
then I'm going to have to say,
"Well, no, I don't want to do it the same way.
And that's, kind of, how it's going to go.
He has talents and he has a lot of things that he brings
to the table, you know. But... If it doesn't get worked out,
in a reasonable amount of time... I mean, if it's creating dysfunction,
we would have to get rid of John.
With Bair in turmoil,
could there be an opportunity to draw the two communities together?
Omar wants a meeting with them.
There is no doubt in my mind, the more Americans that encounter
Muslims at a human level, the more this bigotry is going to disappear,
because statistic after statistic has shown
that Americans that have actually sat with Muslims
and known them on a human level are very unlikely to hold
these types of views about Muslims and things of that sort.
So, it's a united fight. We have to come together to
fight against all forms of violence, and we have to form alliances,
like-minded people that want to see a world of peace.
He has invited Franklin, who wants
to run for Congress on an anti-Muslim ticket,
to a roadside barbecue with Syrian refugees.
Is this the first time you've actually spoken
- to a Muslim in depth?
- It will be, yes.
You have very strong views about them, don't you?
- I do, I do, yes.
- Briefly, what are your feelings about Muslims?
That they are involved in an orchestrated plot
to infiltrate America, overthrow its government
and implement a global caliphate and global sharia.
- A total Islamic nation.
- Are you going to tell him that?
- Absolutely.
What do you think of them, when you see them?
- What do you think, when you look out there?
- Distrust. I think they are...
I think this is fake, this is just a front.
"Oh, look at us, we're peace-loving Muslims.
"Hey, come on over, let's talk."
I'm ready, if we are.
Nice to meet you.
My name is Franklin. Omar, it's nice to meet you.
Are you willing to acknowledge that there is a problem
in the Muslim world, groups like Isis and Isil,
Al-Qaeda, Boko Haram - there's hundreds of them.
But one thing that's in common with every single one of them
is that they are Islamic, in some way, shape or form.
It is an underlying evil to the Islamic faith.
Characteristic of what I would attribute
to people who worship Satan.
Do I believe that there are radical groups that are using the religion
and that are doing terrible things in the name of him?
Yes. But the greatest victims of these groups are Muslim.
You might be surprised to hear this,
but I am actually on Isis's hit list.
All right? I have actually been targeted by them,
and at the same time, I'm being told by other people
that you're not doing enough to fight Islamic radicalism.
I'm like, "Look, I'm actually putting my life on the line."
And when I take my daughter to a mosque, my six-year-old daughter,
and she sees people holding guns and she comes home and she says,
"Why do they want to kill us? Why do they hate us?"
I mean, to me, that is extremism.
If you knew that the environment that you helped create
led someone to actually pull a trigger one of those Muslim kids,
an innocent Muslim, would you be able to sleep at night
knowing that you could have fuelled that? That that environment
you created could have could have led to that Islamophobia
which has claimed the lives of innocent people?
Omar is keen for Franklin to meet some of the refugees
he has been protesting against.
Can you tell Omar what you told me
about what you think of the Syrian refugees?
I have a fear that...all of them coming over are terrorists,
I guess, or in one way or another, support it.
I mean, I think there is an issue
and I think it is very plausible for Isis sending over nothing but...
So, do you not see that these people are just victims,
families that are fleeing war, they are fleeing conflict, they are
the greatest victims of these things that we're seeing on TV.
To us, it's all happening over there.
To them, this was their daily reality.
- She's adorable.
- HE CHUCKLES
This little girl, she was in her living room
when a bomb fell on top of her and she had her leg taken away from her.
These are right in front of your eyes.
She's just a little girl.
I mean, when I was five, I wasn't worried about a bomb
or mortar going to hit my home.
I mean, it, kind of, puts into perspective
the reality of these types of situations - wars, civil wars -
and people trying to get away from them.
I'm willing to walk away reconsidering that
it's not all Islam.
When I see something like that little girl, it's hard to say no...
I wouldn't... I can say I don't want refugees,
but if that little girl was looking at me saying,
"Please let me into America, I want to escape this war,"
I would be unable to tell her no.
I mean, you'd have to be heartless to see that
and see that type of situation and know that story,
and to still say, "No, you shouldn't be here, I don't want you here."
After being here for nearly a month,
this is the most positive experience I've had.
It's a memory I'm happy to depart with.
But then, everything changes.
Terrorist...
'Breaking news on today's terror attacks in Brussels.
'The first explosion happened at a check-in area
'used by international carriers, including American Airlines.
'Seconds after the gunfire, the first explosion...'
This is what they call for. This is exactly what they call for.
You know, anybody that wants to stick their head in the sand
and say, "Oh, this ain't going to happen here,"
that's what Belgium thought.
You can't ignore the threats.
You've got to protect your citizens first.
And this is the whole reason why we do what we do.
And you wonder why there's so many people that have
jumped on the Trump wagon, to try to get the borders closed.
How many more people have to die,
how many more people have to get injured, before people wake up
and see what their rhetoric and their context is all about?
This is exactly what they've been preaching.
And you want that stuff here in America?
We can't leave this crap to our kids.
SIRENS BLARE
The attack forces David and John to settle their differences.
Bair is reborn.
It's like all organisations. You're going
to have some disagreements within the group.
The thing of it is that me
and David have been able to sit down and talk things out, hash it out...
You know, we'll have our tiffs, yeah, but we're not going anywhere.
And just seeing what happened in Brussels is just confirmation
that we need to be a little bit louder than ever before,
to try and get things going, while we still can.
For Bair, horrifying incidents like this
justify their very existence.
Every time there is an attack, it does help us refocus
and it will help us
forget the little disagreements that we have and get over
those little disagreements and move on from the main goal -
protecting what's ours.
They want to pay their respects to the 32 who died in the attack
and have swapped their guns for a cross.
How many more crosses will have to be put in the ground? How many?
CAR HORN BEEPS
But Omar isn't prepared for his community to accept responsibility
for any terrorist attack.
He has his own thoughts on where blame lies.
I would say a group like Bair would have more to do with
a violent incident taking place in the world than I do,
because I'm actually trying to stop that cycle.
They're feeding that cycle, feeding that carnage,
feeding that nonsense. They're feeding that clash
of civilisations. They're giving Isis the world that they want.
Isis wants this world to be Islam versus the West.
They're giving them that world.
They're letting them know that...
It's just like a video game.
Isis is player one and they just needed someone to press
and be player two.
Islamophobes are creating more Islamic terrorism.
CAR HORNS BEEP
'14 people were murdered in San Bernardino by home-grown Islamists.
'Life for American Muslims would never be the same again,
'as hate and violence was directed at them like never before.'
This religion teaches that women should be raped
for showing their face.
'And when America accepted thousands of Syrian refugees
'politicians joined in.'
Donald J Trump is calling for a total
and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.
'Trump's popularity exposed a country
'polarised by anti-Muslim hysteria.'
There are a lot of incidents that go unreported,
the man that starts beating a young Muslim man,
screaming out, "Trump, Trump, Trump!"
You can't give us any guarantee that your kid might someday
strap on a suicide vest.
You read the same Koran that Isis does!
'I'm going to find out how America has got to a point
'where it's become normal to label a whole community as terrorists.'
If you're 18 years old and your name's Jamal
and you've got the beard and the hat,
kind of goes without saying that you're not allowed.
'And where protesters come armed and ready for war.'
If they think they're going to come to Texas
and pull these jihad attacks like they do in France,
it's not going to happen.
'Are these fears justified? Is America really under attack?'
Do you believe in jihad?
The last year has seen a huge increase
in anti-Islamic hate groups.
Their purpose - to free America of Muslims.
And I'm in Phoenix, Arizona, to meet one of the most controversial.
How's it going?
Hi, I'm Robert. Nice to meet you, man. Follow me.
'Robert is the founder of protest group Bomb Islam
'and is keen to show me how he spends his Fridays.'
Tell us what you're doing here today.
What we're doing right now is we're going to do a little protest,
me and a few of my friends here,
that basically just lets these Muslims know
that they're not going to get comfortable here in my state.
Why specifically have you chosen this mosque?
One, it's the closest one where we can get right to where they enter
so it's easiest to antagonise them here.
Two, the guy that flew the plane into the Pentagon,
this was his mosque.
'Robert's group is a small collection of Army veterans
'determined to uphold American values.'
Do you feel like you need that today?
I think in general there's a chance of terrorist attack
anywhere and everywhere, at any point in time, especially today.
We just know the history of Islam.
Since 632 AD it's been nothing but terror around the world.
We don't want it here. This is America.
See, right here is where you can get all sorts of halal meat.
So if you're into animal torture, this is where you get the meat.
Are you real idiots? You have no clue of what you're living about.
- Oh, yeah?
- Yeah?
- We believe in all the prophets.
- From the first prophet to the last.
- Oh, yeah! Uh-huh?
- You also believe in Sharia law.
- Could you read that?
Yes, this is the most hateful, sexist, racist,
- homophobic book I've ever read.
- When you read the book...
- Can you read it?
- Yeah, absolutely. In fact I'm going to read it...
No, no, no, no, no,
- read from the beginning.
- ..and I'm going to rip it.
'Robert rips out a page of the Koran.
'Under UK law, these extreme protesters could be
'arrested for religious hatred,
'but the First Amendment protects Robert's freedom of speech.'
- You terrorist!
- LAUGHTER
- Why are you doing that?
- Garbage is what this is, this is hate speech.
This is racist, sexist, homophobic,
advocates rape and paedophilia.
Has a Muslim ever done any harm to you?
Not to me personally, no, but they're doing harm to the country.
They want to normalise their religion,
they want people to think that they're peaceful,
that they have a place here in America,
when in reality they do not.
- You Muslim?
- Yes.
So what do you think about Muhammad having sex with a nine-year-old?
Do you think that's paedophilia or do you think it was justified?
Nothing you're saying is going to get me mad...
- Of course not.
- ..because you're ignorant.
Does Sharia law believe in equal rights for women? Yes or no.
- Yes, absolutely.
- Since when?
- OK, have you read it?
How come they got to wear a burka? And they can't show their face.
- That's not equal rights.
- Look... Look...
- Busted!
Careful, you might get acid thrown on your face,
get too close to these guys.
He said that he won't condemn Hamas or the Muslim Brotherhood.
And he won't say the US Constitution.
What are you doing in America?
- Because I love here.
- 'The Big Satan' you consider it.
Why don't you go back to a Muslim country and take Obama with you?
You're a radicalist trying to destroy America.
- Get out.
- No, no, no.
- Yes, you are!
You can't give us any guarantee that your kid might someday
strap on a suicide vest. You read the same Koran that Isis does!
- You guys jealous of Islam.
- You guys suck.
- Jealous of Islam?!
Jealous of Islam, yes.
- Walk away cos you know you're wrong.
- Coward.
- Coward!
- Coward!
Is wrong. This is what cause hate.
I know America - it's a free country.
But you can't do that, you can't come to the mosque here
and cause more hate, that's not right.
'I thought Robert had finished his abuse for one day
'but I was wrong.'
See, we got one right here wearing a trash bag on her head.
You don't even know that woman, you haven't spoken to her,
you don't know anything about her. Why would you want to abuse her?
She's making a statement by wearing that trash bag, saying,
"I'm better than you, I'm a Muslim." You know.
An Islamic supremacist, basically.
They think that we're apes and pigs
and that she is so much better than us that we can't see her hair.
That's ridiculous.
No, it is a ridiculous religion.
'It's difficult for me to understand why Robert feels
'the way he does, but anti-Muslim feeling is racing across America.
'55% of Americans have expressed some kind of negative views
'towards Islam.'
I'm taking a two-hour flight to Dallas, Texas.
Muslims have been living here for over 50 years.
There are now 150,000 in the Dallas/Fort Worth area,
one of the biggest populations in America.
But could this also be the most Islamophobic place in America?
Armed militia groups have been protesting outside the mosques.
The police arrested a 14-year-old Muslim schoolboy
because they thought his science project looked like a bomb.
GUNSHOTS
And a man attacked a Muslim business,
killing one person and injuring others.
But today I'm here at the University of Texas,
where a memorial has been organised
to remember three American Muslim students
who were sought out and gunned down in their own apartment.
This event is called Balloons For Our Three Winners.
Each one of you has a balloon
and on the balloon you have a quote attached to it.
These quotes are from three victims
that were murdered for their religion.
The reason we're having this event is to honour their memory
and show that their legacy still lives on.
Three, two, one...
Go!
Hate crimes targeting Muslims has tripled in the last year.
Fear is affecting Muslims here.
Because...some people, you don't know how far they're going to go,
so some people are being hurt, some people are scared, erm...
I had security cameras installed around my house
because I felt afraid, and I didn't feel like that before.
One time I was driving and the car next to me,
he started imitating, like, some... like, a gun with his fingers,
as if he was shooting me,
and so I got really scared and I took a detour.
I was putting my groceries in the trunk
when an individual approached me from behind.
He was like, "Are you Muslim?" And I was like, "Yeah, I'm Muslim."
And he showed me his gun, and he was like,
"If I could use this right now, I would.
"And I would kill you here right now."
Only 20 minutes away from the university, I'm meeting
one of the most extreme anti-Muslim groups operating in America.
'After months of negotiation, I've finally got access to
'the Bureau of American Islamic Relations, or Bair for short.'
This is the one that takes the AR mags, right?
Haven't got to fire that one yet.
'They think Islam is incompatible with the American Constitution
'and that all Muslims are potential terrorists.
'David Wright III is their leader.'
What are you protecting?
I set up Bair as a resistance against radical Islam
coming to America and killing innocent American people.
We're protecting our state, our country, our families.
- Constitution.
- We're protecting our way of life, the Constitution,
we're protecting all of it, everything.
Everything that you know and understand about America,
that's what we're protecting.
- Men, what are we?
- Free men!
And we're going to remain free.
'Bair have no faith in the government
'and believe President Obama to be a Muslim.
'They claim to run their own homeland security service
'and they want to show me some evidence
'that Bair think the FBI may have missed.'
Y'all are familiar with what's going on up in Oregon right now.
What do you think this place is?
This is one of the areas that we're being told is used as a camp.
It's a suspected terrorist training camp.
Most of the training takes place up here to the right,
in the wood line, where you can't see it.
That is where they do the pistol training.
A lot of the rest of their firearm training is actually done
back in the wood line, with this being their main mosque.
Is it realistic to think there's a training camp here in Texas?
Isis and the Muslim Brotherhood have already admitted that they've
got terrorist training facilities here in the United States.
And what other type of training are they going to do
at a location like this in a rural area?
Why would they need to be in such a rural area
to do any other training except weapons, firearms training
and tactical training, where nobody can see what they're doing?
This is definitely a target of interest
we want to keep our eyes on.
'With the target identified,
'Bair have called an armed training exercise to prepare themselves
'for a war with Muslims that they believe is coming.'
I'm proud to be called Big Daddy Infidel.
- Other guy said Infidel, I said Big Daddy Infidel!
- Yeah, that's it!
If they think they're going to come to Texas
and pull these jihad attacks like they do in France,
things like that, and get away with it, it's not going to happen.
There's a gun behind every blade of grass.
A lot of them are going to see this and they're going to know
that they try their jihad shit in Texas, ain't going to work out!
If you fuck with America, we fuck with you back.
How can we vet them to come into America?
I don't care if they're eight or ten years old,
there's a possibility that they have a problem with us,
and their whole philosophy is "death to America",
so why would they even want to come here
unless they were going to blow something up?
- That's right.
- Or shoot people.
- It's common sense, isn't it?
It's common sense, so...
If you're 18 years old and your name's Jamal
and you've got the beard and the hat,
it kind of goes without saying that you're not allowed.
Yeah, this is like our little training camp,
our little forward operating base.
It's very private and out of the way.
A place we can come to be left alone and...it's quiet.
Until we get started shooting, then it's not so quiet.
Ready to the left?
Ready to the right?
- Send them down!
- Get them out!
- Whoa, yeah!
- Whoohoo!
LAUGHTER
Too bad I can't shake the man's hand that did that for real.
'Seeing the size of some of the weaponry makes me wonder
'what sort of an attack they're expecting.'
- What's this?
- It's a .50-cal BMG.
These are the rounds for it.
LAUGHTER
So what would that do to a person?
You probably wouldn't have much of a head left.
Which actually you wouldn't, I've seen plenty of videos of that.
What are you preparing for?
I think that more or less it's good to be prepared for what's to come,
especially with all these Syrian refugees coming over here.
They just arrested a fella in Houston
that was planning to go blow up a mall over here,
and stuff like that,
so they're not as all peaceful as everybody makes them out to be.
Christians aren't going to take shit from people.
Especially from Muslims.
Europe is what we're trying to avoid here.
The Muslim refugees rioting and things like that,
raping women, and the police not really prosecuting them.
It's absolutely insane.
If that comes here,
we're not going to worry about the police taking care of us.
We're going to take care of ourselves.
'Whilst today was just a training exercise,
'in two weeks' time
'these guys are planning a protest at a local mosque
'with guns and live ammunition.'
'And I can't help worry that this mix of anti-Muslim feeling
'and a passion for firearms could be a lethal combination.
'Especially when you consider the strength of feeling
'second-in-command John has.'
What do you really think about Islam?
I can actually tolerate cannibalism from South America over, er, Islam.
Because I don't see cannibals trying to run out of their territory
and take over the entire world,
where Islam has made it absolutely clear that is their mission.
Islam needs to be banned in the United States.
You know, you want Sharia law, you want your set of rules,
go back to your country, where you came from.
I have come downtown, to meet American-born Omar Suleiman,
one of the most prominent imams in the United States.
He sees Islamophobia everywhere.
SHOUT FROM PASSING CAR
There you go, you got something. I just threw him up a peace sign,
- that's all.
- What did he say to you?
- I don't know.
I'm so used to getting yelled at that sometimes,
I can't even make out what they are saying anymore, so...
I don't know if it's, "Hi, how's it going?"
or it's, "Go back home," or, "Go to hell."
It's always something different,
so you just throw up a peace sign every time.
There are a lot of incidents that go unreported, that we hear about,
that go unreported. So, when someone stalks a Muslim woman
in a parking lot and threatens them with violence,
that doesn't go reported, but it is there
and it is becoming a daily reality for people.
And then you have got the man that jumps off his motorcycle
and starts beating a young Muslim man,
screaming out, "Trump, Trump, Trump!"
CAR HORN BLARES
Where has this come from? How have we got here?
With a very systematic dehumanisation
of 1.8 billion people. That's how we got here.
Through media, through the movies, through our reckless politicians.
Sadly, it is where we're at.
Omar is worried that this is only the beginning
and America could be heading back
to a much darker place in its history.
The reason why I brought you here is that,
just a little over 100 years ago,
a man by the name of Allen Brooks was dragged out
of the second floor of the old courthouse by an angry lynch mob
and they dragged him on the street and they lynched him here,
at this intersection. The fact that this happened in America
only over 100 years ago,
what it shows us is that we have been here before,
that we have had this... we have had this ugly past
that we have to come to terms with.
If we are going to truly say "never again"
then we should not allow ourselves
to fall for the same traps that allowed us to dehumanise people
to the point that they could be lynched
in front of men, women and children
without anyone seeing any problem with that,
any moral conflict with that.
When you dehumanise a people enough, that is what you can do to them.
But it is not history David is concerned with.
It is the future of the America he grew up in.
He is worried that more of his beloved Texas
will be taken over by Muslims.
We're going to go and scout out the area around the mosque.
Drive through the neighbourhoods around there
and tell you guys how they have changed all the street names.
They have Islamic street names now.
When I was a kid, running around that area with my friends,
all the street names were American-sounding street names.
To drive over there now and see these changes...
..it's kind of disturbing.
It makes us feel like they're not trying to assimilate...
..and be American. They are trying to bring the Middle East to America.
I can see David become uncomfortable
as we enter the Muslim neighbourhood.
This one, Al Razi...
HE READ ANOTHER STREET NAME
You want to grab something to eat here at the Kasbah Cafe(?)
Yeah, that's Muslim.
Now, have you seen anyone other than Muslims
in this neighbourhood since we have been here?
Nothing but. Nothing but Muslims in the whole neighbourhood.
And look at all the money that's in here.
I mean, these are some rich Muslims
and they're taking over.
They've got the money to do it.
They've got the money to do it.
See, that is just creepy right there. Did you see that?
That is just creepy.
I mean, it feels Satanic to me when I see these people.
They are dressed in black
and it's all covering their face and their eyes are dark looking.
It's...very Satanic, to me.
David's feelings about Muslims seems to be a weird mix of hate and envy.
But I am keen to speak to some of the younger members up there
and find out why they feel the way they do.
KNOCKING
- Hey, guys, how are you?
- Fine. You OK?
- Yeah, I'm good.
- You guys?
- Yeah.
- Come on in.
'Franklin is 23 and one of the newest members of the group.
'He is also a reformed burglar.'
Tell me where your views about Muslims came from.
Well, my first experience with the Muslim was actually in prison.
That experience was...this man tried to convert me immediately.
Of course, me not knowing anything about it, I was like,
"Well, you guys don't believe in Jesus. That is my saviour."
He started, "No, we do believe in Jesus."
I brushed that off. "I'm not going to convert to Islam."
And then I started picking up the Koran and picking up the Hadith,
which is the words of the Prophet,
to see that it's not just the select few,
that they're taught from a very young age -
indoctrinated, I would say - with these beliefs.
They are instilled with an unwavering hate of Jews,
of all things not Islam.
What percentage of Syrian refugees coming in here
do you think are terrorists or will be terrorists?
Um...
All of them.
- Really?
- They are all reading the same Koran,
they are all reading the same Hadith, so Islam is Islam.
I mean, it will be a cool day in hell
if you can convince me that what I'm seeing is not real.
Franklin's anger at America letting in so many Muslims
has led him to make a big decision.
What have you done about how you feel about the situation?
Well, I mean, with the current state of America,
it has me on edge.
It drove me...to take a stand,
to make a choice in my life that will benefit me and my family
and, hopefully, all of America.
And that decision for me
was to run for office at a national level,
- at a Congressional level.
- This is your website, yeah?
Yeah. What I'm aiming to do is use my salary as a Congressman
and fund other like-minded individuals who will take action,
who will not sit idly by and watch their nation be destroyed.
One of the pages, I noticed, you accept donations or something.
You have asked for money.
Well, if we click on that, what that does is
that takes you to a GoFundMe account for me and, of course,
- I have nothing!
- Where does it say nothing?
- Zero!
FRANKLIN LAUGHS
My goal is to get whatever I can get!
How realistic do you think it is
that you will actually run for office in 2020?
Oh...it's happening.
It's...it's... I will figure out a way.
If I can't get any donations and nobody wants to contribute
and I have to go out and do it alone, I will go out and do it alone
and I will find a way to run in 2020
and I will find a way to win in 2020.
I mean, it's a sure thing. Whoever I run against,
I don't care what committee position they hold
or how long they have been in Congress...I will win.
Franklin has an unwavering belief in himself
and his liberty as an American.
What I want to know is
when does one person's freedom become another person's blasphemy?
Hello! Come on in.
I am meeting Dorrie, an author of books on Islamic extremists,
and someone who sees no problem with upsetting Muslims.
This is, basically, my little corner of the world
where I do all my research and all my study
with many, many, many books.
This is the latest one that came out that I'm working on.
I was asked to speak, two years ago it would have been,
when Isis began to rise.
And one of the things I figured that I absolutely had to have
was this information on these maps,
to see where everything was actually happening.
I do this because it is extremely critical
that people understand what Islam is doing to the world.
Dorrie's belief in free speech
led to her involvement in a controversial art exhibition.
You cannot draw pictures of Muhammad, because it's slander,
and that is something they don't like.
And it's a killing offence.
It is, literally, capital punishment, in Sharia law.
So we all said, "Let's just stand up and show these people
"that you can't do that in the United States.
"We MUST protect our freedom of speech.
"Let's just draw Muhammad, you know? Let's just have some big contest."
The art contest was everybody who wanted to draw something
having to do with Muhammad.
Tom Trento, live from
the Muhammad Art Exhibition -
the first, inaugural presentation of this type.
I was very excited to go to it. It was something that I knew
was going to make a direct effect
on freedom of speech in the United States
and I was happy to do it.
There was a great deal of security before we could get in.
We all went in, we were all checked out.
It was..it was quite secure.
But hosting such a controversial event
was always going to be a security risk.
Get back in the building!
- Shots fired.
- Shots just got fired.
- We don't know that for a fact.
The rumour started from somewhere
that there has been gunshots fired. There is two people shooting at us.
It was surreal. We were inside.
We did not know what was going on outside.
We have a little situation developing, live, right now.
The security people are running like crazy outside.
Somebody said, "We have no idea if shots have been fired."
They were Americans in Islamic clothing,
who were headed for us, to kill us, because they didn't want us to talk.
- Two suspects have been shot.
- Wow.
- Possibly have explosives on them.
- That is what we are worried about right now.
- Were the suspects Muslim?
I have no idea right now.
The two attackers were American Muslims inspired by Isis.
Then, we heard that the two shooters were dead.
And, from that point on, it was pretty much of a party.
This is the winning cartoon. And it's very direct.
They tell us, "You can't draw Muhammad."
And the cartoonist, being very independent,
says, "Well, you can't tell me I can't,
"so that is why I am going to draw you."
- And that is the American spirit.
- Do you realise how offensive
an art competition like that would be to Muslims?
I think it is really just too bad if you're offended.
They offend me all the time.
They tried to kill me.
- Do you think
- that's
- not offensive?
David is a firm believer in his freedoms as an American.
And he is not letting the risk of further acts of terrorism
stop him from protesting.
When these people were having the draw the Prophet Muhammad event,
which, in America, we don't only believe in the Second Amendment -
to carry a gun - we believe in the First Amendment,
which is freedom of speech and expression.
If you want to draw pictures of somebody,
then you should be able to do that.
And someone wants to kill them over that?
It's pretty ridiculous.
So...we're protesting in front of mosques.
It's similar to what they were doing there.
And we know that the terrorists will come and try and attack us,
if they get the idea in their heads,
so why would we not be prepared for that?
And when you're dealing with radical extremists
who set people on fire in cages, cut off heads -
when you're protesting against people like that,
- you almost
- have
- to use your Second Amendment to protect your First.
ISLAMIC CALL TO PRAYER
Today, Irving Mosque is hosting a welcome day
for some of the newly-arrived refugees
who have escaped war in the Middle East.
These are the lucky ones. Since 2012,
only 2,000 have been allowed into America.
They have been through a two-year security vetting process...
..but Bair are still convinced they are terrorists
and have organised a protest at the mosque.
They have come armed and prepared in case the refugees attack them.
What have you got here?
It's an AK, an AK, an AK and a 308.
- And some body armour.
- Just a standard shotgun
with combat shells.
High impact with three steel balls.
Take off a door or knock down a man.
Why do you need guns here?
We've had five protests and we were armed at all of them.
And nobody got hurt, OK?
Terrorists attack unarmed crowds. They do not attack armed crowds.
It's a deterrent. Why do you think they have not attacked us?
HORN TOOTING
We have already had one detractor and one supporter.
The detractor said, "Leave them people alone,
"you fucking country boy."
HORN TOOTING
I am shocked by the support of the passers-by.
Right on, brother!
We've got four approvals and one disapproval, so far.
The silent majority of America is making their voices heard.
MAN SHOUTS
HORN HONKS
Thumbs up. Another thumbs up.
16-2.
THEY CHEER
Only a lone voice stands up for the Muslims.
Who's this lady?
They got a sign.
"Refugees welcome". Uh-oh.
I'm afraid you're going to have to go someplace else.
It's a free country and it's a free sidewalk.
I'm not going to sit here and have another debate
for somebody that's ignorant and doesn't do their research.
You're a white woman, right?
Well, guess what, you'll be their sex slave,
if they decide to keep you around.
You want that shit here?
Look at every country that has accepted these so-called refugees.
Get out of here, sit down.
Why have you decided to come out here today?
I am willing to drag my disabled ass out of bed on a Saturday,
because I heard that armed people might be protesting
the American Islamic Center -
which I consider, basically, to be terrorism.
People like that. She's never picked up a Koran.
Yet she's out here supporting them.
They just want peace.
They've probably done a little bit of LSD in their college days,
and they just - peace, love and happiness.
There are real evils in this world.
..passport and I'll buy your tickets online...
I wonder if I'm seeing the real characters in Bair,
where a group of armed men are happy to bully a lone woman.
You're not a soldier, you've never fought.
- See that? I fought.
- Uh-huh.
I have the right to say what I've got to say. You do not.
HE CHUCKLES
CALL TO PRAYER
Inside the mosque,
the refugees refuse to be intimidated by Bair's protest.
They're just glad to be safe,
having escaped their war-torn homeland.
I was willing to go and talk to them,
because I'm looking to... I'm very open to talk to them,
to listen to the other view, to share my view,
I was afraid maybe someone is going to be a little bit offensive
or something like that.
Despite the hostile reception given to the refugees...
..Omar is preaching a message of understanding in a nearby mosque.
When we see people that are yelling and screaming,
when we see people that hate our guts,
whether they're holding up signs and telling you to go back home
or whether they're just people that are giving you, you know,
nasty stares in public, whatever it may be,
it allows us to not hate them,
it allows us to actually want good for them,
it allows us to be able to go to them
and to try to win over their hearts.
They're not in a position where their minds can absorb anything.
They've been too blocked by the hate.
He may teach tolerance, but I want to know
if he thinks he can prevent extremism in his own community.
I make very well clear
that there are no young people in my community that hold those views.
I talk to them on a daily, on a nightly, basis,
outside of the mosque. If you see me here outside the mosque,
every single day, you will see me talking to people.
I make sure that if those views start to creep into our community,
we crush them right away.
So, I don't know what more I could except that -
and, of course, I counter,
use the online platform that God has blessed me with,
to counter that message - and I've been threatened for it,
and I have, you know, I...
I've been called multiple names for it, many names for it,
and I don't care. I'm going to keep doing it.
Not because of Bair, but because of God
and because of who I believe I should be, as a Muslim.
So, I have no problem assuming that responsibility,
I don't need anyone with a gun standing in front of my mosque
to tell me I need to do that. I'm already doing it.
I've been doing it before this group even existed.
- REPORTER:
- Just another day in the United States of America.
Another day of gunfire, panic and fear.
But the fact is, American Muslims have carried out attacks.
Like the one in San Bernardino,
when 14 people were murdered.
Omar believes that the people who commit these crimes
don't go to mosques or talk to imams like him.
He believes they're commonly radicalised online.
It's here on faceless forums and networks
that extremist views are aired.
It's on one such website I made contact with a Muslim
who is prepared to talk.
He's concerned for his safety,
so we have to meet on his terms and without knowing his real name...
..but we're only 15 minutes from Omar's mosque.
KNOCK AT DOOR
DOOR OPENS
Good. Can we sit down?
- Yes.
- OK.
So, do you want to tell us about how you feel?
Are you angry at America?
America's killed your friends.
Do you believe in jihad?
Is jihad the way forward?
Sharia law throughout America?
And that's what you believe?
How would the American Constitution fit into that?
It wouldn't fit in, would it?
This man lives lawfully in America, and denounces violence,
yet his vision for the future
is at odds with the Texans I've met so far.
THUNDER RUMBLES
The next time I see David, he has his sights on a different target.
Bair are going after the Nation of Islam,
an African-American movement
that believes in both the Koran and the Bible
and are controversial for their links with black supremacy.
If you're after radical Islamists,
why are you going to the Nation of Islam?
Well, because the Nation of Islam is full of radical people
who are Islamic.
They... They have some different methods,
and the Nation of Islam is mostly African-American members.
They have some different ideology
compared to the Arab Muslims in North Dallas,
but when you get down to it,
it's all the same violent death cult, you know?
"If you're not one of us, you die."
So, that's why we're protesting Nation of Islam.
John is researching its current leader.
Louis Farrakhan has called, on multiple occasions,
for a 10,000-man Muslim army to start a race war.
'The Koran teaches persecution is WORSE than slaughter.
'Then it says, we MUST rise up...'
- 'Yeah!'
- '..and kill those who kill us.
'Stop them and kill them
'and let them feel the pain of death that we are feeling.'
And he's preaching straight out of the Koran.
And that's supposed to be the same book
that Richardson Mosque says promotes peace.
They are promoting violence.
But on the eve of the protest,
an online war of words breaks out between the two groups.
John is worried that someone is going to get hurt...
..so, he arranges a meeting with the police.
I'm told it's off-limits,
making me wonder what's really going on.
We're ready to roll.
It's the day of the protest, and all is quiet...
..with only the Nation of Islam members visible,
standing guard outside their mosque.
There's only one person on the premises that could speak
and I'm going to ask him, to go and see
if he would be willing to speak to you.
Hang tight, OK?
Outside the mosque, there's a tension in the air
and it's clear there are others here
who are not followers of the Nation of Islam,
but who are they?
Could you tell us about what's happening today,
- or what's happened so far?
- What's happening here today
is we're having threats of protests from, er...a group.
They're misguided.
I think they need a better education on who they're criticising
and who they're protesting against.
We're not the aggressors,
but we will fight with those that fight with us.
- Thank you very much.
- Thank you.
- All right.
If you turn around,
there's probably a lot of people you can get on camera.
- It'll be much more fun.
- There you go, look.
- There you go, right there.
Out of nowhere, came dozens of heavily-armed counterprotesters,
looking very well prepared for conflict.
If you're unarmed, if you do not have an arm...
Get that camera out of my face, man.
Back off, back off.
Get that camera out of my face, man.
These were not members of the Nation of Islam,
but allied militant black power groups
that feared an invasion of white supremacists.
Why have you come out today?
We're here to monitor and observe the activities of Bair.
That's primarily what our position is.
We heard that they threatened the South Dallas community.
We're here to stand in solidarity with the Nation of Islam
and recognise the brothers and sisters of the
Nation of Islam's God-given right
to practise religious freedom without getting impeded upon.
An hour passed and there was still no sign of Bair.
Eventually, word started to filter out -
they weren't coming.
The white supremacists said they was coming to our neighbourhood,
but they didn't show up.
You know why they didn't show up? Because we were here in solidarity.
They didn't come when they said they was going to come.
A few miles away and I find John back at Bair HQ,
but he doesn't look pleased.
What happened was, we were told by the Dallas Police Department
not to show up to a protest today,
which was the Nation of Islam -
and now it's being put out all over the website
that the counterprotesters are showing up
and still protesting, where we were told to stand down
and we're being called the ones that were the no-show.
I'm pissed.
I hate to take you on that ride,
but you're about to see a side of me you don't want to see.
- Why?
- Because I'm ready to go down there now, hunt them down
and beat the shit out of them.
They want to fight? I'll... I'm your huckleberry.
All right, we're getting ready to move out.
But John's too late.
We appreciate everybody that came out to support the mosque.
Hey, man, hey, man. Get that camera out of my face, man.
And with Bair not coming,
there's an air of triumph for the Nation of Islam supporters.
All right, come on, let's go, let's go.
Come on, come on.
The protest just finished up,
so we can't rally up and go down there, now.
We got caught with our pants down and we got screwed.
Right now, we need to actually do damage control right now,
because we were set up by DPD,
and get that fixed.
I'm sorry. I'm extremely pissed,
to say the least.
In the days that follow, David and John fall out.
John, it seems, was the only Bair member at the police meeting
and David thinks he may have bottled it,
worried about the aggression of the militant counterprotest.
Are you going to kick John out of Bair?
I have no idea.
We haven't gotten far enough in this process
for me to know that, one way or the other, yet.
- Yeah.
- That's as honest as I can be.
I can't say, one way or another, right now, for sure.
But you've got something to replace him?
Well, I mean, yeah,
it's not the end-all, be-all of the whole movement.
If me and John decide to go separate ways, yeah, there is
other people out there, of course.
Does that mean that I'm going to need them? I don't know.
When me and him sit down and talk, if I say, "Hey,
"I would like to do things this way next time, instead of the way
"we did it this time," and he goes, "No, I want to do it the same way,"
then I'm going to have to say,
"Well, no, I don't want to do it the same way.
And that's, kind of, how it's going to go.
He has talents and he has a lot of things that he brings
to the table, you know. But... If it doesn't get worked out,
in a reasonable amount of time... I mean, if it's creating dysfunction,
we would have to get rid of John.
With Bair in turmoil,
could there be an opportunity to draw the two communities together?
Omar wants a meeting with them.
There is no doubt in my mind, the more Americans that encounter
Muslims at a human level, the more this bigotry is going to disappear,
because statistic after statistic has shown
that Americans that have actually sat with Muslims
and known them on a human level are very unlikely to hold
these types of views about Muslims and things of that sort.
So, it's a united fight. We have to come together to
fight against all forms of violence, and we have to form alliances,
like-minded people that want to see a world of peace.
He has invited Franklin, who wants
to run for Congress on an anti-Muslim ticket,
to a roadside barbecue with Syrian refugees.
Is this the first time you've actually spoken
- to a Muslim in depth?
- It will be, yes.
You have very strong views about them, don't you?
- I do, I do, yes.
- Briefly, what are your feelings about Muslims?
That they are involved in an orchestrated plot
to infiltrate America, overthrow its government
and implement a global caliphate and global sharia.
- A total Islamic nation.
- Are you going to tell him that?
- Absolutely.
What do you think of them, when you see them?
- What do you think, when you look out there?
- Distrust. I think they are...
I think this is fake, this is just a front.
"Oh, look at us, we're peace-loving Muslims.
"Hey, come on over, let's talk."
I'm ready, if we are.
Nice to meet you.
My name is Franklin. Omar, it's nice to meet you.
Are you willing to acknowledge that there is a problem
in the Muslim world, groups like Isis and Isil,
Al-Qaeda, Boko Haram - there's hundreds of them.
But one thing that's in common with every single one of them
is that they are Islamic, in some way, shape or form.
It is an underlying evil to the Islamic faith.
Characteristic of what I would attribute
to people who worship Satan.
Do I believe that there are radical groups that are using the religion
and that are doing terrible things in the name of him?
Yes. But the greatest victims of these groups are Muslim.
You might be surprised to hear this,
but I am actually on Isis's hit list.
All right? I have actually been targeted by them,
and at the same time, I'm being told by other people
that you're not doing enough to fight Islamic radicalism.
I'm like, "Look, I'm actually putting my life on the line."
And when I take my daughter to a mosque, my six-year-old daughter,
and she sees people holding guns and she comes home and she says,
"Why do they want to kill us? Why do they hate us?"
I mean, to me, that is extremism.
If you knew that the environment that you helped create
led someone to actually pull a trigger one of those Muslim kids,
an innocent Muslim, would you be able to sleep at night
knowing that you could have fuelled that? That that environment
you created could have could have led to that Islamophobia
which has claimed the lives of innocent people?
Omar is keen for Franklin to meet some of the refugees
he has been protesting against.
Can you tell Omar what you told me
about what you think of the Syrian refugees?
I have a fear that...all of them coming over are terrorists,
I guess, or in one way or another, support it.
I mean, I think there is an issue
and I think it is very plausible for Isis sending over nothing but...
So, do you not see that these people are just victims,
families that are fleeing war, they are fleeing conflict, they are
the greatest victims of these things that we're seeing on TV.
To us, it's all happening over there.
To them, this was their daily reality.
- She's adorable.
- HE CHUCKLES
This little girl, she was in her living room
when a bomb fell on top of her and she had her leg taken away from her.
These are right in front of your eyes.
She's just a little girl.
I mean, when I was five, I wasn't worried about a bomb
or mortar going to hit my home.
I mean, it, kind of, puts into perspective
the reality of these types of situations - wars, civil wars -
and people trying to get away from them.
I'm willing to walk away reconsidering that
it's not all Islam.
When I see something like that little girl, it's hard to say no...
I wouldn't... I can say I don't want refugees,
but if that little girl was looking at me saying,
"Please let me into America, I want to escape this war,"
I would be unable to tell her no.
I mean, you'd have to be heartless to see that
and see that type of situation and know that story,
and to still say, "No, you shouldn't be here, I don't want you here."
After being here for nearly a month,
this is the most positive experience I've had.
It's a memory I'm happy to depart with.
But then, everything changes.
Terrorist...
'Breaking news on today's terror attacks in Brussels.
'The first explosion happened at a check-in area
'used by international carriers, including American Airlines.
'Seconds after the gunfire, the first explosion...'
This is what they call for. This is exactly what they call for.
You know, anybody that wants to stick their head in the sand
and say, "Oh, this ain't going to happen here,"
that's what Belgium thought.
You can't ignore the threats.
You've got to protect your citizens first.
And this is the whole reason why we do what we do.
And you wonder why there's so many people that have
jumped on the Trump wagon, to try to get the borders closed.
How many more people have to die,
how many more people have to get injured, before people wake up
and see what their rhetoric and their context is all about?
This is exactly what they've been preaching.
And you want that stuff here in America?
We can't leave this crap to our kids.
SIRENS BLARE
The attack forces David and John to settle their differences.
Bair is reborn.
It's like all organisations. You're going
to have some disagreements within the group.
The thing of it is that me
and David have been able to sit down and talk things out, hash it out...
You know, we'll have our tiffs, yeah, but we're not going anywhere.
And just seeing what happened in Brussels is just confirmation
that we need to be a little bit louder than ever before,
to try and get things going, while we still can.
For Bair, horrifying incidents like this
justify their very existence.
Every time there is an attack, it does help us refocus
and it will help us
forget the little disagreements that we have and get over
those little disagreements and move on from the main goal -
protecting what's ours.
They want to pay their respects to the 32 who died in the attack
and have swapped their guns for a cross.
How many more crosses will have to be put in the ground? How many?
CAR HORN BEEPS
But Omar isn't prepared for his community to accept responsibility
for any terrorist attack.
He has his own thoughts on where blame lies.
I would say a group like Bair would have more to do with
a violent incident taking place in the world than I do,
because I'm actually trying to stop that cycle.
They're feeding that cycle, feeding that carnage,
feeding that nonsense. They're feeding that clash
of civilisations. They're giving Isis the world that they want.
Isis wants this world to be Islam versus the West.
They're giving them that world.
They're letting them know that...
It's just like a video game.
Isis is player one and they just needed someone to press
and be player two.
Islamophobes are creating more Islamic terrorism.
CAR HORNS BEEP