Robb Leech is a British
documentary film
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...
maker and former
tree surgeon
An arborist, tree surgeon, or (less commonly) arboriculturist, is a professional in the practice of arboriculture, which is the cultivation, management, and study of individual trees, shrubs, vines, and other perennial woody plants in dendrolo ...
.
His stepbrother, Richard Dart,
converted
Conversion or convert may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* "Conversion" (''Doctor Who'' audio), an episode of the audio drama ''Cyberman''
* "Conversion" (''Stargate Atlantis''), an episode of the television series
* "The Conversion" ...
to
an extreme form of Islam in 2009 and later became
a convicted terrorist. Leech made two films charting Dart's conversion and later conviction and imprisonment: ''
My Brother the Islamist
''My Brother the Islamist'' is a 2011 documentary produced and directed by film-maker Robb Leech. It charts his attempt to reconnect with his stepbrother, Richard Dart, who had in the summer of 2009 converted to Islam under Anjem Choudary, the ...
'' in 2011 and ''My Brother the Terrorist'' in 2014.
In 2015, Leech made a third film, ''Welcome to the Mosque'',
which explored the everyday life at the
East London Mosque
The East London Mosque (ELM) is situated in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets between Whitechapel and Aldgate East. Combined with the adjoining London Muslim Centre and Maryam Centre, it is one of the largest mosques in Europe accommodating ...
in
Whitechapel, one of the biggest mosques in the UK. Leech's filming coincided with
three schoolgirls from nearby
Bethnal Green Academy
Mulberry Academy Shoreditch is a co-educational academy for students aged between 11–18 in the Bethnal Green neighbourhood of the Borough of Tower Hamlets in East London.
It has previously been called the Green Spring Academy Shoreditch, Beth ...
going to Syria to join the so-called
Islamic State
An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...
and documented the mosque's attempts to help the missing girls' grieving families, while battling allegations from sections of the media that it was responsible for
radicalising the girls themselves.
See also
*
Jihad
Jihad (; ar, جهاد, jihād ) is an Arabic word which literally means "striving" or "struggling", especially with a praiseworthy aim. In an Islamic context, it can refer to almost any effort to make personal and social life conform with Go ...
*
Islamism
Islamism (also often called political Islam or Islamic fundamentalism) is a political ideology which posits that modern states and regions should be reconstituted in constitutional, economic and judicial terms, in accordance with what is ...
*
British Bangladeshis
*
British Pakistanis
References
British documentary filmmakers
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
{{UK-film-bio-stub