Islam: from European, US and Bulgarian Perspective

screening of the documentary film Base: Afghanistan/Pakistan (54 min., Bulgaria, BNT, 2008, in bulgarian, with English subtitles), followed by a debate

With the participation of Sevda Shishmanova (journalist and author of the film Base: Afghanistan/Pakistan), Prof. Ognyan Minchev (Department of Political philosophy, Sofia University “St.Kliment Ohridski”), Ass. Prof. Simeon Evstatiev (Arabic Studies) and Shamim Berkeh (correspondent of the Iranian state TV and Press TV, London)

More information about the event:
How do we understand Islam today? What are the dominating media images of Islam? Do US, European and Bulgarian journalists present differently what they see in the Middle East? How does the issue of Islam look through the perspective of the European, American (USA) and Bulgarian debate? Do Bulgarian journalists use a different optics when they approach the issue of Islam?



Base: Afghanistan/Pakistan is a documentary about the political processes which make two countries depend upon each other – Pakistan and Afghanistan. It deals with what, after 9/11 attacks, has become a “visible” common territory, enmeshed in the networks of Madrasas, drug traffic, radical Islamism, and terrorism. This is a visual account of what an unknown world looks like and how it functions, a world, which focuses all its resources into safety, but also a world where Al Qaeda operate. It also deals with a military and political project, which billions have been invested in; with the fate of people, for whom war has become a way of survival. The crew filmed in the Northern Provinces of Pakistan, on the border with Afghanistan, where radical troops operate, as well as in NATO military bases in Afghanistan, in the Islam schools and madrasas in both countries, while elections and military campaigns were taking place. The basic political theses featuring in the analysis of the failure of UN efforts to stabilize the region and stop the export of terrorism, present interviews with the last ambassador of the Taliban in Islamabad, now a prisoner in Guantanamo – Abdul Salam Zaef – and the world-renown Pakistani writer and journalist Ahmed Rashid, who belonged to the team working with Benazir Bhutto. The camera documented the theses of Radical Islamists, politicians, Muslim priests, university professors, and analysers, in the attempt to show the “base”, which Pakistan and Afghanistan have turned into.

11 November (Tuesday) 2008, 7.00 p.m.
Red hall
In Bulgarian.
Tickets: 2/1 BGN

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