(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - The British government is coming under fire over funding an animated film telling the story of two Britons who drifted to extremism as part of efforts to fight home-grown terrorism, Sky News reported.
"The film sounds naive and simplistic," Dr Mohammad Shahid Raza, imam of Leicester Central Mosque, said.
"The descriptions of the fighters the brothers encounter are unrealistic."
The government has funded an animated film in what it says is an effort to stop young Muslims from drifting to extremism.
Titled "Wish You Waziristan", the film tells the story of two young Muslim brothers who travel to Pakistan to join an Al-Qaeda training center.
The £30,000-cost film shows that the two brothers went to Waziristan after being subjected to racist beating while playing football on a UK beach.
The cartoon, which combines computer game-style graphics and teenage street slang, opens with a failed attempt by the brothers to launch a grenade from a mountain-top in Waziristan.
The pair are shown watching videos of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin laden.
As they returned to Britain, the two brothers were detained at a British airport.
The video ends with the older brother making a phone call from his jail cell to his mother apologizing for what he had done and writing to his brother asking for forgiveness.
"Having these animated movies will not help in anyway whatsoever," said Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation.
The cartoon was to be released on YouTube on Sunday but was delayed after sparking a controversy in British society.
Ineffective
Muslim leaders denounced the short film for being "ineffective" in fighting extremism.
"The best way to reduce the threat for terrorism is to engage with young Muslims on a grassroots level," said Shafiq.
He described the video as a "vanity project" that would not help to defeat terrorism.
Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, the founder of the Muslim Institute think-tank, said the film would have been more effective if it had confined itself to the issue of racism.
"It should have asked its audience to concentrate on that rather than going off at a tangent. What follows is a waste of time," he said.
Britain has a sizable Muslim minority of nearly 2.0 million Muslims, mainly of Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Indian origin.
While they remained in the eye of a storm since the July 7, 2005 terror attacks in London, British Muslims have vehemently condemned all terror attacks that occurred in their country.
An ICM/Guardian poll has showed that 91 percent of British Muslims are "loyal" to Britain.
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