When Four Lions, Chris Morris’ satirical film following a cell of home grown British Jihadists, was released, it was rightly praised for its accurate portrayal of the mindset of those involved in Islamist terrorism.
Of course, the film was a dark comedy, which played up the more absurd aspects of Islamist culture. But those of us who follow this milieu, and those who have been involved in it, recognised its accuracy. At times, it was as much drama-documentary as comedy. And no surprise: Chris Morris had consulted the jihadist activist, Moazzam Begg when writing the script for the film, which featured the talented actor Riz Ahmed who has a number of family members (I believe) who have been in Hizb ut Tahrir.
Now, satire appears to be eating itself. From today’s terror trial:
The estranged wife of a man accused of plotting a terror attack offered herself as a helper in an attempt to win him back, a court has heard.
In a reference to the spoof film Four Lions, Salma Kabal asked Ashik Ali if she could be the “fourth lion”, Woolwich Crown Court was told.
…
She offered to be the “lioness” of the group, the court heard.
Mr Ali told his wife he wanted to fight the jihad – or holy war – overseas but did not want to get her involved, the court heard.
Mr Ali said he still loved her but said he did not think she could adapt to fight the jihad abroad, and made reference to drone strikes, the court heard.
Mr Altman said the group made reference to the film Four Lions, in which a group of incompetent terrorists wear fancy dress in a comedy plot, and Mr Ali laughingly told his wife: “Oh, you think this is a flipping Four Lions. We’re one man short, there’s three of us. We ain’t Four Lions yet.”
Ms Kabal replied: “I’ll be your fourth one.”
Mr Ali said: “You can’t be the fourth one.”
Ms Kabal said: “Lioness.”
It is only funny because they didn’t succeed.
As an aside, it is interesting how popular culture based on and aspect of ‘real life’ can, in turn, influence its subject. I remember being told that, during the 1970s, police car doors started to fall off with alarming frequency. The plausible cause was that police officers were slamming their car doors as hard as they could before running to “incidents”.
Well, they’d seen screen coppers do it in The Sweeney and Starsky and Hutch, see?
