No stranger to representing 'suspect communities', British film-maker Ken Loach's 1990 film Hidden Agenda is a fierce denunciation of Britain's shoot-to-kill policy in Northern Ireland. Indicative of entrenched bias in British society, it was denounced in some circles as IRA propaganda while winning the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. A decade later, the events of 9/11 led to a different community becoming increasingly mistrusted in Britain: British Muslims, depicted as 'violent, dangerous, and threatening' (Guardian 2007) and targeted by Anti-Terror legislation. Writing about the impact of Anti-Terrorism powers on the British Muslim population, a civil liberties group noted: The similarities between the treatment and experiences of the Irish community at the height of the IRA threat and of the British Muslim community today, are striking. Police powers have been used disproportionately against the Muslim population in the UK. […] There is disillusionment with a government which, rather than protecting them (Muslims) from this backlash, is effectively criminalising them as a community. The group as a whole is stigmatised […]. (LIBERTY 2004: 3) That same year, subverting negative and facile stereotypes of this 'enemy community', Loach released his film Ae Fond Kiss. Set in Glasgow, the film features members of both of the above-mentioned stigmatized communities, and challenges stereotypes and bias commonly reproduced in the media: the film's narrative focuses on cultural specificities rather than simplistic generalities and revolves around a romantic relationship between Irish-Catholic Roisin (Eve Birthistle) and Scottish-Pakistani Muslim Casim (Atta Yaqub). In the West, negative stereotypes of Muslims and Islam are not limited to the post-9/11 era, but extend back in history and surface not only in the media and non-fiction but also in literature, fine art, film, and children's cartoons. Nevertheless, this article will Crossing Enemy Lines in Ken Loach's Ae Fond Kiss/Just A Kiss Angles, 10 | 2020 10 Before analysing representations of Muslims in a selection of post-9/11 British films, we will consider the representation of Muslims in the British media post-9/11. Although the attacks on the World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001 did not occur in Crossing Enemy Lines in Ken Loach's Ae Fond Kiss/Just A Kiss Angles, 10 | 2020 Creating polarized identities: insisting on alterity and denying nuance in identity formation Despite the ethnic diversity of Muslims 2 worldwide and in America, home to the world's most influential production of images and global popular culture, the American media
