The State

Stop! Don't believe the one star reviews.

As a conservative, I too had a negative reaction to just seeing the promotional material advertising this TV Series. Mainly because I expected your usual left-wing propaganda from liberal cabal that is running the entertainment industry, hammered into my brain. Or worse, glamorizing Jihadis much like Rolling Stone did with Tsarnaev Brothers.

But I assure it is not so. I have no idea who this Peter Kosminsky is, but he did a great job of bringing the story of five British would be Jihadis going to Syria, and their travails as they battle the Kurds, Assad's Army, Western backed coalition... But mostly battle with their own doubts.

The State shows in vivid terms what was happening in parts of Syria ISIS controlled during their heyday from early 2014 to late 2017.

The State is a fascinating insight for someone like me, a citizen of the West, who was affected by it during that time period. To see all those young men and women running off to join these cruel butchers, after we threw open the doors for their parents and gave them a chance at a better life in the West...

It deeply changed me who I am as a person. From a young, left-wing liberal secular progressive I used to be during 2000s, to a right-wing conservative Atheist considering conversion to Christianity or Judaism I am today.

After only half of first episode I was immersed into it. All along, I was expecting to be suddenly disrespected, or have my intelligence insulted by bankrupt liberal ideology, but... It didn't come.

Kosminsky just told a good story. Left it to us to be the judges. Which is what a good artists should be doing. Otherwise they are not artists. They are propagandists. Did he do that because he is aware of a deep cultural shift undergoing in the Western world (trust me, I wasn't the only one who was "Red Pilled" by ISIS), or because he just happens to be a good director, it doesn't matter.

What matters is that the first 4 episodes are among the greatest I've seen in British television. The liberals might be crying how there should have been another episode explaining the motivation behind joining ISIS, presumably so the filmmakers could blame the West...

But I'm glad they didn't do it. We don't care. We are sick and tired of excuses and blame. We are furious. And I'm glad that at least for the first 4 episodes we weren't made fools of.

We don't care about "why". We care about "because". The reasons they joined ISIS? It is BECAUSE they are Muslim. Looking for a way into paradise. If not in this life then in the afterlife.

It is an immersive, vivid portrayal of people caught up in the events in Syria. Some of whom would kill us if they had the chance. Following them along their journey is a deeply moving TV watching experience. So do yourself a favour and see this show.

Sooner or later, there will be yet another Islamic State of This and That, somewhere in the Muslim World. And there will be more young Muslims joining them in droves... But hopefully some of them will see this show and think twice what they are doing.

Those who low rated this TV series and called it preposterous, alleging that intelligent people who have heard about ISIS crimes via the media would not naively go to Syria to join the Jihad, completely missed the point, which is that people believe what they want to believe and shut out anything which does not fit their belief. If this was not so, there would be no major religions and no one would smoke cigarettes or drive drunk.

Who in their right mind would believe in a heaven somewhere up in the clouds with pearly gates guarded by golden haired angels, or that a destructive evil named Satan ruled over an everlasting fiery pit. There are those in the Southern US who firmly believe that the Bible was written in English by Jesus Christ, and that Jesus was a blue eyed Anglo Saxon. If people can believe that the world was created in six days 6,000 years ago, that a savior was born to a virgin and after his death he rose again for 40 days, despite all the evidence to the contrary, they will believe anything.

Many otherwise intelligent people firmly believe in the lost continent of Atlantis, others that all the ancient ruins such as the pyramids and the temples of Central America were built by aliens as if ancient humans were not able to work things out for themselves. It is the same with those who run off to join the Jihad. Some are impressionable youths, but as in the case of Shakira, others might actually believe they are going to do good. They have closed their minds to whatever challenges their belief or brainwashing. Just as we had fanatical religious martyrs in the past dying for their faith, we now have martyrs dying for the Islamic faith. The fanatical Christians were created saints and venerated for their beliefs, so were hermits, monks and nuns who lived in severe hardship and discomfort and spent their days praying.

I did find some of the characters acted stupidly, but had they not been a little on the naive side they would never have gone to Syria in the first place. I certainly did not find the series a recruitment tool for ISIS as some viewers and reviewers seemed to. More like Reefer Madness being a considered a deterrent for marijuana use.

I am so amazed with this amount of details from a show portraying lives in ISIS. Personally I have been to the Middle East several times and spent months traveling along, I truly am impressed of the detail and some cultural differences displayed.

The ISIS has been marked as evil from all over the news worldwide, however, this show provides a fresh eye simply telling stories on each character's angle. People do need to understand, despite general impression ISIS is bad, every single person living the lives has their story to tell, I like how it is staying out of accusation but simply display some doubts ISIS caused on ppl. A show is a show, and it is a great show and the plots are so delicate and neatly illustrated. If all you want is political accusation, then you should only read what news is feeding you and write your comments on forums instead of a TV series review.

The premise is simple so I will skip that. The Muslim Jihad is a call to arms for all Muslims regardless of one's life in the false world. Those who have been called are fed propaganda by the previous waves of fighters who answered the call to jihad.

We learn that each person truly wants and believes in their faith. They each want to believe in the struggle and participate in their own way. We also learn that the Mujahadeen or soldiers know this is a losing battle. For them it is a path to shaheed or martyrdom. This is the ultimate gift from God.

But what each person thought they were seeking in their faith or even their own personal lives cannot be had in the caliphe or Islamic State. Each person has a different challenge that defies the teachings of the hadith or prophet.

They each learn that it isn't the lies but the truth that scares them.

Reading some reviews of The State, it seems some have completely missed the point of this mini-series. Far from glamourising IS this excellent series lays bare the lie that is at the heart of the death cult of Daesh. That lie draws impressionable, idealistic young Muslims across the west into a situation way out of their depth. Some argue that all who join IS know exactly what they are doing, which seems to leave some viewers unable to find anything sympathetic about the four young Brits portrayed here. Frankly, being unable to experience empathy for these characters says more about the person reviewing than it does about the situation itself.

Far from idealising and glamourising IS this remarkable mini-series shows the brutality and evil at the heart of it in a way nothing else I've seen quite does. Several scenes are incredibly difficult to watch, clearly intentionally so, and I found the changes of focus from the young jihadis experiencing the terror of battle and the brutalisation of witnessing torture, to the stories of the women and children equally brutalised and adapting (or not) to an almost alien culture, incredibly compelling.

This was brave television and for the most part well done. I feel it would have benefited from more time given to the ending, as this felt rushed and uncertain, but otherwise an excellent and compelling story.