Channel 4 is looking to challenge conventional ways of looking at Islam with the broadcast of a factual documentary and film later this week. Both provide contrasting views to the challenges faced by Muslims in modern Britain.

In Are Muslims Hated?, writer and anti-racist campaigner Kenan Malik sets out to challenge the perception that Islamophobia is rife in Britain. He examines the evidence and takes on Muslim writers and community leaders who claim the Muslim community lives in fear of physical attack and police harassment.

"Everyone from anti-racist activists to government ministers wants to convince us that Britain is in the grip of Islamophobia." But is this the reality or is hatred and abuse of Muslims being exaggerated to suit politicians' ends and to silence critics of Islam, he asks.

Malik, who grew up in the 80s - an era of real racist violence - shows how today there is very little statistical evidence to support the claims that Muslims are subject to either more physical assaults or to being targeted by the police.

Home Office statistics also show that the number of serious physical assaults on Muslims is relatively small. Even the Islamic Human Rights Commission admits that most of the 344 attacks in the year following 9/11 were in fact relatively minor incidents like pushing people over or spitting at them.

Mailk also challenges the perception that Muslims are being disproportionately targeted by the police under the stop and search laws. Iqbal Sacranie of the Muslim Council of Great Britain speaks of "the very real concern" in the Muslim community, especially in the light of ant-terrorism laws. In the programme Mr Sacranie states that between 95-98% of people stopped and searched by the police under the anti-terror laws are Muslim.

But this perception is at odds with the facts. Home Office figures show that Asians comprise just 15% of those stopped and searched under the anti-terror laws. You are still five times more likely to be stopped and searched by the police if you are black than if you are Asian.

Kenan Malik's documentary contrasts with the film Yasmin which recently premiered at the London Film Festival. Set in a Northern mill town, against a backdrop of poverty, high unemployment and racism, the film deals with universal themes such as guilt, transgression and the search for identity.

Having rebelled against her Pakistani culture as a teenager, Yasmin agrees to marry a cousin 'from home' to please her widowed father. The omens are not good when the goat herder from a Pakistani village meets the sparky, Westernised Yasmin.

But her confidence begins to evaporate after 9/11, when Yasmin becomes increasingly ostracised at work. After a total crisis of identity, the internment of Yasmin's husband triggers a new determination and a sense of purpose. Yasmin fights vigorously for his release from a holding centre - and through her campaign is forced to re-evaluate her faith, her culture, and her relationships.

The drama examines what it means to be Asian, Muslim and British in the 21st century, told from the viewpoint of a strong and Westernised woman working in Britain while living in her own traditional culture.

Are Muslims Hated? broadcasts Saturday 8th January; Yasmin on Thursday 13th January - both on Channel 4.