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IS PBS ON THE SIDE OF RADICAL ISLAM? |
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Written by Frank Gaffney
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Friday, 04 May 2007 |
Since September 11, 2001, many of us have wondered: Where
are the moderate Moslems? If they are out there, why are we not hearing more,
and getting more help, from them in the fight against our common foe -- the
totalitarian Islamists?
My effort to answer this question took the form of a
52-minute documentary I helped produce for the Corporation for Public
Broadcasting's "America at a Crossroads" series.
The film, entitled Islam vs. Islamists, features
compelling stories of anti-Islamist Moslems who have had the courage to stand
up to co-religionists who are using faith to accomplish political ends.
The documentary makes clear why the moderates are not more
in evidence. Observant Moslems who dare to challenge the Islamists over
ideological agendas pursued in the name of religion are shown being subjected
to ostracism, intense coercion to conform and, in some cases, death threats.
As long as these anti-Islamist Moslems are rightly seen as
isolated, vulnerable and powerless, it would be foolish to believe that many of
their co-religionists will want to emulate them.
Such a conclusion is especially likely to the extent that
fence-sitting moderate Moslems perceive those repressing the anti-Islamists to
be what Osama bin Laden calls "the strong horse." The success of
organizations supportive of the Islamists and of their efforts to exploit real
or perceived Moslem grievances and civil liberties to create "parallel
societies" in Western democracies will, inevitably, attract more adherents
to the former's ranks.
Unfortunately, what has happened to "Islam vs.
Islamists" can only compound this perception. The Public Broadcasting
Service (PBS) and its Washington flagship station, WETA, refused to air this film.
While a number of explanations have been given for that
decision -- including demonstrably false claims that the documentary was not
submitted on time, was too long, was unfinished, the officially stated reason
is that it was:
"Flawed by incomplete storytelling, a limited focus
that does not adequately corroborate the film's conclusions, and a general lack
of attention to the obligation of fairness, which requires that viewers have
access to additional context and relevant information about a complex
subject."
In other words, PBS/WETA judged our film to be
"unfair" to the "conservative imams" and fellow Islamists
shown denouncing, threatening and, in one case, proposing to murder the
moderate Moslems we profile.
Unless our production team, which included a number of
world-class journalists, agreed to change not the "storytelling" but
the story, "Islam vs. Islamists" was going to be suppressed.
Interestingly, PBS and WETA were untroubled by the manifest
lack of fairness in a film on much the same subject entitled "The Moslem
Americans," produced by Crossroads series host Robert MacNeil. This
documentary amounted to a love letter to the Islamists and like-minded
organizations in America.
It helped legitimate a number of the most prominent Islamist
spokesmen and agendas, in the process virtually ignoring easily ascertained
records of troubling statements, behavior and/or affiliations.
It is bad enough that the public airwaves were used to
disseminate only one rendering of the state of Islam in the West -- and a
highly misleading one, at that. The process whereby the voices of anti-Islamist
Moslems were silenced by PBS and WETA was also characterized by egregious
behavior, some of which would typically evoke howls of outrage from American
liberals.
These included: attempts to blacklist producers on political
grounds; outlandish conflicts of interest (notably, Mr. MacNeil's self-dealing
and his film's featuring of two Islamist-sympathizing Moslem
"advisers" recruited by WETA to help determine which documentaries
were aired); and one of those advisers' unauthorized preview of a
"rough-cut" version for representatives the Nation of Islam, a
subject of the film -- in clear violation of the most basic tenets of
journalistic ethics.
The question occurs: Where are the liberal non-Moslems in
the controversy over "Islam vs. Islamists"? They have at least as
much on the line as the rest of us in the outcome of this struggle for the soul
and future character of Islam.
After all, the anti-Islamist Moslems and conservatives are
not the only ones in the Islamofascists' cross hairs. Homosexuals, women and
Jews are among those whose lives will be made miserable, or simply be
prematurely terminated, in the new world order the Islamists have in mind.
Blacks are still being sold into slavery in Islamist
nations. And, to date, the Islamists have been responsible for killing more of
their fellow Moslems than any other population, not just in Darfur but around
the world.
Yet, as of this writing, Sen. Joe Lieberman, Connecticut
Democrat, and Rep. Brad Sherman, California Democrat, have been the only
examples of individuals with strong liberal credentials who have publicly urged
that the American people be allowed to view "Islam vs. Islamists."
Are they the only two people in the United States Congress
who understand the stakes if the voices of the anti-Islamists are suppressed
and, worse yet, if those of their repressors continue to be amplified?
The struggle over a documentary designed to do the former is
a microcosm of the larger struggle for the future of Islam and the war for the
free world. None of us can afford to be AWOL in these fights.
To help, you can go to Free
The Film PBS Doesn't Want You To See.
There you can watch a trailer, sign a petition for the film's release,
and gain more information. It's a
frightening possibility that America's government funded television network is
on the side of Radical Islam. Let's
work together to liberate Islam Vs. the Islamists.
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. is president of the Center for Security Policy in
Washington DC.
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