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Islam vs. Islamists Update: "Oregon Public Broadcaster To Distribute Controversial Islam Program," by John Eggerton for Broadcasting & Cable, with thanks to Weasel Zippers:
Oregon Public Broadcasting has agreed to distribute controversial documentary Islam vs. Islamists: Voices From the Muslim Center after PBS said the show was incomplete and would not distribute it as delivered."As it stood, it did not meet our editorial standards," said a PBS spokeswoman. "We felt that it was missing some context." PBS asked the producers to add that context but, "they believe the film is done," she said.
Apparently so did CPB. Steve Bass, President and CEO or Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB), says that CPB reached out and he concluded stations should have the opportunity to make their own decision about airing the show. He plans to give them that opportunity in the next 2-3 months....
Bass has seen the show and says it does lack context, but that OPB will produce follow-on discussion program help put it in perspective. So--why air it? "When something like this becomes an object of controversy, and is a program that people haven't seen, you are generally better off putting it out there," says Bass. "And I think it plays to public broadcasting's strength, which is that we are a collection of local institutions that make our own independent editorial decisions."
The documentary is part of the CPB-funded America at the Crossroads series primarily looking at issues surrounding terrorism and the Middle East. PBS scheduled 11 Crossroads films in April, but not Islam vs. Islamists, which PBS says was never slated for April.
Islam vs. Islamists, says Bass, deals with "five or six specific incidents in various countries of radicals putting pressure on centrists, but what you don't get is the broader context of how prevalent this is," he says. "Are these isolated incidents or is this part of a pattern."
Some conservatives have suggested that liberals don't like that the show is critical of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and that it questions whether it is really the "moderate" voice of Arab-Americans.
Posted by Robert at May 24, 2007 5:49 AM
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"Some conservatives have suggested that liberals don't like that the show is critical of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and that it questions whether it is really the "moderate" voice of Arab-Americans."
....liberals (aka dhimmicrats and the PC crowd) are just like the Muslims...both hate the truth and especially when the Infidels know it....
Posted by: exsgtbrown![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/nav-commenters.gif)
at May 24, 2007 6:15 AM
At some point, the liberal embrace of CAIR, long after most Republicans understood the vileness of Ibrahim Hooper et al., will be an embarrassment. In the light of Mohammedans doing their deeds in America, it could become an embarrassment with electoral effect.
Posted by: StillBreathing at May 24, 2007 6:31 AM
Did anyone watch the PBS show on Bruce Bawer?
The author of While Europe Slept gives a very strait to the point interview with Bill Moyers (after Moyers shows Falwell as an intro).
I was surprised that liberal Moyers would allow this interview to air. And that PBS would allow it.
Worth watching and sending to your friends who don't or won't read. Especially since Bawer is gay his words maybe will sink in with those who won't listen to any conservative talk.
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/05182007/watch3.html
at May 24, 2007 8:08 AM
Being caught listening to PBS should be grounds for immediate hospitalization in a mental asylum.
Posted by: US_infidel at May 24, 2007 8:12 AM
US_infidel
There have been many compelling shows about the muslim threat on PBS.
The Bawer interview, the John O'Neill story, the Taliban destroying Afghanistan's pre-islamic art story.
No, they don't completely 'get it' yet, but PBS is aware that there are drums in the distance. Or they would not have aired the America at a Crossroads series at all. For the US equivalent of the BBC, which is also only now starting to have shows on Panorama, when muslims are a much bigger presence in Britain, that is showing signs of change.
Posted by: Borg at May 24, 2007 8:46 AM
With the death of Tashbih Sayyed, it's quite important that people get to hear Zuhdi Jasser. Good that the local PBS in Oregon grew a pair. If anyone is in Oregon, please record it and put it on YouTube if you can.
Posted by: wrathofasma at May 24, 2007 9:18 AM
Wrath of Asma - if you're referring to M. Zuhdi Jasser who contributes to familysecuritymatters.org I think you're mistaken. You see to be saying that Jasser is a force for good in a moderate-driven anti-jihadi movement within the muslim world. I don't see it.
A few days ago Jasser had an essay on familysecuritymatters.org entitled Islamism, not Islam is the Problem
Date: May 18, 2007
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/index.php?id=989002
I read through it and found the same a priori assumptions on the Islamic agenda and muslim intent.
I wrote to the president of the organization, the resident blogger and Jasser himself to voice oppostion to the essay.
Please go read it. You'll find the same misplaced hope in the Myth of the Moderate Muslim and his role in a reformation. You'll see the same claims that 'at the heart of it, it really is spiritual, universal and redemptionist, this thing called Islam... it's just some of the believers, not the thing itself.'
You know, same shi'ite, different day.
I sent along my usual op/ed on why Moderates will fail and the two-page essay contrasting sharia to principles of the U.S. Constitution. So far no one involved has replied.
Posted by: A_Plague_on_Both_Houses
at May 24, 2007 9:38 AM
A_Plague_on_Both_Houses:
"the Myth of the Moderate Muslim..."
This is the main area where Glenn Beck loses me each time. I can only catch a replay of his show each day and anyone that calls in to challenge his stance on how good Islam is outside of the extremists is quickly shut down because they don't present well.
I think Glenn feels a connection as a Mormon with “misunderstood” Muslims. Mormons are often castigated by fundamentalist Christians (for not taking the Bible alone as Gods word) just as “moderate” Muslims are by their fundamentalists (for not following the example of Mohammed.)
He is trying to pour new wine into old wineskins hoping against logic that they will not burst when the wine expands. Well intentioned but sorely mistaken.
-XRDC
at May 24, 2007 10:41 AM
XRDC - I've sent this to me@glennbeck.com in the past... and I just did again.
Moderate Unicorns
In medieval times, people created fairy tales and magical creatures to make sense of their world. One of the most endearing is the unicorn, a horse with a single horn that symbolized purity and wholesomeness. In our modern times, people in Europe and the United States consider themselves more sophisticated and rational than people from the Middle Ages, but we still create myths, albeit more subtle ones.
Daily we hear reports of violent acts committed by Islamic terrorists on every inhabited continent. We try to wish it away with the myth of the ‘Moderate Muslim’, telling ourselves the Islamic agenda has been’ hijacked’ by a ‘tiny minority of extremists’ and that soon the huge, silent, moderate majority of Muslims will take charge and change things. However, post 9/11 very few Muslims have condemned terrorist actions. We are still waiting for moderates to stand and deliver, identifying and removing extremist thugs from their mosques and their communities. Waiting for this self-correction is our modern version of unicorn hunting.
Moderate Muslims will not be able to wrest control of the agenda for several reasons. First of all, Mohammed, the Messenger of Allah’s eternal word, was not moderate. No moderate can legitimately tell another Muslim to stop doing the extremist things Mohammed himself did. Also, the Qur’an condones violence and coercion to further the Islamic agenda. People whom we call moderates are labeled hypocrites by Allah Himself in the Qur’an. Moderates will always lose the argument because, as ex-Muslim author Ibn Warraq says, “There may be moderates in Islam but Islam itself is not moderate.”
Islamic expert Daniel Pipes and others estimate ten percent of the Islamic world to be militant. In 1933 when the Nazi party took control of Germany it had 2 million members, comprising only three percent of Germany’s sixty-six million citizens. A tiny minority of extremists can control a vast number of moderates, making them irrelevant.
Placing hope in ‘The Moderate Muslim’ is like searching for unicorns in the forest.
at May 24, 2007 11:04 AM
A_Plague-
I'm sure he got right back to you on that...
-XRDC
Posted by: XRDC at May 24, 2007 11:37 AM
A_Plague-
I'm sure he got right back to you on that...
-XRDC
at May 24, 2007 11:37 AM
A_Plague-
I'm sure he got right back to you on that...
-XRDC
Posted by: XRDC at May 24, 2007 11:39 AM
A_Plague-
I'm sure he got right back to you on that...
-XRDC
at May 24, 2007 11:39 AM
XRDC
No - unforunately my letters to various media outlets and personalities never get a reply.
My letters to political leaders do get automated replies frequently and personalized replies a percentage of the time. My state-level senator wrote an encouraging personal note to me that showed that he actually read my essay and thought about it. He thanked me, remarked that it must have taken time due to the effort and asked me to send more notes and essays to him on the same subject ( Islam as antithetical to our shared US values ) One of my senators has sent a short note thanking me personally on the exact topic I contacted him on, but I don't see changes in how he talks about 'forces of moderation in the Islamic world'. My female senator simply acknowledged receipt, then 'wrote over' what I sent with a list of her beliefs and actions on the matter ( opposite of mine ) without showing the link between hers & mine --- for what it's worth. My House Rep did acknowledge and discuss reasonably well....
Virgil Goode from Virginia sent me several personal notes that show the same thing, but remember my notes to him were supportive and encouraging.
I think it makes a difference and will continue to reach out to political, media, religious and social leaders on the issue of Islam world view and the obligatory Jihad.
Reid, Pelosi, Durbin, Stoyer, Feinstein, Obama, Clinton, Feingold and House members representing districts other than mine don't acknowledge...
My letters to columnists and essay writers invoke replies of the same kind and percentages as those going to political reps. I did get a nice one from Diana West of the Washington Times, but I was very flattering to her. I notice that most personal replies come from favorable letters from me - just human nature I suppose.
So it's not all bad news and you know what? I see more and more people doing the same thing.
The word is getting out.
Posted by: A_Plague_on_Both_Houses at May 24, 2007 12:06 PM
also - my notes to the Carter Center at Emory do get an automated response as do my notes to the ACLU local and national offices and when I replied to email solictations from the Democratic national party I do get personalized, direct replies... but now I no longer get the Democratic Party emails. :(
Write like hell... I'm too old to fight and they wouldn't take me anyway ( one of my eyes has always been 20/200 - the other is still 20/20 thank god...)
but this war is mainly a war of ideas and belief if we can simply see it that way. That is the crux of our battle.
at May 24, 2007 12:27 PM
Bruce Bawer may be right about muslims in Europe, but how many American evangelicals are calling for his death?
He says he and his norwegian partner would not be recognized as so in the US.
Cry me a freakin' river!
He also said he is caught between a rock and a hard place because of the vast right wing conspiracy against gays in the US and the muslims in amsterdam who would like to cut his head off among other apenddages.
Cry me another freakin' river!
at May 24, 2007 1:35 PM
A_Plague_on_Both_Houses:
No - unforunately my letters to various media outlets and personalities never get a reply
APOBH:
I think you need to get into Facebook and start poking.
at May 24, 2007 2:49 PM
"lacks context" == "doesn't follow the liberal party line"
As for Glenn Beck, he believes in the myth of moderate islam because he has read, and recommended on his show, Karen Armstrong's book.
Posted by: aynrandgirl at May 24, 2007 4:50 PM
Good for Oregon PB! HaHa CAIR! Boo Hoo...
absurd thought -
God of the Universe thinks
PBS is fair and balanced
.
at May 25, 2007 3:04 AM
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