Friday, April 13, 2007

"Islam vs. Islamists"

Washington Times editoral got a preview of the film, says let it be shown.

There's only one thing to do with the spiked PBS documentary, "Islam vs. Islamist: Voices from the Muslim Center." Air it. If the Public Broadcasting Service won't reconsider, this window on the struggle for the soul of Islam in the West -- controversial and hard-hitting -- will be picked up by some other network. It's inevitable.
We watched "Islam vs. Islamists," and several things stand out. The stories of embattled moderate Muslims in the contemporary United States, Canada, France and Denmark are gripping and too important to relegate to the dustbin. There's too much original, never-before-seen material here, including interviews with a terror propagandist who knew Abu Musab Zarqawi. The propagandist was sentenced to prison last week in Denmark for his grim work. There's the imam who helped manufacture the Danish cartoon crisis, and died two months ago. There are others who come on screen, ranging from peaceable conservative Muslims to reactionary firebrand imams. This material must be aired. The hard edge lent by this documentary's producers -- veteran filmmaker Martyn Burke, former Reagan Defense Department official Frank Gaffney and ex-RAND Corporation analyst Alex Alexiev -- is guaranteed to spark the kind of vigorous debate over Islam's rise in the West that the nation must have. The American public can judge the flying chips.
The stories speak for themselves when allowed to, but since the documentary is not yet available publicly, here's a preview.

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