Posted on 04/25/2007 5:42:25 AM PDT by SJackson
Moderate Muslims Speak Out, But Not on PBS
(CNSNews.com) - Islamists are working to build "parallel societies" with the aim of imposing strict Islamic law in parts of the West, according to a documentary the Public Broadcasting System has chosen not to air.
"Islam vs. Islamists: Voices from the Muslim Center" highlights the work of moderate Muslims who oppose the Islamist agenda and are willing to speak out. PBS officials decided against airing the film, which PBS's Robert MacNeil told the Diane Rehm Show earlier this month was "one-sided" and "alarmist."
Some of the key Muslim figures featured in the documentary believe PBS is practicing censorship and doing a disservice to the American public. The film, which was supposed to be part of a PBS series, cost taxpayers more than $600,000.
Danish lawmaker Naser Khader has been at the center of debate in his own country over the practice of Islamic law (shari'a). An imam has sought to impose shari'a outside the framework of Danish law, the film contends. Khader, a Muslim originally from Syria, has argued against the move.
"For such opinions, he has aroused the wrath of those who want Islamic parallel societies within Denmark," says the film's voiceover.
Khader discusses some of the menacing messages he has received, including threats such as, "We will kill you," "We will make your life a hell," and "If you participate in democracy you are a traitor."
Radicals who oppose the parliamentarian's views often "turn his election speeches into chaos," the documentary states.
"It reminds me of what happened to Germany in the 1930s," Khader says in the film.
Zuhdi Jasser, president of Islamic Forum for Democracy, also is featured in the film. He told Cybercast News Service that the mainstream media and public television officials are responsible for the unbalanced coverage of America's Muslim community.
He also said there is a concerted effort by well-organized, well-financed Islamist organizations to silence moderate voices.
Jasser and other participants on Tuesday named the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) as among those groups. One of the film's co-producers, Alex Alexiev of the Center for Security Policy, called CAIR "as radical as they come."
CAIR describes itself as a civil rights group, but has stoked controversy over its tactics, some of its sources of funding, and involvement in terrorism of some of its officials.
Attempts to get CAIR's reaction Monday and Tuesday were unsuccessful.
"Those of us who try to raise debates are not responded to [with] scripture, or in an intellectual way," Jasser said. "We are instead responded to with ridicule and told we are false Muslims."
Jasser said PBS and other media outlets spend too much time "excusing the other side" and giving credence to organizations with radical ties.
"The definition of censorship is when the government or some other entity decides for us what is alarmist and what isn't," he said.
As a long-term goal, Jasser said he hopes to create "non-political organizations" separate from mosques, which operate as think tanks and create "new bodies of literature and a new body of thought."
"I'm not against shari'a personally. I'm against the mixture of shari'a with government," he said. "Shari'a is my family law but it needs to be consistent with the greater law of society, which is based on the natural law."
Rep. Jim Walsh (R-N.Y.) is among those who have criticized the PBS decision to drop the film. He thinks it should be shown. Having seen the film, he said he found it to be quite compelling. Walsh said he could not see that the film was in any way unfinished.
PBS spokesman Joe Deplasco told Cybercast News Service the film was unfinished and could not be shown. He said films that did not make the cut for the PBS series may still be considered for airing later as "stand alone" pieces.
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PBS Accused of Same Tactics Radical Muslims Use Against Moderates
By Kevin Mooney
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
April 25, 2007
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=/Culture/archive/200704/CUL20070425c.html
(CNSNews.com) - Public Broadcasting Service officials who have refused to air a documentary on moderate Muslims are using the same tools of suppression and censorship Islamists employ to stymie debate, a documentary-maker charged Tuesday.
"Islam vs. Islamists: Voices from the Muslim Center," a 52-minute, taxpayer-funded documentary, was originally slated to be screened as part of an 11-part PBS series called "Crossroads," examining post-9/11 challenges facing America.
The series began airing for the first time last week on WETA, the Washington, D.C., PBS affiliate, but "Islam vs. Islamists" has been dropped from the lineup.
Hollywood veteran Martyn Burke of ABG films co-produced the film with Frank Gaffney, president of the Center for Security Policy, and Gaffney's CSP colleague Alex Alexiev, who specializes in Islamic extremism.
The film, which cost more than $600,000 to produce, focuses on conflicts that have erupted within the Muslim community in the U.S., Canada, Denmark and France.
The producers held a private screening in Washington, D.C., Tuesday, joined by three of the "anti-Islamist Muslims" featured in the film -- Danish parliamentarian Naser Khader, Islamic Forum for Democracy President M. Zuhdi Jasser, and French-Algerian journalist Mohammed Sifaoui. Also attending on behalf of the Islamic Supreme Council of America was Hedieh Miramahdi.
Burke told the audience that PBS and WETA advisors and producers had objected to the participation of conservatives Gaffney and Alexiev. A "bitter fight" ensued over the content of the film, and the PBS/WETA criticisms became increasingly "hysterical," he said.
"PBS is doing what the Islamists are doing," Burke charged. "They are silencing these people [Muslim moderates]."
The producers said PBS replaced their film with another one, "The Muslim Americans," which Gaffney called "a triumph for the Islamists," saying it promoted a perspective in line with that of America's enemies. For his part, Alexiev claimed that the replacement film paints a "fawning portrait" of U.S. organizations with extremist ties.
Alexiev also noted a conflict of interest: He said the replacement film was produced by Robert MacNeil, who also hosts the Crossroads series.
MacNeil was therefore allowed to produce his own film and at the same time was "the key guy who decided what gets cut," he claimed.
PBS spokesman Joe Deplasco told Cybercast News Service the Burke-Gaffney-Alexiev film was unfinished and could not be shown. He said he was aware of their arguments, but declined to comment on them, referring further queries on the subject to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) - a private body funded by the federal government to promote public broadcasting through PBS.
CPB officials did not return calls Tuesday.
Asked about "The Muslims in America," Deplasco said the decision to include it in the series was made for sound reasons. As the Crossroads project went forward, he said, the PBS-WETA producers felt that there "something missing" about everyday Muslim life. Consequently, they decided to use "The Muslim Americans."
Deplasco said films that did not make the cut for the series may still be considered for airing later as "stand alone" pieces.
But the "Islam vs. Islamists" filmmakers contend that their product is complete and in no need of further editing.
"We are at the end of the road with PBS," Gaffney said. "They have rejected the film we have made; they are insisting on structural and textual changes that would essentially eviscerate the message."
The next step, Gaffney explained, was to ask the CPB to relinquish distribution rights to the film so it can be viewed by the American people "in another medium."
In a letter to the CPB board last March, Burke, Gaffney and Alexiev said criticism of their film was based on a serious, perhaps willful misinterpretation of its message and its method.
Roger Aronoff, a media analyst with Accuracy with Media, told Cybercast News Service Tuesday that while he has not seen the film that PBS refuses to air as part of the series, his organization has had "issues with PBS over the years."
The broadcaster, he said, has "a long record of airing primarily left-leaning documentaries."
"The fact that they aired other documentaries as part of the 'America at a Crossroads' series that arguably represent a conservative point of view gives them some plausible deniability when they say that [neither] Gaffney's viewpoint nor his association with an advocacy group is why they shelved his film," Aronoff said. "But Gaffney's film, according to reports, represents an important point of view that needs to be heard."
"It is for just these types of situations that we have long advocated that tax dollars and politically biased programming do not mix," he added. "Do we really want political appointees deciding what views deserve airing, and which do not? No. Let's let the marketplace decide."
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The truth? The truth? PBS can’t handle the truth!
The whole series (or at least what I saw of it) was pretty good, except for the commentary at the end. But think how much better it would’ve been with Islam vs. Islamists: Voices from the Muslim Center.
As I understand the situation now PBS won’t show it, and won’t release it so anyone else can show it.
Today there is going to be a special screening for members of Congress by Frank Gaffney (one of the producers in an attempt to put more pressure on PBS.
Moderates Not Wanted on Public TV!
http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/12747/
Think-tank scholar Frank J. Gaffney Jr. writes on www.JewishWorldReview.com on April 12 about the film PBS doesn’t want you to see:
“The Public Broadcasting Service and its flagship stations have frequently allowed the public airwaves to be used to promote a variety of agendas with which as much as half the population strongly disagreed.
“To its credit, the leadership of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting launched an initiative several years ago to diversify the sources of documentary films in the hope of bringing different perspectives to the PBS audience about some of the most critical issues of our time. Thus was born the $20 million ‘America at a Crossroads’ series airing on the PBS network in 11 prime-time segments.
“The [films] are mostly from the usual suspects — ‘Frontline,’ The New York Times (which recently published a very friendly review of the series) and various PBS-related organizations. Among these is a film about Muslims in America by MacNeil-Lehrer Productions, in which the host of ‘Crossroads,’ Robert MacNeil, is a partner. Interestingly, MacNeil’s film was not in the original competition; it was added on by PBS, and assigned one of the 11 prized slots in the initial line-up.
“I was involved in making a film for the ‘America at a Crossroads’ series that also focused on, among others, several American Muslims. Unlike Mr. MacNeil’s, however, this 52-minute documentary, titled ‘Islam vs. Islamists: Voices From the Muslim Center,’ was selected through the competitive process, and was originally designated by CPB to be aired in the first Crossroads increment.
“Also, unlike Mr. MacNeil’s film, ‘Islam vs. Islamists’ focuses on the courageous Muslims in the United States, Canada and Western Europe who are challenging the power structure in virtually every democracy that has been established largely with Saudi money to advance worldwide the insidious ideology known as Islamofascism. In fact, thanks to the MacNeil-Lehrer film, the PBS audience will shortly be treated to an apparently fawning portrait of one of the most worrisome manifestations of that Saudi-backed organizational infrastructure in America: the Muslim Student Association. The MSA’s efforts to recruit and radicalize students and suppress dissenting views on American campuses is a matter of record and alarming in the extreme.
‘In an exchange with me aired on National Public Radio, however, Robert MacNeil explained why he and his team had refused to air ‘Islam vs. Islamists,’ describing it as ‘alarmist’ and ‘extremely one-sided.’ In other words, a documentary that compellingly portrays what happens to moderate Muslims when they dare to speak up for and participate in democracy, thus defying the Islamists and their champions, is not fit for public airwaves — even in a series specifically created to bring alternative perspectives to their audience.”
Islamists are working to build "parallel societies" with the aim of imposing strict Islamic law in parts of the West, according to a documentary the Public Broadcasting System has chosen not to air.
1965:
Socialists are working to build "parallel societies" with the aim of imposing strict socialism in parts of the west, according.....
The two are connected. Many of the islamists who come to the west immediately get on welfare so they have all the time on their hands they need to create their parallel socieities. Instead of work. I've said it before. Mark my words. Socialism and welfare is aiding and abetting our enemy within. We laid the groundwork for islamic invasion in the '60s with the great society and letting everyone into the country and letting them all get on welfare. Look at France. It is only a matter of time.
WOW’zuh , .. and THANKS SJackson
Moderate Muslims are like ghosts..often talked about but never really seen or proved to exist.
Ping
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