Even before viewing CNN's "God's Warriors" six-hour series by Christiane Amanpour, I was extremely skeptical. Just the attempt to lump the extremists within three of the world's dominant religions as apparent equals smacks of moral equivalence of the worst kind.
And Amanpour did not disappoint.
Doing her anti-West, anti-Christian and borderline anti-Semitic best, Amanpour vainly tried to convince viewers that conservative Christians who issue guidelines for the length of girls' skirts on their campuses are the same beasts as the Muslims who blow up trains, cars, markets and skyscrapers. And since one Muslim girl in New York claims that "jihad" really doesn't translate to holy war, then Islam must be the Religion of Peace.
Yep, every time I read about a terrorist who blew himself up, the first thing I wonder about is whether he was a Jew or a Christian. Because peaceful Muslims just don't do such things!
But even forgetting Amanpour's blatant biases for a moment, the series should be noted for its utter lack of depth. Except for a segment that profiles one of the "founding fathers" of modern Islamic radicalism, Sayyid Qutb, there is very little new information on the subjects that the series attempts to cover. The choice of "experts" is particularly subpar, which includes two of CNN's own in-house commentators and Karen Armstrong, an "historian" of dubious credentials.
And of course, when in doubt, go ask Jimmy Carter, who never lets up with his own venom and vitriol toward fundamental Christians and the state of Israel alike. The man also has never stopped hating the country that fired him as president in 1980.
1 comment:
Id have to agree that the CNN doc reeks of moral equivalency, but a valid point can be made that from a cultural perspective, islamic jihad is diametrically opposed to liberalism (and especially libertarianism) more so than the American brand of conservatism. Point for point, UBL would probably agree with much of a Sam Brownback or George Allen's social policy so some equivalences can be drawn. While this is certainly no reason to see the two ideologies from a relativist perspective, it is an important consideration for americans of all political ideologies to take into account - Liberals should defend themselves against a murderous ideology that wants them dead and conservatives should distance themselves from positions that a murderous ideology holds so dearly. (in much the same way the US backed away from eugenics, internment based on race, and command and control economics after WWII) Sorry for such a long post
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