I saw Frank Gaffney being interviewed on C-Span. I am only beginning to learn about him and who he is - but during the interview, a clip of a program called “Islam vs. Islamists” was shown. Here’s the description of the film that is placed at freethefilm.net (along with a complaint about PBS’s refusal to air the program):
This documentary tells the story of courageous anti-Islamist Muslims in Western Europe, Canada and the United States and the extraordinary challenges they face in taking on adherents to the theo-totalitarian ideology known as Islamism. What is happening to these moderates – who are being ostracized, intimidated and, in some cases, threatened with death – offers critical insights into the dangers that both they and we are facing. It also suggests steps we must take to help and empower these moderates and others like them. Unfortunately, as things stand now, objections from the Public Broadcasting Service and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, this film will not be seen by the American people – whose tax dollars paid for its production.
I hope that at some point the entire show will be available for viewing. There is a petition at the freethefilm.net website - but I don’t get the feeling that PBS will be very responsive.
1Dan on Jun 4, 2007 at 8:07 am:
What are PBS’s reasons for not allowing this to be shown in America? Who is pressuring PBS not to show this in America?
2danithew on Jun 4, 2007 at 8:23 am:
Dan,
I don’t know all the details of the situation - whether PBS is making a decision of its own or is acting under duress. If PBS is acting under duress, they aren’t showing it - they seem to have their own negative opinions about the thrust of the program.
I do know that some people have viewed the program and found that it is timely and thought-provoking. Since someone went to the trouble and expense of making it, and it has some positive reviews, maybe people ought to be allowed to see it.
3onelowerlight on Jun 4, 2007 at 1:22 pm:
Looks like an interesting film; it seems like a shame that PBS won’t be showing it.
4Non-Arab Arab on Jun 7, 2007 at 10:02 pm:
If Gaffney says it in relation to Islam, you can trust it is wrong and generally using the same tactics that anti-Mormons use just against Muslims instead: half-truths, deliberate emphasis on the fringe, scare tactics, outright lies, promoting bizarre figures as if they represented the “good” members or ex-members of the religion, etc.
For a genuine (blog version anyway) education in Islamist thinking and the broad spectrum it spans, I would recommend reading Professor Marc Lynch’s blog at http://www.abuaardvark.com Go through his archives on Islamism at http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark/islamism/index.html While he may admittedly be more level-headed and less angry than me :), Lynch has the advantage of not only knowing Arabic, but diving consistently into the sources and participating in the debates in the Arab world and not just in Washington (though he covers that reasonably well too).
Case in point: I don’t recognize any of the people listed on the website as supposed “Centrist Muslims” (who exactly made Frank Gaffney the judge of that? It would seem to me that’s a judgement for Muslim-Americans such as many of my family members and friends to make and not for the likes of Frank Gaffney). Where are the prominent Muslim Americans who head Muslim-American organizations with broad support bases? They’re there in the press on a regular basis, they head organizations with grassroots support, where are they?