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PBS dropped 'Islam vs. Islamists' on political grounds
Maker of documentary cries foul
Producer: PBS dropped 'Islam vs. Islamists' on political grounds
Dennis Wagner
The Arizona Republic
Apr. 10, 2007 12:00 AM
The producer of a tax-financed documentary on Islamic extremism claims his film has been dropped for political reasons from a television series that airs next week on more than 300 PBS stations nationwide.
Key portions of the documentary focus on Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser of Phoenix and his American Islamic Forum for Democracy, a non-profit organization of Muslim Americans who advocate patriotism, constitutional democracy and a separation of church and state.
Martyn Burke says that the Public Broadcasting Service and project managers at station WETA in Washington, D.C., excluded his documentary, Islam vs. Islamists, from the series America at a Crossroads after he refused to fire two co-producers affiliated with a conservative think tank.
"I was ordered to fire my two partners (who brought me into this project) on political grounds," Burke said in a complaint letter to PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which supplied funds for the films.
Burke wrote that his documentary depicts the plight of moderate Muslims who are silenced by Islamic extremists, adding, "Now it appears to be PBS and CPB who are silencing them."
A Jan. 30 news release by the corporation listed Islam vs. Islamists as one of eight films to be presented in the opening series.
Mary Stewart, vice president of external affairs at WETA, said Burke's documentary was not completed on time to be among 11 documentaries that will be aired beginning Sunday. Stewart said the picture may be broadcast by PBS at a later date.
"The film is a strong film," Stewart said. "I'm still hoping to see this in the Crossroads initiative."
Jeff Bieber, WETA's executive producer for Crossroads, gave a substantially different explanation. He said Burke's film had "serious structural problems (and) . . . was irresponsible because the writing was alarmist, and it wasn't fair."
"They're crying foul, and there was no foul ball," Bieber added. "The problem is in their film."
Federally funded films
The controversy involves a collection of documentaries financed with $20 million in federal grants from the corporation, which conceived Crossroads in 2004 to enhance public understanding of terrorism, homeland security and other crucial issues in the post-9/11 era. Independent filmmakers submitted 430 proposals. Full production grants were given to 21 of those, including Islam vs. Islamists, which received $700,000.
Subtitled Voices From the Muslim Center, Burke says his film "attempts to answer the question: 'Where are the moderate Muslims?' The answer is, 'Wherever they are, they are reviled and sometimes attacked' " by extremists.
Michael Levy, a spokesman for CPB, said the corporation set up the Crossroads project and provided funding, but turned over management and content control to PBS and WETA 13 months ago.
After that, Burke says in his Feb. 23 complaint letter, he "consistently encountered actions by the PBS series producers that violate the basic tenets of journalism in America."
PBS officials turned down interview requests.
Debate about bias
The dispute adds to a running debate about political bias in the nation's publicly funded television business. In 2004, filmmakers complained that CPB was pushing a right-wing agenda for the Crossroads series. A year later, CPB President Kenneth Tomlinson sought to eliminate what he saw as a liberal bias at PBS. He was forced to resign after an inspector general's report found that he violated federal rules and ethics standards in the process.
Burke's credits include Pirates of Silicon Valley, a movie about the founders of Microsoft, and The Hollywood Ten, a documentary about blacklisted leftists in the motion picture industry during the 1950s.
In the making of Islam vs. Islamists, Burke's co-producers were Frank Gaffney, president of the Center for Security Policy, and Alex Alexiev, the non-profit organization's vice president. Both men are neo-conservatives who have written on the threat of "Islamofascism" to the free world.
Before filming began last year, Burke says, Bieber asked him, "Don't you check into the politics of the people you work with?"
Bieber said PBS was concerned that the Center for Security Policy is an advocacy group, so its leaders could not produce an objective picture. Because of that, he suggested that Gaffney be demoted to adviser.
Burke, who did not honor the recommendation, says that funding was delayed and WETA began to interfere with his film until it was "expelled" from Crossroads.
Among Burke's examples of tampering:
• A WETA manager pressed to eliminate a key perspective of the film: The claim that Muslim radicals are pushing to establish "parallel societies" in America and Europe governed by Shariah law rather than sectarian courts.
• After grants were issued, Crossroads managers commissioned a new film that overlapped with Islam vs. Islamists and competed for the same interview subjects.
• WETA appointed an advisory board that includes Aminah Beverly McCloud, director of World Islamic Studies at DePaul University. In an "unparalleled breach of ethics," Burke says, McCloud took rough-cut segments of the film and showed them to Nation of Islam officials, who are a subject of the documentary. They threatened to sue.
"This utterly undermines any journalistic independence," Burke wrote in an e-mail to WETA officials.
In an interview, McCloud said she showed a single video frame to a Muslim journalist who was not a Nation of Islam representative.
However, in a January e-mail, McCloud told Crossroads producers that she had spoken with Nation of Islam representatives and "invited them over to view this section." She also wrote that they were outraged "and will promptly pursue litigation."
Stewart, the WETA executive, said McCloud was admonished for "inappropriate" conduct.
Otherwise, however, Stewart said Crossroads producers have dealt with Islam vs. Islamists in a fair and professional manner.
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So your point is that the previous guy was a right wing activist and tried to push the documentaries into that frame.
Now he has been replaced for cause some of the films designed to be right wing biased are coming under scrutiny ?
There really is no point. An accusation has been made, but PBS has not answered as of yet. Until they give their side of the story, it's impossible to make a determination if this story has any merit.
PBS is being accused of discrimination against the film maker because of his conservative partners. If this quote actually happened:
Quote:
Before filming began last year, Burke says, Bieber asked him, "Don't you check into the politics of the people you work with?"
there would be reason to believe that there was indeed discrimination.
• A WETA manager pressed to eliminate a key perspective of the film: The claim that Muslim radicals are pushing to establish "parallel societies" in America and Europe governed by Shariah law rather than sectarian courts.
This is widely acknowledged -- to the degree it could pretty much be called a fact in Europe, rather than a 'claim' -- and a defininite threat elsewhere. The question is who is funding it... anybody need three guesses?
Put this together with Congressman Steny Hoyer meeting with Muslim Brotherhood politicians in Egypt a week or so ago, and CNN's announcements that the MB 'renounced violence' in the 1970's, but fails to mention they did not renounce FUNDING violence, since Hamas is an MB branch, for example, nor did they renounce the goal of a global caliphate run by Shar'ia law, etc., and our mainstream media is scaring the $#!t out of me. That's how it all got rolling in the UK -- shaping the media.
__________________
oderint dum metuant (Latin for 'let them hate, so long as they fear').
Well, in truth I'm actually not a total hawk, but I'm not a dove either -- I'm more like an angry pigeon flying over the political arena after a really big meal. -Abba Gav
That's a confusing article - it initiates several different topics related to the film in question, yet brings no conclusion about any of the topics.
I don't know about the film and can't draw any conclusions based upon the above article as to the reason for not being aired on PBS.
However...
A Muslim co-worker and I have had discussions on this topic i.e. - why moderate Islam doesn't speak out about radical Islam.
An interesting point in our discussions: My friend was instrumental in starting, building and operating a mosque in the Tempe area. Shortly after they began operating and having services, large groups of Muslims from outside the area (Tucson and farther) began attending services there.
The "outsiders" wanted to politicize the meetings. Further, they attempted to effect a takeover of the mosque by having greater numbers than the founders (one of which was my co-worker). The "outsiders" were even attempting to re-deed the property over to the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) which claims to be the largest Muslim organization in North America.
ISNA was formed by the Muslim Brotherhood. In the U.S., the European Union, and other places, the Brotherhood is often regarded by experts as the source of all modern jihadi terrorism, its denials of involvement notwithstanding.
The point is the even within the U.S. the majority of Islamic organizations and mosques are controlled via coersion or other impolite means by the Wahhabi based sects of Islam. The moderates have no voice even within their own organizations.
__________________
"Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please."
-Samuel Langhorne Clemens
Last edited by CardLogic; April 10th, 2007 at 04:32 PM.
Americans' Tax Dollars Fund the Wahhabi Lobby (ISNA)
March 15, 2005
In a startling article today, "Federal Money Goes to Controversial Muslim Group," Sherrie Gossett reveals for Accuracy in Media that the Bush administration has sent $50,000 to the Islamic Society of North America, a leading organization in the Wahhabi lobby's American division.
Mohamed El-sanousi, director of community outreach and communications for ISNA, told Gossett his organization received grants in 2003 and 2004 from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration of the Department of Health and Human Services.
The money did not save anyone from substance abuse or improve mental health, however. Instead, it went to teach other members of the Wahhabi lobby how to milk the government: "We used the grants to train Muslim community leaders in how to apply for grants to do social services," El-sanousi explained.
Gossett does a fine job documenting ISNA's many ties to radical Islam, including to Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, Rashid Ghanushi, the International Institute of Islamic Thought, and the Islamic Universal Heritage Foundation. She cites a November 2003 report on WTHR-TV, the NBC affiliate in Indianapolis (near Plainfield, Indiana, where ISNA's headquarters is located), that found "a dozen charities, organizations or individuals under federal scrutiny for possible ties to terrorism that are linked in some way to ISNA." ISNA is also under Senate scrutiny for links to terrorist groups.
Sayyid M. Syeed, ISNA's secretary general, responded aggressively to Gossett when she asked about such matters in a phone interview on March 10: "You cannot pick up these small things. You will repent when you do these things," he told her. Referring to Accuracy in Media's prior coverage of a Freedom House report on Saudi hate literature in U.S. mosques, Syeed threatened Gossett: "You will be hurt, you will be pained by this if you continue to write such things."
CNN - U.S. congressman meets with Mubarak's banned rival
POSTED: 10:01 p.m. EDT, April 7, 2007
Story Highlights
• House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer met with leader of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood
• Muslim Brotherhood is outlawed but tolerated by Egyptian government
• Organization renounced violence in 1970s
• Meeting on the heels of Rep. Nancy Pelosi's visit to Syria over Bush's objection
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- A top U.S. Democratic congressman met a leader of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's most powerful rival, the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, U.S. officials and the Islamist group said Saturday.
Visiting House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer met with the head of the Muslim Brotherhood's parliamentary bloc, Mohammed Saad el-Katatni, twice on Thursday -- once at the parliament building and then at the home of the U.S. ambassador to Egypt, said Brotherhood spokesman Hamdi Hassan.
Hoyer now says there was no private meeting; al-Katatni insists there was. I don't care how savvy a US politician is, we're talking another Bambi if he's meeting with these guys.
The MB was protected by the al-Sauds after MB assassinated Nasser, with the understanding that there would be no anti-royal family stirrings. The MB is officially no longer welcome in SA, although they get massive amounts of Saudi family funding. They are the most patient of foes, and their style is to infiltrate and use the enemy's strengths against it.
they picked up a load of votes in Egypt only because Bush forced Mubarak to open the elections (I am just floored by the idiocy or naivete or whatever). MB is responsible for the increasingly religious tone in Egypt, which is pushing Mubarak to become more militaristic and dictatorial. Secular Egypt is on the ropes.
When Pelosi's guy said in Syria 'The Sunnis will prevail' he may not have been thinking MB, but I assure you they were. Since Assad's Dad slaughtered thousands of them, wonder how well that went over?
MB Wikipedia:
Quote:
The Muslim Brotherhood or The Muslim Brothers (Arabic: الإخوان المسلمون al-ikhwān al-muslimūn, full title "The Society of the Muslim Brothers", often simply الإخوان al-ikhwān, "the Brotherhood" or "MB") is a world-wide Sunni Islamist movement founded by the sufi Islamic lawyer Hassan al-Banna in 1928. It has spawned several offshoot organizations in the Middle East, dedicated to the credo: "God is our objective, the Quran is our Constitution, the Prophet is our leader, struggle is our way ..."[1][2] The MB is the largest opposition force in many Arab nations, especially Egypt, is the worlds largest, most influential Islamic group[3] and seeks to install in stages an Islamic Caliphate across the Muslim world. Members are regularly arbitrarily arrested;[4][5] the regime of Hosni Mubarak has obstructed the party's attempts to field candidates in elections, with sweeping arrests or harassment of activists just before elections,[6][7] riot police killing voters and blocking access to polling booths in MB strongholds,[8] government supporters killing voters and MB supporters,[9] in elections that have been scarred by accusations of vote rigging.[10]
Since its inception in 1928 the movement has officially opposed violent means to achieve it's goals, with some exceptions such as in the Israeli Palestinian conflict or to overthrow secular Ba'athist rule in Syria (see Hama massacre). This official position has been questioned, primarily by the Egyptian government who accused it of a campaign of killings in Egypt after World War II.[11]
This position of non-violence has at times caused disputes within the movement and led to the formation of more radical, violent groups such as the Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya (The Islamic Group) and Al Takfir Wal Hijra (Excommunication and Migration).[12] Osama bin Laden, while studying at a university, was impressed by the ideological ideas of several professors with strong ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, although bin Laden now differs significantly with the MB in creed (Aqeeda), theology and methods. The MB has repudiated bin Laden and Al-Qaida.
Among the Brotherhood's more influential members was Sayyid Qutb. Sayyid is author of one of the Brotherhood’s most important books, Milestones, which called for the restoration of Islam by re-establishing Sharia law and by using "physical power and Jihad for abolishing the organizations and authorities of the Jahili system,"[13] which he believed to include the entire Muslim world.
__________________
oderint dum metuant (Latin for 'let them hate, so long as they fear').
Well, in truth I'm actually not a total hawk, but I'm not a dove either -- I'm more like an angry pigeon flying over the political arena after a really big meal. -Abba Gav
Hoyer now says there was no private meeting; al-Katatni insists there was. I don't care how savvy a US politician is, we're talking another Bambi if he's meeting with these guys...
"Because They Hate: A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America," is
written by Brigitte Gabriel.
You are of Christian Lebanese descent. When you heard
what Rosie O'Donnell said, that Christian extremism is as bad as
Islamic extremism, how did you react?
Brigitte Gabriel: Well, I do not know what land she is living in, but
I do not recall when the last time I saw a Christian behead anybody
on television, or behead somebody and advertise it on the Internet. I
do not recall hearing a Christian preach that Muslims are apes and
pigs because they are cursed by Jesus, the way that Muslims are
teaching that we are apes and pigs. I do not recall the last time a
Christian went into an elementary school, hijacked children and
started shooting them in the back like the Muslims did in Beslan in
Russia when they went into a schoolyard and took over the children
and started butchering them and killing them. [Rosie] better be
thankful that she is living in America because if she were living in
Iran and spoke against her country -- or any Arabic country -- she
would be beheaded or actually buried halfway in the ground, to be
stoned to death.
Did you study Islam?
Gabriel: No, I did not study Islam; I lived Islam. I lived in the
Middle East. I read the Koran in the Arabic language -- I do not need
translation. There is something about living in a place and being an
eyewitness and coming from a culture and blowing the whistle on that
culture, and that is very different from someone majoring in Islam
and living in the Middle East for two months so they can write their
thesis.
You were raised in Lebanon, you were 10 years old and living
in southern Lebanon when militant Muslims . . . poured into your
country and declared jihad against Lebanese Christians such as
yourself.
Gabriel: Yes, my 9/11 happened to me in 1975 when I was a 10-year-old
child, living and minding my own business, [in] a small town in south
Lebanon. I was an only child to a businessman and his wife. I was
blessed with a wonderful childhood . . . they showered me with love
and everything life had blessed them with. However, our lives were
turned upside down because in 1975, the Muslims declared Holy War on
the Christians of Lebanon. My home exploded around me, buried in the
rubble, wounded as the perpetrators shouted "Allahu Akbar" [God is
great]. My only crime was that I was a Christian living in a
Christian town. I learned at 10 years old the meaning of the word
"infidel." I had a crash course in survival not in the Girl Scouts,
but in the bomb shelter that I lived for seven years of my life in
freezing cold, pitch darkness, drinking stale water and eating grass
to live. I remember at the age of 13, I dressed in my burial clothes
going to bed at night, waiting to be slaughtered. By the age of 20, I
had buried most of my friends who were slaughtered by Muslims.
You call your book a wake-up call. Tell us what the West does
not understand about what I call Islamofascism. And, do you think
"Islamofascism" is an appropriate term?
Gabriel: Yes, it is an appropriate term. We are fighting
Islamofascism, we are fighting a war that is much worse than Nazism,
anything we have fought before because even the Nazis did not
encourage their children to strap bombs onto their bodies and then
rejoice at their deaths, as well as the deaths of their victims.
Islamists are encouraging their children to die.
__________________
oderint dum metuant (Latin for 'let them hate, so long as they fear').
Well, in truth I'm actually not a total hawk, but I'm not a dove either -- I'm more like an angry pigeon flying over the political arena after a really big meal. -Abba Gav
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