God's Warriors - Part 2: Muslim Warriors
I didn't get to watch Christiane Amanpour's Muslim Warriors in real time and so with a bit of delay, I watched the 11 YouTube segments yesterday (here they all are: part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11).
What to say about it all? Not that much. It was hardly ground-breaking work. Amanpour went in search of God's Warriors of Islam in Iran, Egypt, Holland, the UK, the US and Israel (Palestinian suicide bombers were discussed in the very last segment). She made a good job of showing the influence of The Muslim Brotherhood (and the perhaps less known Sayed Qutb) on Radical Islam, including on people like bin Laden.
Interestingly, she also portrayed a few Muslims for whom Jihad means simply 'struggle' as in for instance a constant striving to live life 'the Muslim way' and for whom the word has no violent connotations.
The format of the program inevitably lead to some generalisations and stereotypes (e.g. viewers could be led to believe that The Netherlands is a hash den and a Sodom and Gomorrah of prostitution but these extreme forms of liberalness are really mostly confined to parts of Amsterdam). Some of Amanpour's interviews were cut down to not much more than one single sentence, notably with Ayaan Hirsi Ali whose only short statement claimed that she perpetually fears for her life (a claim which undoubtedly pushes up her book sales).
Also interesting was the reminder of the root cause of the centuries long rift between Sunnis and Shias which has resurfaced today with such violent manifestations in Iraq.
All in all, again quite balanced, with both sides of the coin briefly touched upon on all topics treated.
Comment on Part 1: Jewish Warriors can be found here.
posted by Gert @ 12:31 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Giving a balanced, morally equivalent approach to terrorists IS the problem, and demonstrates the liberal bias of her reporting. To vilify innocent Jews, who for religious reasons live in Judea, as "persecutors" when in fact they are the ones being PERSECUTED (by both arabs and dhimmi Jews), but giving a wink/nod approach to the Mohammedans that are responsible for nearly all the terrorism in the world, is deplorable.
Mad Zionist:
On Amanpour's bias, sure, we're all biased.
"To vilify innocent Jews, who for religious reasons live in Judea, as "persecutors" when in fact they are the ones being PERSECUTED (by both arabs and dhimmi Jews), [...]"
The vilification is entirely in your mind and stems from your own bias. She treated the subject of fundamentalist Jewish settlers with respect and to me these people came off looking rather good. They're people like anyone else but with a rather radical, religious outlook on life.
If this series has shown anything once again it's that religious fundamentalists have far more in common compared to what divides them. They mirror each others views.
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