NYT Review of "God's Warriors"

The New York Times reviews the CNN series entitled "God's Warriors", which debuts this evening.  Here's an excerpt:

[T]oo often Ms. Amanpour relies on talking heads rather than on actual representatives of these groups, and when she does get a live specimen she rarely bores in with hard, blunt questions. Maybe that’s by design; the point seems to be to describe rather than challenge. Still, given the waves these movements are making, it would be nice to hear their leaders talk about what specifically they have to offer the world.

Tonight’s opening installment, “God’s Jewish Warriors,” seems particularly timid, spending more time than necessary on clips of the Six-Day War and other familiar historical episodes.  . .  . Ms. Amanpour’s most interesting contribution is a segment on the fund-raising in the United States that supports them.

“God’s Muslim Warriors,” tomorrow, is sharper, with Ms. Amanpour finally showing some aggressiveness, on the issue of women’s rights under radical Islam, brashly confronting leaders about things like stonings. But mostly she’s polite and lets her subjects stay in their comfort zones.  . . .

In Part 3, “God’s Christian Warriors,” on Thursday, the focus shifts to the United States and its electoral politics. The issues on these Christian warriors’ minds seem positively quaint next to the agendas of the people in Parts 1 and 2. The episode includes the final interview with the Rev. Jerry Falwell, who died in May.

I don't have cable TV, so I'll rely on you to tell me about this series.

Comments

[rich Siegel]

The premise of this 3 part series is falsely lodged in moral equivalency. Three religions. Three separate nights. Three objective (Ha) looks at religious fanaticism.

How often have Jews flown planes into buildings or strapped dynamite to their chest in the name of the Almighty?

How often do Christians send suicide bombers into the midst of innocent infidels?

When you hear of a hijacking, or a bombing or the kidnapping of aid workers, how SHOCKED would you be if you found out the perpetrators were NOT Muslim?

This is nothing short of Western complacency and puts us one step closer to the Caliphate.

[Craig Fluck]

Whoa, it sounds like Rich has an ax to grind, not to mention a short memory or lack of awareness of the manner in which Christians have perpetrated their own form of violence on the unsuspecting.

The bit of the program I caught last night was a bit 'clinical' lacking in the down to earth investigation of fundamentalism and it's root causes and expressions.

Hopefully, there will be less human complacency when we understand the extremes to which religion can drive us.

[Garrie Whalen]

I saw the second Segment-- CNN's "God's Muslim Warriors" last night (Thurs night) here in Kuala Lumpur. There needs to be many more of this type of program..But-- a lot was missing and unsaid....such as the big points that were discussed Monday night in the US on Larry King's show with Christiane Amanpour and representatives of the three faiths....where she says some really important observations and feelings that are shared by many bewildered people around the world who are watching the hijacking of religions:
SHE SAID on Monday night...QUOTE--
1) "..this clash of civilizations we seem to be living in now...the crux of it...to reclaim faith and make faith a healer, not a divider...

2) "...I think in the Muslim religion,Islam, I still wait for the day when moderate Islamic scholars and imams and people of indluence stand up and are able to face down those who are ruining your religion-- the Al Qaeda types, the people who believe thai if you don't believe like I do, you should be killed, you're an infidel."

Point (Issue) No. 2 ...should have been discussed at length...as it is such a crucial and obvious issue....WHERE ARE THE DEFENDERS OF that major religion,ISLAM...WHERE THE KORAN nor Muslim history has never and DOES NOT CONDONE KILLING INNOCENTS OR SUICIDE BOMBERS ....This is a new concept being foisted on Muslims by radical, militant, and evil extemists...that you go to heaven
as a Martyr when you randomly kill innocent "infidels" ...women,children, the elderly, etc....and also when you commit suicide. This is a new evil and twisted theology for the Muslim religion....Why are not the leaders of this religion of 1.3 billion people...standing up to take back their religion...which is surely being hyjacked by fanatics?? ...and I wonder why this was not a central theme of the Segment? ..or did I miss something?

[Melissa Rogers]

Thanks very much for these reports on the program. I believe the transcripts of the segments are being posted. I'll update the post with a link to those transcripts. I welcome other thoughts from those who watched the series.