CNN's Pressroom announced that its upcoming six-hour special “God's Warriors,” reported by Christiane Amanpour, will discuss “the impact of religious fundamentalism as a powerful political force.” In the process, CNN revealed what it thinks about the various “fundamentalists” around the world by pushing the typical multi-culti PC media position that no one religion is more problematic or violent than another, with all types of fundamentalism being equally dangerous.
Their examples of fundamentalists spoke volumes. Photo captions on the program's website easily labeled a Jewish group “terrorist,” but in every mention, called Palestinian suicide bombers “martyr” or “martyrs.” Into that mix of religious violence, CNN bizarrely included the non-violent American Christian youth group, Battle Cry. Sure, that makes sense. No conviction by association there.
The press release lumped the “fundamentalism” of America's “Christian Right” (because all of the Christian Right are fundamentalists) and the Moral Majority with “fundamentalism” of the “militant” “Islamic jihadist” who assassinated Anwar Sadat and with the “militant Jewish” “fundamentalist” who assassinated Yitzak Rabin. As Sesame Street might sing, “One of these things is not like the others...” (emphasis mine throughout):
God’s Warriors includes interviews with former President Jimmy Carter about the political impact of the Christian Right in the United States; the Rev. Jerry Falwell – in his last television interview – about the political and cultural legacy of the Moral Majority movement in America; Noa Ben-Artzi, granddaughter of slain Israeli Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin, discusses his assassination by a militant Jewish fundamentalist; and Kamal el-Said Habib, a reformed Islamic jihadist who was part of the violent militant group that assassinated Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.
I'm sure Hamas-fan Carter, who was likely brought in to balance the late Falwell's Republican-favoring pro-Israel stance, will be very reasonable toward the “Christian Right,” especially their support of the Jewish state. I wonder if CNN will address Carter's established bias against Israel and his support of supporting these same violent militant Islamic groups.
One can argue the political influence of groups chosen by CNN, but the difference among the three in their use of violence is stark. The global footprint of militant fundamentalist Islam is far greater than militant Jewish and Christian fundamentalism, and as a group the Christian Right condemned the anti-abortion violence in the 1990s. The special seems to be comparing legal American political activism and a marginalized small-time Israeli terrorist group to a brutal global Islamic movement that tolerates no dissent, even from other Muslims. I hope I'm wrong, and CNN shows that difference.
The images posted on the “God's Warriors” site further back up this unbalanced view. Several of the images of Muslims addressed suicide bombers (which the readers must identify through CNN's use of the biased term) while injecting sympathy and victimhood by showing the grieving female relatives of the “martyrs” instead of, say, the deadly results of the "martyrs." Even the examples of militant Jewish fundamentalists were portrayed as bombers, but the weirdly semi-ominous images of the Christian “warriors” were mostly of the youth group Battle Cry, whose “battle” is for raising awareness for traditional values. Compare that to plucking out eyeballs and beheadings. Eh, to-may-to, to-mah-to.
Will “God's Warriors” be bold and address the obvious differences, or will it stick to the usual MSM playbook of minimizing the influence of Islam on politics, especially in Europe, and pretending that the “threat” of Jewish and Christian fundamentalism equals the Islamic kind?
Contact Lynn at tvisgoodforyou2 AT yahoo DOT com
