Free The Film

This entry was written by spongeworthy (lightly snipped and edited by lauraw).

Pockets of Corruption

Filmmaker and long-time sponge-friend Martyn Burke last night held a private viewing of his controversial film Islam vs. Islamists: Voices from the Muslim Center.
I attended as a friend of the director and got to hobnob with the cream of New York City’s conservatives, which means a smattering of Zionist kooks, Manhattan Institute tele-geeks rocking Brooks Brothers three-buttons, ubiquitous NRO columnists, incomprehensible FrontPage free-lancers and the Glen Cove iMac & Gun Club.

As has been discussed here and elsewhere, PBS refuses to show the film, and they refuse to release it for showing elsewhere, excepting private (free) showings. There have been a variety of reasons given by PBS.

They claimed the film is too long at two hours. Nonsense, says the director, the film is 52 minutes. They have another hour in the can available to PBS for free, but these 52 minutes stand alone and always have.

PBS claims the film is “alarmist”. Well, not to me it isn’t. Terror footage is maybe 45 seconds total. The film deals only slightly with the greater threat of Islamists to America.
The film is about what some moderate Muslims are saying in their communities to reclaim their religion, and what the kooks who are trying to hijack it do to silence them.
At times it’s surreal and depressing, as if the Wahabbis must be joking. They’re not, they simply lie poorly with a straight face because they know there is little anyone can do-especially in Democratic societies- to stop them.

PBS claims the film is one-sided. Perhaps there’s something to that. Certainly the filmmakers present both sides, but they are rightly appalled by the hubris of the Islamists.

The filmmakers point out that series host Robert MacNeil aired his own piece, The Muslim Americans, about which Investors Business Daily noted:

PBS just aired a "documentary" intended to chronicle "the diversity of Muslim life in America." So why does it give so much face time to anti-American Islamists?

Secular Muslims who want to reform Islam are nowhere to be found in producer Robert MacNeil's film, "The Muslim Americans," part of a PBS series called "America at a Crossroads." Instead, extremists masquerading as moderates are lionized.[emph. me -lw]

As we have been told, PBS’s D.C. affiliate WETA pressured Martyn to can his co-producers, Frank Gaffney and Alex Alexiev, claiming (rightly) they are conservatives.
The filmmakers stand by his charge of political blacklisting publicly, it’s not a backhand accusation they’re sneaking in to rabble-rouse us flammable Hannity droolers. But Martyn takes it a step further.

By his reckoning, PBS is riddled with “pockets of corruption”. I don’t think by this he means they are taking money under the table to present Islamists through a Vaseline filter. I do know that Arab-Americans and organizations like the heinous CAIR are as vocal a constituency as exists in the U.S., and PBS’s funding comes directly through those who have to take phone calls from Ibriham Hooper.

A review of the film can be found here.

If you agree that the film should be seen on PBS or released to the filmmakers, there are a few things you can do.

Complain to your local PBS affiliate. Surprisingly, PBS is interested in feedback from its affiliates, even if they are in Fargo.

You can write your congressman—they funded this to the tune of $600,000 and it’s sitting on a shelf.

You can call the Center for Public Broadcasting and state your case. Their number is 202-879-9600.

Thanks for your eyeballs.

spongeworthy

Final note from lauraw: Big thanks to Spongeworthy for encapsulating the film and controversy.

You can't have it all ways, PBS. You can't exalt violent Islamists, call Islam a Religion of Peace, and then also suppress how radicals terrorize their peaceful coreligionists.

Frankly, you look like a bunch of handwringing ninnies.

Let the film out and trust your audience. Please.

posted by Laura. at 11:05 AM

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