Sunday, August 19, 2007

Confirming Our Suspicions

A hat tip to John Hinderaker at Powerline, who found this AP "preview" of Christiane Amanpour's three-night, CNN documentary entitled "God's Warriors, Watching promos for the program (which airs this week) it seems clear that Ms. Amanpour's work will attempt to paint fundamentalists from the three major religions--Islam, Judaism and Christianity--with the same brush, while ignoring the obvious differences. Mr. Hinderaker's read of the AP review merely confirms our suspicions:

"It's hardly worth the trouble to point out the stupidity of confounding Christian "fundamentalism"--the most commonly accepted definition of which is a belief in the literal truth of the Bible--with Islamic "fundamentalism," whose distinguishing characteristic is a desire to impose Sharia on the world, and kill everyone who resists."

Of course, that won't stop Ms. Amanpour from trying to make the connection. For her segment on "Christian Warriors," the CNN correspondent focuses on a group called BattleCry which (among other things) promotes chastity among its members. In noting how girls at some BattleCry events are encouraged to wear long dresses, Amanpour asks the group's leader how it is different from the Taliban.

Well, let's see...as far as we know, BattleCry allows young women to venture outside their homes without the escort of a male relative. There are no reports of the organization executing women who "shame" their families by engaging in sex outside of marriage, and from what we can tell, female members of BattleCry can obtain an education, through government or home schools. And a long dress is a far cry from a Burka.

But, apparently it's all the same to Christiane Amanpour, so we won't be watching "God's Warriors."

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