CNN Documentary: God's Warriors

Anyone who has tuned into CNN in the past few weeks can bear witness to the endless stream of commercials involving their "ground breaking" new documentary series: "God's Warriors" outlining extremism in the three major monotheistic religions. The documentary is narrated and produced by Christiane Amanpour, who herself comes from a multi-religious background.

I had an opportunity to watch the series and came away with mized feelings. If you have never really delved into the issue of extremism, it would really be an eye opener.

What I found striking was the difference in the Muslim and CHristian episodes. Now, I'm not at all sure if it is the way the pieces were put together...but the Christian extremist seemed to have been much less intimidating than their Muslim counterparts. CNN has placed Christian extremism in the realm of Bible-thumping, politically motivated evengelicals...which might lead to apprehensions in our society to some in our coountry....it did not seem to be the sort of life threatening stuff one was presented with in the Muslim episode. Is this due to the actual nature of the respective extremists? Not entirely sure. I do know that Amanpour did a respectable job in a subject that can be quite difficult to navigate.

At any rate, in a world where everyone makes religion into the subject that nobody needs to speak by name...I'm glad that CNN made an attempt given the state of the world today.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/gods.warriors/