Congressmen Question PBS on Film Censorship

Kudos to the six members of Congress who recently signed a letter calling on the inspector general of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to investigate the Public Broadcasting Service and WETA television station for their questionable practices in the airing of the taxpayer-funded film, "Islam vs. Islamists: Voices from the Muslim Center." Specifically, for reasons that have yet to be publicly explained, the national public broadcasting system failed to show this film, which was intended to be a segment of an eight-part series on Islam.

Frank Gaffney, Jr. co-produced the film and has some harrowing stories of censorship and harassment by WETA. Gaffney and another co-producer documented in this film that Muslim radicals are pushing to establish parallel societies in America and Europe governed by courts applying Sharia law rather than civil courts. The film is clear eyed about the ideology of radical Islamists but focuses attention on the views and activities of moderate Muslims who offer a path of reason and reconciliation. Senators Jon Kyl, Tom Coburn, James Inhofe and Representatives Trent Franks, Peter Hoekstra and Peter King are to be commended for their efforts to make sure that this film, which cost $675,000 in tax dollars to make, is not swept under the PBS rugs but gets the American audience it deserves.