Today the Washington Times has a front page article on the film “Islam vs. Islamists,” suppressed by the Public Broadcasting System because it didn’t toe their line of political correctness: PBS shelves film on moderate Muslims.

Originally, the film was intended to be shown on “America at a Crossroads,” a six-night series which begins Sunday. The series comprises 11 independently produced films depicting the political and cultural complexities of a post-September 11 nation. Mr. Gaffney and partners Mr. Burke and Alex Alexiev received $675,000 in funding last year, ultimately producing an unvarnished look at Islamic fundamentalist threats and intimidation of some Muslims.

Their work did not go over well with Leo Eaton, the series producer, or Jeff Bieber, executive producer at WETA, where the series originated. Mr. Gaffney received a series of critical “notes” between November and February which said, among other things, that the film would “demonize Islam” and promote public fear of Islamic organizations.

The critique, Mr. Gaffney said in a March 6 rebuttal, “is itself ‘a point of view’ … an apologia for Islamist extremism.”

LGF reader Paul Green emailed some interesting information about one member of the five-member panel that reviewed the documentary, DePaul University Professor Aminah McCloud. McCloud apparently showed some footage from the film to members of the Nation of Islam, and has very close ties to the extremist group herself. In the March 10, 2000 issue of the NOI paper The Final Call, she declared, “The Nation of Islam must define what Islam is within the American culture.”

For the Nation of Islam itself, the challenge now means a greater leadership role in the spiritual, social, and political aspects among the Black “mainstream”, according to Aminah Beverly McCloud, author of “African American Islam.”

“Only if we take the reigns,” Ms. McCloud said in an interview, “because there is an impetus in this country for the immigrant community to define what is Islam, and they’re very adamant.” The Nation of Islam must define what Islam is within the American culture, she said.

And according to the January 17, 2004 edition of the New York Times, McCloud is also “a board member of the American Muslim Council and of the Chicago branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.” Googling her name in connection with CAIR brings up quite a list of results: aminah mccloud cair - Google Search.

Here’s an informative profile of McCloud at FrontPage: Teaching and Terror at DePaul.

As you read about the radical Islamic connections and sympathies of the person picked by PBS to judge “Islam vs. Islamism,” keep in mind that PBS’s executive producer Jeff Bieber reportedly asked the documentary’s producer Martyn Burke, “Don’t you check into the politics of the people you work with?”

UPDATE at 4/11/07 11:23:35 pm:

Also see:
Protein Wisdom: Fear or Loathing at PBS, 2?
Riehl World View: Terrorism Apologist Helped Nix PBS Film