By WILLIAM SULLIVAN - AMERICAN THINKER
Added: Fri, 08 Oct 2010 02:15:53 UTC

Recently, Christianne Amanpour hosted a panel discussion meant to explore the misunderstood delineation between moderate and extremist Islam.

A dichotomy is certainly brought to light in discussion, but considering Amanpour is a staunch Islamic apologist, it is probably not the one she meant to expose.  She likely sought to support the notion that Islam is peaceful, and to advance the belief that only a small contingent of radicals corrupts the faith.  To those ends, she enlisted guests of Christian and Muslim backgrounds for her panel, and I'm fairly certain she expected the Christian guests to attack Islam as an intolerant faith bent on universalizing Sharia, while her Muslim guests and audience members would defend themselves as peaceful practitioners of the tolerant faith of Islam. 

Americans are familiar with the strategy.  It's the standard stuff that tends to make Christians look intolerant and Muslims look misunderstood. But one portion of the discussion hurls a monkey-wrench into those plans.  When Amanpour addresses the ideas of Muslim cleric Anjem Choudary, she has the audacity to question his ideas about Islamic domination.  Choudary proclaims that he disagrees with the entire focus of the segment, and argues that the notions of moderate Islam or extremist Islam are nonsense.  There is only Islam, whose followers "submit to the creator."  Then, in an effort to convey that Islam can live in peace with the Western world, he concludes, "We do believe as Muslims that the east and the west will one day be governed by the Sharia. Indeed we believe that one day the flag of Islam will fly over the White House."
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TAGGED: COMMENTARY, INTERVIEWS, ISLAM, RELIGION, TV