c. 1999 Religion News Service
WASHINGTON _ A Muslim-American watchdog group says it fears Sunday’s season-opening episode of the popular CBS-TV show”Touched by an Angel”featuring a story line focusing on slavery in Sudan amounts to thinly disguised anti-Muslim propaganda and political partisanship.
The one-hour show depicts a fictional senator who must choose between confronting allegations of slavery in Sudan or pleasing campaign contributors who want her to concentrate on domestic economic issues. The senator chooses the Sudan issue.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations said Thursday (Sept. 23) the episode is another example of Hollywood’s insensitivity toward Muslims. A CAIR spokesman said the episode is based on biased information provided to executive producer Martha Williamson by groups aligned with Sudan’s minority Christians and intent on opening the predominantly Muslim nation to increased Christian missionary efforts.
Such groups have long said that the National Islamic Front, which controls Sudan’s government, seeks to forcibly convert Sudanese Christians and tribal animists to Islam. The recently released State Department global survey of religious freedom agreed, saying Sudan’s government follows”an unwritten policy of Islamization of public institutions”and that”children from Christian and other non-Muslim families”are often”captured and sold into slavery.” Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR’s Washington-based communications director, also said CBS appeared to be”promoting partisan legislation”by screening the episode on Capitol Hill for lawmakers and activists who want to expand U.S. involvement in the ongoing Sudanese civil war, which pits the Islamic government against largely Christian and tribal rebels in the nation’s southern region.
The Tuesday night screening was hosted by Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., a leader among those in Congress who hold the Sudanese government responsible for genocide and slavery directed against the nation’s non-Muslims. Some 1.9 million have died and 4.3 million have been made homeless by the conflict, according to opponents of the government.
Brownback is also a co-sponsor of proposed legislation that seeks to pressure the Sudanese government into peace talks with the outnumbered rebels through increased economic sanctions and U.S.-sponsored condemnations of Sudan in United Nations forums. The bill also calls for direct food aid in rebel-controlled areas and the stationing of human rights monitors in the south”to promote an end”to government attacks on civilian targets and other alleged human rights violations.
CBS Senior Vice President Martin Franks said at the Capitol Hill screening that the network was not endorsing the Sudan bill. He also called the episode nonpolitical.
CBS rejected a CAIR request for its own advance screening of the episode, or for a disclaimer disassociating slavery in Sudan from Islam’s moral teachings.
In a letter to Hooper, Carol Altieri, CBS’ vice president for program practices, said,”Your concerns that the program defames the Islamic faith seem largely unfounded.” Altieri noted that the episode makes”no reference”to the Islamic religion and said allowing CAIR to preview the show”would make any CBS broadcast subject to public scrutiny prior to air.” However, Hooper noted that iviews.com _ a Muslim Internet news service based in Santa Clara, Calif. _ reported at least one scene in the episode”depicts a man armed with an assault rifle, dressed in an Islamic-style turban and robe, marching a column of dark-skinned and bedraggled refugees through the desert.” Hooper said the implication of that scene and the episode’s general tenor is that Islam condones slavery.”No doubt terrible things take place in southern Sudan,”said Hooper.”But forced labor and sexual slavery are not Islamic practices but the result of inter-tribal raiding.”Christian missionaries are using this as a handy club to bash Muslims to push their own religious agendas,”he said.
Brownback spokesman Eric Hotmire denied the proposed Sudan Peace Act or the”Touched by an Angel”episode _ which the senator’s office consulted on _ were anti-Muslim.”Slavery does exist in the Sudan and that’s what the show is about. CAIR’s criticism is misdirected,”he said.
Hotmire agreed, though, that Sunday’s episode is a public relations coup for those supporting the bill and Sudan’s minority Christians. Some 20 million people typically view”Touched by an Angel,”which stars Roma Downey, Della Reese and John Dye as invisible angels who seek to bring out the best in people. The show is highly touted by Christian leaders as one of network TV’s most family-friendly shows.”Touched by an Angel”Web sites about the episode have been linked to those of Christian groups who have long pushed for U.S. pressure on Sudan, and to congressional sites detailing what Congress has done on the issue.
Among the sites linked to it is that of Christian Solidarity International, whose U.N. consultative status was revoked recently after Sudan complained the Zurich-based evangelical Christian agency had broken U.N. rules by allowing Sudanese opposition leaders to use its credentials.
The”Touched by an Angel”site also urges viewers to help”shape and mobilize a grass-roots movement across the U.S. to end genocide in Sudan.””We are certainly pleased that `Touched by an Angel’ is exposing the terrible atrocities and human rights violations taking place in Sudan,”said Hotmire.
DEA END RIFKIN
