Comments on MSNBC Interview on PBS Mohammad Documentary

Submitted by Ruben G. Perlmutter (United States), Dec 20, 2002 at 15:58

I'd like to share a letter I wrote to the editor of MSNBC.com:

To the editor:

I would like to comment on Lester Holt's woeful interview of Daniel Pipes and Hussein Ibish regarding the publicly-funded PBS documentary on the Life of Islam -- woeful because Mr. Holt didn't have the appropriate background/information to ask the most probing questions.

Mr. Holt seemed too time-constrained to delve into the appropriate critical approach that the documentary should have taken. Rather than follow-up with Mr. Pipes' comment on PBS's From Jesus to Christ by asking what recent research was omitted from the PBS documentary on Muhammad, Mr. Holt seemed to prefer to focus on the government-funding issue with Mr. Pipes.

Mr. Holt didn't ask any insightful questions of Mr. Hussein Ibish, a well-known and well-spoken apologist for Arabs and Islam in the US. Mr. Ibish truthfully indicates that the PBS documentary in question presents Mohammed from the perspective of Islamic tradition. But there was no follow-up: the question, in my mind, was not about the history of violence done in the name of Islam (historically, much more violence has been done in the name of Christ, although that is not as much a 'current event question'). In my opinion, the proper question is whether there is another perspective to Mohammed that was not presented. And there is -- indeed, significant recent Western research questions the fundamental pillars of Islam (who was Mohammed? when were the Koran and Hadith actually written? was the Arabic consolidation and emergence from the Arabian peninsula in the seventh century actually inspired by Islam or later explained as the outcome of Islam?). Mr. Holt should at least have been aware of the book "The Quest for the Historical Muhammad" edited by Ibn Warraq and published in 2000 (Promethues Books). Just the second chapter, "Origins of Islam" by Ibn al-Rawandi has explosive implications for any study of Mohammad -- and would have at least informed Mr. Holt sufficiently to ask more incisive questions than he did. Instead of insight, we got Barbara Walters-esque softball questions.

Let me close with a comment on the clip shown quoting firefighter Kevin James -- the quote that Mr. James attributes to the Koran that made him want to be a firefighter. The Koranic concept was first written down 400 years before in the Jewish Mishnah. See Division Nezikin, Tractate Sanhedrin, Chapter 4, Mishnah 5.

Mr. Holt, better-informed, should have first interviewed the documentary film-makers -- and asked them what their purpose was and why they chose not take an approach similar to that of From Jesus to Christ and place some focus on the questions raised by modern research. At least Mr. Hold would then have established a foundation for a more meaningful interview with Messrs. Pipes and Hussein.

Ruben G. Perlmutter
Dallas, Texas

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