Who Defines the Difference?
By Stacey Pistritto on 07 June 2007 The race is on to define the ‘real face’ of Islam. Political and religious figures from across the ideological spectrum are promoting themselves as the true exemplars of Muslim life and faith. But often, the only thing these figures have in common is a tacit recognition of the central tenets of Islam: Allah is God and Muhammed is his messenger. So which voice is correct? Is it possible to define something as amorphous as a 1400-year-old religion with over a billion adherents worldwide in such disparate locations as India, Sudan and Denmark? How do you honestly represent a faith that fully one-fifth of the world claims as its own? The U.S.-based Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) was recently thrust into the debate following its decision to block the broadcast of Islam vs. Islamists: Voices from the Muslim Center, a documentary that aims to shed light on the lives of Muslim moderates living in Western societies. PBS officials argued that the film, orig
