{"id":526,"date":"2012-07-05T08:12:18","date_gmt":"2012-07-05T12:12:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=526"},"modified":"2012-07-05T08:21:59","modified_gmt":"2012-07-05T12:21:59","slug":"a-changed-world-view","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=526","title":{"rendered":"a changed world view"},"content":{"rendered":"

Save for our summer guest writer series (coming in August \u2013 fire up!),<\/em> rarely do I allow this space to be solely consumed by someone else\u2019s words.\u00a0 The following perspective was too significant to ignore.\u00a0 With brief editorial commentary, here are the words of Eric Allen Bell, a filmmaker recently banned from blogging at\u00a0the \u201cDaily Kos\u201d because of contradicting their desired perspective.\u00a0 Bell was originally an outspoken supporter of the proposed construction of a 53,000 sq. ft. mosque in Murfreesboro, TN.\u00a0 He was covering it for a documentary to be entitled \u201cNot Welcome.\u201d\u00a0 Here are his initial remarks…<\/p>\n

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On the outer edge of town, off a small country road, there was a large parcel of land, right next door to a Baptist church, with a big sign that read, \u201cFuture Home of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro.\u201d\u00a0 Over the past 6 months that sign had been defaced twice.\u00a0 Once it was broken in half and another time the words \u201cNot Welcome\u201d were spray painted over it…\u00a0 Having not been much of a fan of Islam or Christianity or religion in general (and that\u2019s putting it mildly) I saw this as something of a David vs. Goliath story \u2013 with fanatical Evangelicals bullying a peaceful Muslim population, which had been in the community for over 30 years without there ever being any trouble.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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Bell was a meticulous observer, watching the innocent advocates, the obnoxious opposers, even the media who promoted the issue…<\/p>\n

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CNN breezed through town and produced a quick hit piece painting all of the mosque opponents as uneducated rednecks and the Islamic community as everyday people who were being wrongly persecuted… <\/em>[it] was called \u201cUnwelcome: The Muslims Next Door.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Bell was convinced the Muslims were wrongfully targeted… until…<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I could not believe the cartoonish way in which those who opposed the mosque were making their case.\u00a0 I felt like I was on the right side of this thing \u2013 absolutely certain.\u00a0 But in fact, I was wrong…<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I went home to Los Angeles, showed my 25 minute short version of the documentary to some distributors and backers… And sure enough someone said they would back the completion of the movie.\u00a0 It was decided that the focus would be on \u201cthe enemy at home\u201d that being what we were calling \u201cApocalyptic Christianity\u201d …\u00a0 The Murfreesboro issue was to be used as something of a jumping off point to take a look at the expanding influence of the End Times Evangelical lobby in the United States and how they use their influence to manufacture consent for the bombing of oil rich Islamic countries and to influence policy on social issues.\u00a0 The theme would focus on the problems we have in America, with our own religious lunatic fringe, rather than on a peaceful group of non-Christians who just wanted to build a place of worship…<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But something kept nagging at me on a gut level.\u00a0 Something about all of this didn\u2019t quite feel right.\u00a0 The Arab Spring, which I supported, started to degenerate into the Islamist Winter, and I grew more and more concerned.\u00a0 I flew back to Nashville to shoot a conference on whether or not Islam was conducive with Democratic Values and on the way to my hotel room I learned that my cab driver was from Egypt.\u00a0 I asked him how he felt about the fall of Mubarak, a dictator worth over $70 billion dollars while so much of his country was living in poverty and he told me he was concerned.\u00a0 Concerned?\u00a0 Wasn\u2019t this good news?\u00a0 The cab driver was a Coptic Christian and he told me that he feared for his family back home.\u00a0 \u201cIf the Muslims take control, and they will, it will be very dangerous for my parents and my sisters.\u00a0 I\u2019m scared for them right now.\u201d\u00a0 After that conversation, I started to pay more attention to the news coming from the Islamic world in the Middle East.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Over the coming months I watched as the Muslim Brotherhood gained political power in Egypt.\u00a0 I saw that cab driver\u2019s worst fears come true as Coptic Christians were attacked by Islamic mobs.\u00a0 I saw Tunisia institute Sharia, the brutal Islamic Law.\u00a0 After Libya fell, the Transitional Council also instituted Islamic Law.\u00a0 The nuclear armed Islamic government of Pakistan arrested and punished those who cooperated with the United States in killing Osama Bin Laden.\u00a0 A woman under the Islamic government of Afghanistan faced execution for the crime of being raped.\u00a0 Similar news stories emerged from Iran.\u00a0 A man who typed \u201cthere is no god\u201d as his Facebook status in Indonesia, the largest Islamic country in the world, was arrested for blasphemy.<\/em><\/p>\n

Several Muslim men in England were arrested for handing out leaflets to Londoners demanding that homosexuals be executed by hanging for violating Islamic Law with their lifestyle.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And it struck me.\u00a0 Even though these angry townspeople in Mufreesboro, TN had not articulated their concerns very well, they were only half wrong.\u00a0 I remember meeting Frank Gaffney and interviewing him in front of the courthouse and asking him if he really thought that the peaceful Muslims here actually presented a real threat to America and he said no.\u00a0 That caught me off guard so I asked if he really thought it was a credible threat that a community that makes up about one percent of the United States population was just going to suddenly rise up one day and try to take over the country and force Sharia Law onto all of us.\u00a0 Again he said no.\u00a0 Then he told me I was asking the wrong questions.\u00a0 He suggested that I was <\/em>only looking for answers that would support the conclusions I had already arrived at…<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It was at this time that I went to my backers and told them that we were not making an honest documentary… It was critical that we also show the very real threats that exist within Islam.\u00a0 We needed to show that what is happening to these small communities of peaceful Muslims in America are the exception to the rule.\u00a0 I wanted to show what happens to countries when they gain a Muslim majority, how women are treated, that homosexuals were executed, that free speech did not exist, that the forced Islamic Law was not consistent with Democratic Values… the response I received was, \u201cEric you are starting to sound like an Islamophobe.\u00a0 We don\u2019t want to make a movie that promotes fear.\u00a0 Let\u2019s just stick with the existing plan, okay?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

With objective research, Bell says the series of events \u201cchanged my world view.\u201d\u00a0 He attempted to educate his employers, having worked for the Daily Kos and Michael Moore among others, but they refused to even consider his fair-minded attempts.\u00a0 They only wanted to support the conclusions they had previously arrived at.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Has Bell thus become a conservative?\u00a0 \u201cNot really,\u201d he says.\u00a0 He\u2019s still opposed to the invasion of Iraq; he doesn\u2019t care for Bush 43; and he supports gay marriage.\u00a0 But he\u2019s also pro-life.\u00a0 Bell even still supports the right to build the mosque in Murfreesboro.\u00a0 But he no longer believes that Islam is a peaceful religion; and he will no longer be part of a biased media that refuses to report otherwise.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Respectfully,<\/p>\n

AR<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

(Intramuralist note: \u00a0Bell’s account was edited here due to space considerations; for a more complete perspective, see his article entitled, “The High Price of Telling the Truth About Islam.”)<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Save for our summer guest writer series (coming in August \u2013 fire up!), rarely do I allow this space to be solely consumed by someone else\u2019s words.\u00a0 The following perspective was too significant to ignore.\u00a0 With brief editorial commentary, here are the words of Eric Allen Bell, a filmmaker recently banned from blogging at\u00a0the \u201cDaily … <\/p>\n

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