Press Release Content
?CNN Presents: God's Warriors' is a six-hour television event examining the impact of the rise of religious fundamentalism as a powerful political force in three faiths: Judaism, Islam and Christianity. CNN Chief International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour travelled to eight countries over eight months to report for this powerful documentary.
"God's Warriors is an investigation of religion as a political force, at a time when religious activism is a signature cultural phenomenon of our times," said Mark Nelson, vice president and senior executive producer for CNN Productions. "This project's global scope is ideally suited for the skills of someone with as impressive of a journalistic pedigree as our own Christiane Amanpour."
For this documentary, Amanpour reports that during the last 30 years, each faith has exploded into a powerful political force, comprised of followers - "God's warriors" - who share a deep dissatisfaction with modern society, and a fierce determination to place God and religion back into daily life and to the seats of power. Their political and cultural struggles to save the world from what they view as secular materialism, greed and sexual corruption have caused anger, division and fear.
?God's Jewish Warriors' - Wednesday 22nd August at 1900 GMT
God's Jewish warriors draw inspiration from the Book of Ezekiel: "Ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers." For them, Israel's victory in the Six-Day War in 1967 meant the fulfillment of prophecy: When Jews return to their homeland and live according to the Torah, the Messiah can come.
Following the war that redesigned the map of the Middle East and proscribed the boundaries of Israel, Jewish settlements in the territory have become the central uncompromising principle of the Jewish warriors. Though the settlements are controversial, violate international law and have inspired violent retribution from the million Muslim Palestinians living under Jewish sovereignty, Jewish settlers and the Jewish Underground have been willing to use politics and vigilante justice to avenge the occupied territory in the name of peace.
In a two-hour programme that goes behind-the-scenes of historical events, ?God's Jewish Warriors' reports how Christian Zionists in America are raising large sums of money to support the activities of the settlers and lobby Congress for policies supportive of the settlements in Gaza.
The programme also reveals how peace negotiations in the 1970s with President Jimmy Carter, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat - along with a return of the occupied territories in Gaza - intensified the determination of both Jews and Muslims who both view compromise - and sometimes even dialogue - as capitulation. Through the years since, the rising tensions have resulted in assassinations by Muslim and Jewish religious radicals of Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin, violence and harsh reprisals, and a barrier wall.
"The tragedy besides our personal tragedy is that he was stopped in the middle of the way," says Noa Rothman when asked by Amanpour about the assassination of her grandfather, Israeli Prime Minister Rabin. "And we can never know how the end of the path would have been."
?God's Jewish Warriors' was filmed in Israel, the United Kingdom and the United States.
?God's Muslim Warriors' - Thursday 23rd August at 1900 GMT
Islam is the fastest growing religion in America and Europe, and tension between Muslim and Western cultures is also growing. Geneive Abdo, author of Mecca and Main Street, says that since 9/11, a majority of U.S. Muslims report feeling targeted by the government and ordinary citizens for suspicion of terrorism.
A recent Pew Forum poll, the first to measure American Muslim attitudes, found that although the majority found no conflict between living a devout Muslim life and being an American, young Muslims were almost twice as likely as their parents to attend mosque and identify themselves as Muslim first and Americans second. They are also more outwardly religious, more likely to wear Muslim dress and more pious than older Muslims. Perhaps most unsettling was the measurement that 26 percent felt that suicide bombings can sometimes be justified. Abdo tells Amanpour that they are rejecting many aspects of American society that they consider to be immoral and degrading.
Rehan Seyam is one such young Muslim who feels that her commitment to Islam, her adoption of the hijab head scarf, and her rejection of American materialism is her own "jihad" or struggle. Across the Atlantic Ocean, in one of the most permissive, liberal societies in Europe, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a former member of the Dutch Parliament and an atheist who was born into a conservative Muslim family became a target of a more violent form of jihad. Ali and Theo van Gogh collaborated upon a film critical of Islam's treatment of women. Van Gogh was murdered by a Muslim extremist.
In London, Amanpour speaks with Ed Husain, a young Muslim who now describes himself as having been radicalized as a youth to accept an extremist Islamist ideology - seeking to return peace to the world through a restoration of a governing caliphate. Similarly radicalized young British Muslims are responsible for the July 7, 2005, bombings of the London Underground subway system, and the recent attacks on the Glasgow Airport in Scotland.
?God's Muslim Warriors' was filmed in the United Kingdom, Egypt, Iran, Israel, the Netherlands and the United States.
?God's Christian Warriors' - Friday 24th August at 1900 GMT
In a two-hour investigation that reports on God's Christian warriors, Amanpour interviews evangelicals confronting public school curricula, morality in entertainment and public life, reproductive health and marriage issues.
"People have experienced extreme disappointment with secular culture, and so there has developed this counter-cultural protest," said Karen Armstrong, religious historian and author of ?The Battle for God'.
In the late 1970s, a modern religious involvement in American politics began largely in response to the U.S. Supreme Court decision to legalize abortion, Roe v. Wade. Dr. Jerry Falwell, a preacher, founded an overtly political faith movement, the "Moral Majority," and Liberty University, an institution with aims to place its graduates in influential political positions. By the 1980 national election, the group had played a leadership role in the defeat of 12 incumbent U.S. senators - largely on moral grounds - in the wake of the "Reagan Revolution."
"Whoever speaks out most gets to shape the culture," says Ron Luce to a stadium crowd of thousands at the 2007 Battlecry event aimed at creating a young generation of conservative Christians to "battle" secular "virtue terrorists."
Quieter warriors are waging change on more personal terms. Disturbed by what they perceive as the lack of God in public schools, Jennifer and Michael Nevarr teach their children at home, allowing them to teach their children their values, which can impact everything from evolution to maths.
In his interview with Amanpour just one week before his death, Falwell spoke of the strategy for his movement as a "soft but intelligent ?sell' of the facts." Even after his death, presidential hopefuls paid homage to Falwell by visiting Liberty University and actively courting the faithful.
?God's Christian Warriors' was filmed primarily in the United States.
Notes and contacts
About the Documentary Series ?God's Warriors'
The ?God's Warriors' series includes interviews with former President Jimmy Carter, the Rev. Jerry Falwell, Noa Rothman and Kamal el-Said Habib, a reformed Islamic jihadist who was part of the violent militant group that assassinated Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.
"There are millions of people around the world who feel that their faith is being ignored - pushed aside - and they are certain they know how to make the world right," Amanpour says. "We cannot and should not ignore them. And, with this report, we've tried to explain them."
A companion Web site to ?God's Warriors' offers users show excerpts from the documentary, an audio podcast and an exclusive video diary that goes behind-the-scenes with producers as they travelled in Europe, North America, Africa and the Middle East for principle filming. This online content will be available at
www.cnn.com/godswarriors. The podcast will also be available for download from iTunes.
The managing editor of ?God's Warriors' is Kathy Slobogin. Andy Segal, Michael Mocklar and Ken Shiffman are senior producers; Cliff Hackel is producer/editor; Brian Rokus, Jen Christensen and Julie O'Neill are producers. Jody Gottlieb is the executive director of CNN Productions.
Christiane Amanpour has reported on crises from many of the world's hotspots and war zones. Her assignments also include exclusive interviews with world leaders on the human consequences of natural disasters and global politics. She has received numerous awards for her work, including the coveted Paul White Award from the Radio-Television News Directors Association, two George Foster Peabody Awards, a Courage in Journalism Award and a number of Emmys and duPont awards. She is a member of the board of directors for the Committee to Protect Journalists.
