Empires - Islam: Empire of Faith
by Robert H. Gardner
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DVD details
Actor: Ben KingsleyDirector: Robert H. Gardner
Brand: Paramount
Cinematographer: Regis Becker
Producer: Robert H. Gardner
Editor: Christopher Schultz
Editor: David Grossbach
Writer: Jonathan Grupper
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.1; English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.1
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 160 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-03-08
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: PBS
DVD Reviews of Empires - Islam: Empire of Faith
DVD Review: Historical Pseudo-Fact Devoid of Context
Summary: 2 Stars
The PBS Documentary, Islam: Empire of Faith comes up terribly short because it mingles half-facts with little or no context, especially in relation to the other religions that the Muslim armies encountered. It would tell us that Islam is a pristine religion of peace with a history studded with glory and deeds worthy of admiration. It would tell us Westerners that ours is a history of barbarity and brutalization, that our Faith, be it Judaism or Christianity, does not measure up to the "tolerance" of Islam.
It quickly glosses over the Islamic conquests following Muhammad's death in 632 A.D. It would teach us that St. Augustine's Tunisia and St. Athanasius' Syria (yes, Tunisia and Syria were once Christian lands) embraced their Muslim conquerors with open arms. It pays no mention to the world war that nearly destroyed both the Byzantine and Sassanid Persians, leaving them both incapable of resisting the Muslim conquerors.
It says that Muslims did not conquer with a message of "Convert or Die." This is true. They conquered with a message of "Convert or Submit/Pay the Jizya." See the "Pact of Umar" on a google search to see the "tolerance" of Islam. A message that rules the Arab world to this day. It pays no mention to the second class citizenship that Islam relegates kufr, or non-believers, to. It says nothing of the duality between dar al-Islam and dar al-Harb, the duality that creates perpetual war between the Islamic world and the non-Islamic world.
Nor does this documentary mention the context of the Crusades. It would tell us that the Crusading movement was an unprovoked act of Christian aggression. Of course this means that the documentary must gloss over the Muslim aggression that destroyed the Zoroastrian Empire of Persia (today hardly any Zoroastrians remain), deprive Christian Byzantium of 2/3'rds of her fairest provinces, and topple the Visigothic Kingdom of Spian like a wobbly deck of cards. How could the Franks, who defeated the Saracens at Tours in 732, have been the aggressors? Theirs was a kingdom two thousand miles away from Mecca. No. It was the Islamic armies that brought warfare to every corner of the world. Huntington says in the Clash of Civilizations? that Islam has bloody borders. The fact is, it has always had bloody borders. Bloody borders that killed hundreds of thousands of Hindus in India (Hindus have the misfortune of not being "people of the book"), a religion that relegated millions of Christians, Jews, Zorastrians and pagans to second class citizenship. It says nothing of the sack of Thessalonika, Genoa, and even St. Peter's Church in Rome by fanatics inspired by the faith of Muhammad.
It was this threat that the Crusaders responded to. It was not an act of aggression. It was a counter-attack, against a threat that was poised to destroy a religion that predated Islam by six centuries. It would tell us that the sack of Jerusalem during the First Crusade was an exceptional event. Not so. It does not mention the fact that cities taken by storm were always sacked, and ended in massacre. Christian, Muslim and Mongol armies alike engaged in sackings that killed thousands. The Sack of Jerusalem was not exceptional.
When it speaks of the Ottoman Empire it venerates the devirshime, the institution by which the Ottomans "taxed" their Christian inhabitants, taking their very sons for service to the Ottoman State. Eastern Europeans still remember the horror of the Janissary tax, the forced removal of seven year old Christian boys from the families, their forced conversion to Islam, and the transformation of these boys into fanatics who brought about the subjugation of the adherents of the faith which they had been born into.
I wonder then, what the makers of this film thought of the practice by which Native American children were taken from their families in the United States and Canada and "converted" to Christianity.
Islam: Empire of Faith is nothing less than a misportrayal of history, glorifying Islamic history at the cost to the other civilizations that Muslim armies encountered. Don't waste your time or money with this "documentary". For a more accurate portayal of Islamic history read Bernard Lewis' History of Medieval Islam or Robert Spencer's Onward Muslim Soldiers.
Description of Empires - Islam: Empire of Faith
Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 03/08/2005 Run time: 160 minutesBestsellers in DVD
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