[Peace] Fwd: PBS showing Sept. 19 @9pm ET--a documentary on the recent violence in Gujarat, India

Wed Sep 18 13:44:02 CDT 2002

Hi All,
I just got an email from David Thiel (Program Director at WILL-TV) .
WILL will be airing the broadcast on Thursday (September 19th) @ 8:00
PM. 
We don't need to send any more emails/phone calls. 
Thanks!

Tulsi

This is the email I received from him: 

From:	 "Thiel, David" <d-thiel at WILL.uiuc.edu> 	
To:	 sacuiuc at yahoo.com	
Subject:	 re: "Soul of India" support campaign	
Date:	 Wed, 18 Sep 2002 09:23:32 -0500	

To the South Asian Collective UIUC (and other interested parties):

It's come to my attention that there is an organized effort to support

Thursday night's broadcast of "Soul of India" on WILL-TV. In the past
day,

we have received many e-mails and phone calls in favor of our airing of
this

documentary. To all who took the time to contact us, thanks! We do

appreciate knowing that there is interest in international public
affairs

programming.

That said, there's really no need for a support campaign at this time.
While

the documentary has received some criticism at the national level--as is

frequently the case with a program which offers a strong point of view
about

a potentially controversial subject--we at WILL-TV have not received a

single complaint about our broadcast. 

Furthermore, the WILL stations remain committed to presenting a wide
array

of viewpoints, and we do not shy away from programming with which some

viewers may disagree. During my 13 years at WILL-TV, we have never
removed a

program from our schedule due to outside pressure. 

I hope that you will take the opportunity to watch "Soul of India" this

Thursday at 8:00 pm. Thank you for your interest in WILL-TV.

David Thiel

Program Director

WILL-TV

-----Original Message-----
From: peace-admin at lists.groogroo.com
[mailto:peace-admin at lists.groogroo.com] On Behalf Of Alfred Kagan
Sent: Sep 18, 2002 1:36 PM
To: peace at lists.groogroo.com; SF-TALK at prairienet.org
Subject: [Peace] Fwd: PBS showing Sept. 19 @9pm ET--a documentary on the
recent violence in Gujarat, India

Date: Mon, 16 Sep 2002 20:40:52 -0700 (PDT)
From: Irfan Ahmad <irfansahmad at yahoo.com>
Subject: PBS showing Sept. 19 @9pm ET--a documentary on the recent
violence in Gujarat, India
To: akagan at uiuc.edu
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Hi Al and Carol

FYI and sharing with IMC and possible consideration for follow up calls
to insist on showing the carnage in Gujarat, India.

Best,

Irfan

 CAIR wrote:

Date: Mon, 16 Sep 2002 16:43:37 -0400
To: cair-net at cair.biglist.com
From: CAIR
Subject: CAIR-NET: Fla. Scare Raises Questions on Tips

In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 9/16/2002

HEADLINES:

-----

IMC-USA CONDEMNS MEDIA-INTIMIDATION CAMPAIGN BY HINDU GROUPS TO BLOCK
PBS
DOCUMENTARY

For Immediate Release:
Contact Person: Dr. Shaik Ubaid (516) 567-0783

PBS will be showing a documentary on the recent violence in Gujarat,
India
in which over 2000 Muslims were killed, 600 women were raped and burnt
alive and over 150,000 Muslims displaced and now residing in refugee
camps.
This violence was perpetrated by the right wing Hindu ruling party in
India
that claims the subjugation of minorities as its ideology.

The Hindu diaspora adhering to thi! s extremist ideology is very well
organized in the United States. Recently they have launched a campaign
of
gigantic proportions to condemn and stop the showing of this PBS
documentary "Soul of India" that exposes their involvement in the
carnage.

IMC-USA urges all Americans to rise up and defend the freedom of
speech. We are urging our members and supporters to launch a counter
campaign in support of freedom of speech. For the PBS Stations in your
local area, visit:

http://www.pbs.org/stationfinder/index.html

For first hand information of the intimidation campaign by VHP-America
please visit:
http://www.vhp-america.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=News&file=article&si
d=26

SEE ALSO:

SOUL OF INDIA
PBS Documentary
Thurs., Sept. 19 at 9pm ET
(Check the TV schedule for local listings.)

The bloody conflict between Hindus and Muslims in northwestern India is
at
the forefront of a struggle for! India's identity, led by an
increasingly
powerful Hindu nationalist movement whose goal is to turn India into a
Hindu nation. Over the last three months, at least 850 Muslims have been
killed -- some estimates go as high as 2,000 -- in the Province of
Gujarat,
and more than 100,000 Muslims have fled to refugee camps.

This outbreak of communal violence has a long history. The recent mob
violence in Gujarat was kindled in late February, 2002, when a Muslim
crowd
in Godhra attacked a train carrying Hindu nationalists, killing 58
people.
The victims of this attack were returning from a gathering in Ayodhya,
where ten years earlier Hindu nationalists had torn down a centuries old
Muslim temple.

-----

HOW SADDAM HAPPENED
Christopher Dickey and Evan Thomas, Newsweek, 9/23/02
http://www.msnbc.com/news/807688.asp

Sept. 23 issue - The last time Donald Rumsfeld saw Saddam Hussein, he
gave
him a cordial handshake! . The date was almost 20 years ago, Dec. 20,
1983;
an official Iraqi television crew recorded the historic moment.

The once and future Defense secretary, at the time a private citizen,
had
been sent by President Ronald Reagan to Baghdad as a special envoy.
Saddam
Hussein, armed with a pistol on his hip, seemed "vigorous and
confident,"
according to a now declassified State Department cable obtained by
NEWSWEEK. Rumsfeld "conveyed the President's greetings and expressed his
pleasure at being in Baghdad," wrote the notetaker. Then the two men got
down to business, talking about the need to improve relations between
their
two countries.

Like most foreign-policy insiders, Rumsfeld was aware that Saddam was a
murderous thug who supported terrorists and was trying to build a
nuclear

weapon. (The Israelis had already bombed Iraq's nuclear reactor at
Osirak.)
But at the time, America's big worry was Iran, not IraqÖ

On ! the-theory that the enemy of my enemy is my friend, the Reaganites
were
seeking to support Iraq in a long and bloody war against Iran. The
meeting
between Rumsfeld and Saddam was consequential: for the next five years,
until Iran finally capitulated, the United States backed Saddam's armies
with military intelligence, economic aid and covert supplies of
munitions...

-----

EYEWITNESS: SABRA AND SHATILA 20 YEARS ON
Martin Asser, BBC News, 9/14/02
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2255902.stm

There's another significant anniversary this week, but not one that's
attracted the sort of attention the 11 September commemorations have.

On 16 September 1982, under the watchful eye of their Israeli allies who
had encircled the area, Lebanese Christian militiamen entered Beirut's
Sabra and Shatila refugee camps bent on revenge for the assassination of
their leader Bashir Gemayel.

Refugee camps like Shatila sti! ll lack the most basic services

There followed a three-day orgy of rape and slaughter that left
hundreds,
possibly thousands, of innocent civilians dead in what is considered the
bloodiest single incident of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

If Americans approached the 11 September anniversary with trepidation,
many
residents of Shatila camp, and its more run-down neighbour Sabra, have
been
dreading the milestone on Monday which marks two decades of pain and the
futile search for justiceÖ

But there will be no internationally-observed minute's silence for the
innocent victims of Sabra and Shatila, or global news coverage about the
survivors and their miserable existence at the scene of this evil crime.

-----

AN EVANGELICAL GROUP FAULTS U.S. TILT TOWARD ISRAEL
Eli Kint/hp/pb/pbhp_84x28_blu_yahoo.gif

  _____  

Do you Yahoo!?
 <http://news.yahoo.com/> Yahoo! News - Today's headlines

-- 

Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
Africana Unit, Room 328
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801, USA

tel. 217-333-6519
fax. 217-333-2214
e-mail. akagan at uiuc.edu

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