THE FINAL episode of Age of Terror (BBC2, Tuesday of last week) appalled, and not merely because of the heartbreaking scenes of death, maiming, and bereavement that are now such a familiar staple of serious TV. The shock came from new material on the 1998 Nairobi bombings, showing that the United States had received warning after warning that al-Qaeda was planning outrages against US facilities — but had done nothing.
The US media was far more interested in following, and fomenting, the allegations of sexual misconduct against Bill Clinton. The Republican government’s decision to make war on Iraq could thus be seen as guilt about earlier failures to take notice of what really mattered, as it preferred rather to smear and bring down a political opponent.
Of course, the Nairobi bombs killed far more Africans than Americans; and probably far more Muslims than Christians. The rhetoric of terror and violence is always left in tatters when exposed to what really happens.
This was a model documentary, seeking out the unusual and telling angle, and the surprising but enlightening interviewee: the narration was personal, but balanced and unsensational. It was left to the viewer to choose whether to feel moral outrage.
The programme’s archive footage dwelt far more extensively than usual on the desperate attempts of people to rescue anyone caught by the blast: ladders were hurried into place, rubble was moved by bare hands. Bizarrely, one of the two bombers was caught and eventually confessed: his theology taught him that, his part in the suicide-bombing having failed, for him not to save his life would be a crime against God.
One aspect of the reaction of Christians in the United States to Islamic terrorism was depicted in Jesus Camp (Channel 4, Tuesday of last week). We saw how Pastor Betty Fisher is delighted to work with seven-, eight-, and nine-year-olds, “because they’re so open, so useable for Christianity”. She helps turn them into soldiers for Christ, happily promoting right-wing concerns as the only possible Christian attitude, and well worth their dying for, if necessary.
Every technique of mass-manipulation was in place, the children being alternately scared into confession of their sins, and then swept into hysteria for Jesus and frightened with hell. Many of them are home-schooled, the parents determined to protect them from the godless iniquities of a liberal state education.
As I watched this outrageous travesty of our religion of love and peace, the only brake on the invective that welled up in me was the fact that it is quite an old film — from 2006 — and its showing in the US caused such a wave of revulsion that the camp was wrecked by vandals, and the ministry brought to a sudden end.
Lest we congratulate ourselves that such perversions of Christianity are a recent, US-led innovation, BBC4 has been showing an old series by Terry Jones on The Crusades (Thursday of last week). His final verdict: “The Crusades were a total failure, except that 200 years of Crusaders’ intolerance finally brought about Islamic fanaticism. Islam learned to imitate Christian rage and brutality.” Not quite what Jesus wanted.
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