Feedback on the Significance of Jerusalem - Movie Review Example

1 Feedback on the Significance of Jerusalem: ABCs (American Broadcasting Company) anchorman, Peter Jennings, in his "Jerusalem Stories" reporting has tried to probe the past of Jerusalem in order to study the main cause of quarrel in the sacred land which is equally respectable for the followers of all the three religions. Peter asked questions related to the Abraham from the followers of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. All the respondents were given a free hand to express their opinion and narrate their personal thinking. The video does provide an accurate and perfect historical feedback to the viewers about the importance of Jerusalem in the eyes of Jews, Christians and Muslims. This is so because questions were asked from the representatives of all the three Abrahamic religions, therefore, all of them exposed the importance of Jerusalem according to their own religious beliefs. This gave an opportunity to the viewers to have a quick look into the viewpoint of all the three religions without any prejudice. As every respondent has discussed the importance of Jerusalem according to his own religious beliefs therefore the chances of presence of any kind of prejudice has been eliminated totally. All the followers of the three religions were given an equal opportunity to participate and share their beliefs and views with the audience. Peter Jennings considers himself to be a secular journalist; therefore he has given full freedom to all respondents to express their opinions in his documentary movie. 1.2. Role of Religion in Politics in Middle East: The role played by the religion in the politics of a region is directly associated with the history of that particular region. In Middle East, the role of religion in politics is considered to be implanted in the structure of the region. The main fact behind this is that the ancestor of all the three religions emerges from the Middle East. Judaism originating some four millennia ago is considered to be the first religion to profess believes in God. The Jews believe that the land of the Middle East was granted to them by Jehovah and should be recovered from the people of other beliefs. They are of believe that they are the "chosen one" by the God; hence the religion has a centric place in their lives, businesses and in politics. According to the Christian perception, Christianity was also born in the Middle East. Jerusalem and other Middle East regions are considered to be the habitat of Jesus and his followers. Muslims also perceived Middle East to be the first region from where the teachings of Islam started to spread, and they consider Middle East to be their primary cultural and political centre. History is evident that like Muslims and Christians, Jews have used their religion to make warfare and expansion legal. All the three Abrahamic religion followers have used their religious beliefs to make the holy war justifiable. If we study the history we will see that almost all the in the Middle East came into sight on the basis of religion. Many wars having the name of "Holy Crusades" were fought to expel the Muslims from the Jerusalem and to retake the Jerusalem. Huge massacres of Muslims were done for political gain and were later on justified by Christianity. The Arabs and other nation have moved towards the problem of Jerusalem and the Middle East due to the fact that they all share a common religion i.e. they all are the followers of Abraham. That is why the significance and importance of religion in politics in the Middle East is often symbolized by the Jerusalem. From the current position of the region, it doesn’t appear to be feasible that the conflicts having a religious base would come to an end. The conflict of power among all the three followers of Abrahamic religion is highly important for the region of Middle East. As a result of dissimilarity amongst various sects and religions, a place has been created in the region where both, the pleased and the displeased, inhabit jointly. The presence of various cultural and political conflicts in the Middle East is closely associated with the existence of different religious groups, hence making the achievement of long lasting peace difficult. 1.3. Role of American Media in Israel Palestine conflict: Through the production of this particular documentary movie the American Broadcasting company has made a positive effort to help people understand the causes of Israel Palestine issue. Both the Jews and Muslims perspective of owning Jerusalem has been presented to the audience. From the video the sentiments of both the religious groups about the sacred land of Jerusalem has been conveyed to the whole world. If we look at this particular documentary the role of American media appeared to be supportive and helpful in depicting the true picture of the current situation of Israel Palestine issue. But apart from this video, generally it has been observed that the American media uses loaded words against the issue which shows American medias anti Arab biasness in a distinctive way. Arab Israel issue has been in discussion since a long time and American media has been following these issues since its emergence. As American media is a neutral party to the issue so it should not show any kind of biasness while covering the stories. But its not the case.. While giving coverage to Israel Palestine issue, discrimination is always shown by the American media by using controversial terminologies for Palestinian people. According to American media, Palestinians are fundamentalists, extremist, terrorists, activist and militants. Israelis are on the other hand, soldiers, troops and vigilantes. Both the terms used to describe each other contain biasness hence distorting and deforming the real image of Israel Palestine conflict. Depending upon the fact that in which country do you live and how the news are represented to you by the media, make the real facts look different. In America and other European countries, television is still considered to be the main information provider who gives information to the majority of the public about the world wide affairs. There fore due consideration and importance should be given while providing information to the people; also utmost care should be taken to make sure that the audience gets unbiased news and information. 1.4. Opinion about the Fairness of the Jerusalem Stories: No! In my judgment the video does not appear to be partial or prejudiced. In fact it has given an indiscriminated and a balanced view, as the anchor has given full opportunity to all the three religious groups to express their point of view openly. The anchor himself is a secular journalist, so he has given opportunity to the representatives of all the three religious groups who claim to own the Jerusalem. Equal representation of all the religious groups has helped Peter Jennings to produce a bias free documentary. Every religious group was given full opportunity to communicate their religious opinion. It was also made sure by the team that the respondent gives opinion according to his religions teachings and not according to his personal likes or dislikes. The whole documentary appears to be free of any kind of favoritism. Respect and honor was given to the beliefs and thoughts of all the participants of the video. On the whole the documentary movie "turning point Jerusalem" reported by Peter Jennings has come in to sight as a movie with noble cause. Overall the vedio appeared to be fairly finished job with no preconceived notion regarding any religious group. 1.5. Recommendations: I will certainly recommend the audience to have a look at this meticulous documentary movie as people from all the three religions i.e. Judaism, Christianity and Islam has expressed their feelings and opinion about the sacred and blessed Jerusalem. The documentary enables the viewers to have a deep insight of the religious views and opinions of all the three groups. This documentary is an appreciateable example of a non discriminatory and unbigoted production of any news agency. The documentary reveals that how and why Jerusalem is so dear to all the followers of Abraham. The movie is worth watching by people of all age groups and by the people of every faith and ethnicity. It will help them to have a clear idea about the thoughts and ideas of Jews, Christians and Muslims, that how their religion is taken by them. This will enable the people to have a clear picture in their mind about all the religions and later on it would be easier for them to respect the religious sentiments and wishes of followers of other religions. At the end I must recommend that all people should see this video at least once, irrespective of the fact that, what ever religion they are following. It would b a good addition to their current knowledge about different religions of the world. References: Jim. W. The mind of a journalist: how reporter view themselves, their world and their craft. Available: http://books.google.com.pk/books. Oct 29 2010. Read More