"PBS seeks to fill the gap tonight with a two-hour documentary, "Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet." It evocatively if sparingly lays out the biographical material unfamiliar to most Americans: Muhammad's childhood as an orphan in Mecca, his marriage to a wealthy widow almost twice his age, his visions of the Angel Gabriel, his military battles and his victory over Arab paganism."

Perhaps not surprisingly, it appears that this documentary pulls its punches.  The review does give it credit for addressing the Prophet's execution of the Jews of Medina, but points out that that the program goes to great lengths to dissassociate this act from any historical animosity between Jews and Muslims.  Besides the oft-quoted respect of the Prophet for "People of the Book" -- Jews and Christians -- it is perhaps worth noting once again that Christian atrocities against Jews over the past 2000 years overshadow the comparative tolerance that the Arab and Turkish regimes exercised during the same period.

9:58:00 PM    

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