Clips From PBS Documentary Series “America at a Crossroads” Will Be Screened

A former assistant U.S. Secretary of Defense and an international panel of Islamic scholars will explore the United States’ evolving relationship with the Islamic world, and segments of an upcoming Public Broadcasting System (PBS) television series will be screened in a DePaul University program titled, “Islam: Image and Reality,” Feb. 28 from 6:30 p.m. until 9 p.m. at the Merle Reskin Theatre, 60 E. Balbo Dr., Chicago.

The program, sponsored by DePaul’s Islamic World Studies (IWS) program and PBS, will begin with a screening of excerpts from the “America at a Crossroads” series produced by WETA-TV, PBS’s Washington, D.C., affiliate. The opening program, “Jihad: The Men and Ideas Behind Al Qaeda,” chronicles the inner workings of the terrorist organization. The six-part PBS series will be shown April 15 through April 20.

A town-hall style panel discussion will follow the screenings. Heading the list of panelists is Richard Perle, former assistant U.S. Secretary of Defense. Perle, a key advocate of the Iraq war, is also the subject of one of the segments to air on PBS, “The Case for War: In Defense of Freedom.”

The other panelists are: Abdul Bari Atwan, the London-based editor-in-chief of the Arabic daily newspaper, Al-Quds AlArabi; Sherman Jackson, a professor of Islamic law at the University of Michigan; Mahmood Mamdani, the Herbert Lehman Professor of Government in the departments of anthropology and international affairs and director of the Institute of African Studies at Columbia University; and Aminah McCloud, director of the Islamic World Studies program at DePaul. Veteran journalist and producer, Bill Kurtis will serve as program moderator.

A question and answer period will be held following the panel presentations.

DePaul’s “Islam: Image and Reality” program is free and open to the public. The program is one of a series of town hall meetings hosted by the IWS program at DePaul. For information on upcoming IWS town hall meetings, please contact Ian Petchenik at 773/325-4905 or ipetchen@depaul.edu.