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CNN Live Today

Interview with Helen Whitney, Part II

Aired September 03, 2002 - 13:48   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: The crisis of September 11 and the crisis of faith that it has caused for many who were affected. We are talking with film producer Helen Whitney about her documentary, "Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero" -- Helen, thanks for staying with us.
HELEN WHITNEY, PRODUCER, "FAITH AND DOUBT AT GROUND ZERO": Thank you for having me on the show.

PHILLIPS: Well, we talked a little bit about those affected by 9/11 and how they haven't lost faith. They still believe in God. They just couldn't understand God's will, but they are working through it. Then we talked about and listened to folks who say, I just can't believe in a god that would let something like this happen. I am struggling with this, I don't feel like communicating with him right now. I am angry.

Now, something else we are going to move into. Is religion to blame? We interviewed all types of religious leaders, some very well- schooled on religion, but atheists saying that acts of martyrdom equal acts of worship, according to Islamic jihad. Let's start with that, and just how you address this with Kanan Makiya and who he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KANAN MAKIYA, PROFESSOR OF MIDDLE EASTER STUDIES: At this point in time, in this place, this conjuncture in our history, religion did drive those planes into those towers. In some deep way, religion is responsible. Not any religion, but Islam in particular. I have always thought there were dark corners in religion, and I took that for granted. That is not the surprising thing for me. The frightening thing is rather that in the Arab world, we have met the darkness of religion, the flesh (ph), and forces that are dampening it at this moment in our history are weak, and that is frightening.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Tell us about Kanan, and what he meant by that?

WHITNEY: Well, Kanan Makiya is an Iraqi, a brilliant writer, and a professor -- I think at one point at Harvard and now at Brandeis. And I asked him the question that I asked a number of people, both lay people and religious leaders, about -- about religion itself, and I got -- and the darkness, and the potential for violence within religion itself. And I think what was new and compelling for me as a reporter as well as a producer to hear from a range of people of all faiths, you know, really stepping up at the bat and saying, Let's really look at this dark, destructive shadow side of religion, as well as its power for beauty and grace and truth, and a number of people said religion drove those planes into the building, and we have to look at that, and we have to see what that is about, and what that potential for violence is about. He was only one of many people who was looking deep within their own traditions to answer that question.

PHILLIPS: And I think one of the rabbis with whom you spoke said that this religious passion can be the most destructive force on earth.

WHITNEY: That was Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete, a man I know quite well, a friend of the pope's, and really offered the most searching, personal sort of statement about this, and I think that he put it as what -- the question that that said is what is this lust for the absolute? This yearning for lightness and specialness that can drive all of us, and can and has been this religious passion, the source of so many of the great monotheistic religions, sort of doing really great, very destructive things in the name of God. I mean, you know, killing the infidel in the name of God, demonizing the other. I mean, he, too, was looking deep within his own tuition and disturbed by what he saw there.

PHILLIPS: By talking with these individual, quickly, Helen, and putting this documentary together, did it change your faith?

WHITNEY: Well, I am an agnostic, I am someone who is still searching for a visceral -- a more visceral experience of faith, and I think I am still searching, but hopefully, a bit closer to it.

PHILLIPS: Well, you definitely know the people with whom to talk. I think it has changed all of our beliefs. Helen Whitney, "Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero." You can catch it tonight on PBS. What a fabulous documentary. Helen, thank you so much.

WHITNEY: Thank you. Thank you.

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