Excerpt:
A group of American and Canadian Muslims is standing by the content of a documentary criticized by Islamist groups and the media after it was shown to New York Police Department officers last year. In doing so, the American Islamic Leadership Coalition (AILC) emphasizes some points overlooked by critics of "The Third Jihad."
"The Third Jihad explicitly distinguishes between the religion of Islam, and the highly politicized ideology of religious hatred, supremacy and violence characteristic of political Islam, often referred to as 'Islamism," the AILC said in a statement.
Film narrator Zuhdi Jasser, the Arizona doctor and head of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, is a part of the AILC. He also has written in defense of the film and criticized the media uproar surrounding it. The AILC statement focuses on a New York Times story last week, which it said echoed and amplified "the party line of well-known Muslim Brotherhood supporters in the U.S."