CNN to Air Worldwide Religion Doc Series

ATLANTA, August 7: This month, CNN will premiere CNN
Presents: God’s Warriors, a six-hour
documentary series on the global impact of religious fundamentalism, reported
by chief international correspondent Christiane
Amanpour.

The series will air across CNN’s U.S. and international
networks this month. In the U.S., the series will debut over three nights
beginning Tuesday, August 21 through Thursday, August 23, from 9 p.m. to 11
p.m. each night. The three-part documentary will examine the impact of
religious fundamentalism as a powerful political force in three faiths:
Judaism, Islam and Christianity. In the documentary, Amanpour reports that
during the last 30 years, each faith has exploded into a powerful political force,
comprised of followers—“God’s warriors”—who share a deep
dissatisfaction with modern society, and a fierce determination to place God
and religion back into daily life and to the seats of power. The series kicks
off with God’s Jewish Warriors on August
21, which was filmed in the West Bank in Israel, the U.K. and the U.S. God’s
Jewish Warriors sees Amanpour report on a
Jewish terrorist group that planned to blow up the Dome of the Rock in
Jerusalem, Islam’s third holiest site, in order to sabotage Israeli-Egyptian
peace talks, as well as how Christian Zionists in America are raising large
sums of money to support the activities of settlers and how the pro-Israel
lobby’s clout in Washington has helped religious settlers remain in the West
Bank.

Meanwhile, God’s Muslim Warriors, premiering August 22, details the tension between
Muslim and Western cultures. Filmed in the U.K., Egypt, Iran, the West Bank,
the Netherlands and the U.S., the series features interviews with American
Muslims who are rejecting many aspects of American society that they consider
to be immoral and degrading. In the final part of the series, God’s
Christian Warriors, airing on August 23,
Amanpour reports on evangelicals trying to influence American politics and
society from a faith-based perspective. She also conducted the last interview
with Rev. Jerry Falwell, founder of the faith-based political movement “Moral
Majority,” just one week before his death.

A companion website to God’s Warriors offers users show excerpts from the documentary, an
audio podcast and an exclusive video diary that goes behind-the-scenes with
producers as they traveled in Europe, North America, Africa and the Middle East
for principle filming. This online content will be available at
www.CNN.com/godswarriors and the podcast will be available for download from
iTunes. The managing editor of God’s Warriors is Kathy Slobogin. Andy Segal, Michael Mocklar and
Ken Shiffman are senior producers; Cliff Hackel and Dave Timko are
director/editor/producers; Brian Rokus, Jen Christensen and Julie O'Neill are
producers.

“God’s Warriors is an
investigation of religion, at a time when religious activism is a signature
cultural phenomenon of our times,” said Mark Nelson, the VP and senior
executive producer for CNN Productions. “This project’s global scope is ideally
suited for the skills of someone with as impressive of a journalistic pedigree
as our own Christiane Amanpour.”