As ICN first reported last night, Dan Abrams took on Christiane Amanpour and CNN over their God’s Warriors documentary specials. Partial transcript follows…(transcript via NewsBusters)

UPDATE: CAMERA has the video…

UPDATE2: Eat the Press’ Rachel Sklar seems to be siding with Abrams…

DAN ABRAMS: For the past week, CNN has been proudly promoting and then celebrating its series called God’s Warriors, presumably a look at radicals of different religions willing to fight for their cause. My take: I think it’s fair to say it was not what it claimed or promised to be.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: So we’re not here lobbying for or advocating for or drawing conclusions, either political, religious or ideological-

ABRAMS: Oh, yes they did. CNN should have called it what it was: a defense of Islamic fundamentalism and the worst type of moral relativism. For each of three nights, CNN devoted two hours to the, quote, “warriors” of each religion: Jewish, Christian and Muslim. But rather than distinguish between Islamic terrorists who utilize fierce violence to achieve warped goals, and the merely fiercely religious or even just those who fiercely believe in the state of Israel, Christiane Amanpour avoided getting bogged down in objectivity. Christians and Jews, for example, who support Israel’s strategy for self-defense are just as much God’s warriors, according to Amanpour, as the Islamic radicals who blow themselves and others up in an effort to destroy the world as we know it. A handful of the most radical of the Jews and Christians who can almost all be identified by name are highlighted. The violent Islamic fundamentalists are, quote, “understood,” with no comparable effort to “understand” the evangelical Christians or Israelis. Amanpour even offers an explanation for the angry radical Islamists. She blames the warrior Jews.

AMANPOUR: Muslims, like people everywhere, abhor terrorism. The small minority who resorts to violence is symptomatic of something many of us have failed to understand: the impact of God’s Jewish warriors goes far beyond these rocky hills. The Jewish settlements have inflamed much of the Muslim world.

ABRAMS: She takes Jewish and Christian political movements, even Jewish lobbyists in Congress, and lumps them in with God’s warriors, thereby equating them with the radical Muslim warriors, the quote, “much feared and little understood.” Maybe most troubling, much of the warrior Muslim program highlights not the warriors themselves, but claims of discrimination against Muslims.

AMANPOUR: Geneive Abdo is the author of Mecca and Main Street. She says that since 9/11, the majority of American Muslims feel they’re singled out for suspicion and surveillance by the government and by ordinary people. Imam Fawaz Jneid, leader of a mosque in the Hague, believes Muslims are under attack, victims of religious discrimination.

ABRAMS: What does that have to do with the warriors? She portrays Muslims as victims, while accusing evangelical Christians of playing the victim.

AMANPOUR: The religious right would have you believe that there’s no mention of God anywhere in our public sphere. It’s on the currency.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN Legal Analyst: It’s on the currency, and they say because it’s on the currency, there’s nothing wrong with it being in the schools, or in the courthouses, or in the Capitol.

AMANPOUR: But they also play the victim somewhat.

ABRAMS: This series was well-produced and successful, but also shameful advocacy masked as journalism. We have opinionated hosts here on MSNBC who offer opinions on a wide range of topics, including me, but I admit it when I’m advocating. In the end, this was exactly what she said it wasn’t: lobbying, advocacy, and an effort, intentional or not, to have people draw particular conclusions.