'Third Jihad' has been released this week in individual showings at theaters in California, New York, Illinois, Arizona, Texas, Utah and Florida.
Rudy Guiliani is prominently featured in the new movie. Remember Rudy Guiliani? The guy who said in a 1994 speech as New York City Mayor that,
"Freedom is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do."
In addition to being the most unabashedly fascist, Guiliani's campaign for the presidency was also the most virulently Islamophobic. Here's John Deady, who ran Guiliani's campaign in New Hampshire, declaring the need to "Chase Muslims back into their caves or get rid of them."
'The Third Jihad,' is the next anti-Muslim agitprop movie produced by Aish Hatorah and The Clarion Fund and it debuted this week. It turns out that the PR firm that is marketing 'The Third Jihad' is owned by Brett Doster, who also ran Guiliani's California campaign.
Richard Silverstein at Tikun Olam writes: Clarion Fund, the non-profit anti-Muslim group which created Obsession and Third Jihad, claims that its "educational" efforts to make the world aware of the menace of radical Islam are non-partisan. It has to do so to maintain its 501c3. But everything this outfit does is partisan.
Reader Robin McLaren notes that a Phoenix newspaper said this about a local screening of the film:
Brent Lowder, a partner in Frontline Strategies LLC, represented the nonprofit Clarion Fund, which produced the film...
The Clarion Fund describes itself as a nonpartisan organization aimed at educating Americans about national security issues, particularly about the threat of radical Islam.
So who, you ask, is Front Line Strategies (the reporter likely spelled the company name wrong), which "represented" Clarion? Take a gander at their website:
Front Line Strategies was founded by Brett Doster following his widely successful performance as Executive Director of the Bush-Cheney Re-election campaign in Florida in 2004.
Ah yes, the PR firm of the guy that brought you the Florida hanging chad debacle is now marketing Third Jihad. Nothing partisan about that.
Guest of honor at the Third Jihad shindig was none other than token Muslim-Republican-free marketeer-libertarian Zuhdi Jasser, who is incidentally the star attraction of the film (aside from Rudy Giuliani, who is also featured prominently).
Apparently, some of his local co-religionists don't take kindly to Jasser's views:
Jasser is not without his detractors. In 2005, the Arizona Muslim Voice newspaper published an editorial cartoon depicting Jasser as a dog dismembering and devouring another Muslim. His views have been criticized by members of his own mosque.
[End Tikun Olam excerpt]
I wonder if Jasser has reflected on some of the other comments made by high officials in Guiliani's campaign and whether it would affect his willingness to appear in a movie with him, such as this comment from Deady that was made to a journalist when asked if he would apologize for the "chasing Muslims" remark:
"I don't subscribe to the principle that there are good Muslims and bad Muslims," Deady told me by phone from his home in New Hampshire. "They're all Muslims."
Deady also said, "When I say get rid of them, I wasn't necessarily referring to genocide. What I was referring to is, stand up to them every time they stick up their heads and attack us."
To be clear, Deady seems to be saying that it might not be necessary to engage in genocide against all Muslims, but that all options are on the table. The supporters of political leaders who create and inflame attitudes like this are the people who created the 'Obsession,' 'Third Jihad' campaign.
