It contributes to 'a mutual sense of incomprehension that is meant to control the discourse and reinforce the Manichean world-view of each side and leave us resigned to a future of hopelessness, fear and perpetual war.'
Salaam writes: David Shasha is the director of the Center for Sephardic Heritage in Brooklyn, N.Y. It's hard to do justice to Shasha's in-depth and extensive treatment of the subject with an excerpt, but a coherent piece of the larger whole will have to do. There are many posts in the archive at this blog if this is the first article you are reading about the "Obsession" movie. Just use the search function.
David Shasha writes: We cannot forget while watching this execrable piece of propaganda, a work that is as unhelpful pedagogically as it is dangerous, that the dual logic of contradiction is continually at play: we are TOLD that Islam is not like what is being shown on the screen and yet this is what is being SHOWN to us with a relentlessness that puts the rhetoric of Islam as a peaceful religion to the lie. After a steady diet of one solid hour of seeing images of Muslims juxtaposed - LITERALLY - with those of Hitler and other Nazis, I am not sure if it takes a genius to figure out that we are being browbeaten into capitulation to hate all Muslims.
And to make sure that we do not forget this fact, we are treated to an extensive set of interview clips with an old man named Alfons Heck - a now-reformed former member of the Hitler Youth!
The "obsession" of this film is to turn the current situation with what are admittedly some very dangerous people - all of whom it must be honestly stated are religious Muslim fanatics who twist the words of their traditions and promote ideas of hate and violence that have continually been spread throughout the world over the course of the past century - and make it into a primordial battle being waged between absolute good and absolute evil.
Now it is not at all necessary for us to demand that "Obsession" be fair, or that it present the socio-political and historical contexts that have created this mess. Having said this, it does seem more than curious that the producers of "Obsession" make this demand of the Muslims themselves. And indeed, the visual techniques used in the film are eerily similar to those used by the Muslim fanatics themselves: the endless repetitive barrage of flashy and shocking images presented in a de-contextualized atmosphere smacks of what we might best call hypocrisy. But I think we would more accurately understand the rhetorical mechanisms of "Obsession" as a form of PILPUL; the attempt to speak out of both sides of one's mouth while not-so-subtly railroading home a single, obsessive mono-causal point.
In essence, this is the very rhetorical means that is used against Israel and the US by the Arab media which often inflames the masses to hate Israel and the US. When Israeli and American acts of violence are stripped of their socio-political context, the Arab viewer's feelings are inflamed and the individual is left with a passionate hatred bordering on the pathological.
So the way in which the producers of "Obsession" juxtapose images of victims of Islamic terror with those of Nazi slaughter can easily be transposed into an anti-Western frame of reference by cross-cutting the same Nazi images with images of Israeli or American brutalities - of which there are of course many. In fact, the film does indeed show the ways in which the Arab media applies Nazi imagery to Jewish figures and contexts.
In this sense, the rhetorical means that "Obsession" utilizes to construct its arguments lead us nowhere. The viewer is taught absolutely nothing about the roots of this Islamic mentality or its historical connection to Western politics. The viewer is not told about Daniel Pipes' Zionist proclivities and the way in which he has reframed Middle Eastern history along the lines of those beliefs to disfigure and transform that history. We are not told of Caroline Glick's own sympathies for the messianist Settler movement and its belief in the sacred nature of the land of Israel.
And while I do not mean to imply or state that Pipes and Glick are not entitled to their own fanaticism which is often made more extreme when put to the uses of the apocalyptic Jews themselves, I find it more than a bit curious that the whole point of the film is to reject fanaticism and to reject propaganda. I am not sure how this is to be done when the film itself is constructed along the lines of a classic propaganda tract filled with stirring emotional manipulation of the basest variety. It would appear that propaganda itself is not the real issue, only Arab propaganda.
And to quickly short-circuit the nature of the PILPUL-dialectic, a trap that is often used by the practitioners of PIPLUL to mark their own irrational hermeneutics, we are not rejecting the rhetoric of people like Pipes, Dershowitz and Glick in order to lift up the debased discourse of the Muslim fanatics. And often this is seen as a sort of lock in winning the debate on the Jewish side - either you support us or you are supporting them. It is something that has become a crucial part of the Bush discourse - a discourse that has been strongly informed by an Ashkenazi Jewish influence from people like David Frum and Bill Kristol who have tapped into the Ashkenazi PILPUL tradition and made that tradition a formative part of the new thinking in Bushworld.
It is altogether possible in rational terms to decry the fanatic Muslims and to reject the arguments of "Obsession" and its own particular brand of Jewish fanaticism.
I would add to that last point that it is also altogether possible to denounce Jewish fanaticism without validating, supporting or accepting the arguments and positions of extremists in the Islamic world.
Over the weekend, the LA Times caught Amazon.com listing a Halloween mask of Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) as a "terrorist costume." Though the listing has since been deleted from the "terrorist" page, you can see an image of the Amazon listing here.
The Obama terrorist page listed related searches as "arab costume, terrorist."
For all you Muslim brothers and sisters out there who are so secure in your deen (opposing view) that you and Allah are not at risk of becoming confused if you participate in trick-or treating (I'm going out with my daughter and another Muslim family), here's a mask for you to wear:
Richard Bartholomew writes: Francis Rice, chairman of the National Black Republican Association, decides it's a good idea to make people afraid of Obama on ethnic grounds:
Where did the claim that Sen. Barack Obama is an Arab originate? It came from Obama himself. That's right. Obama made this startling confession in his book "Dream From My Father" that can be viewed on the Internet
A "startling confession" of being an Arab? Here's the quote - prepare to be underwhelmed:
"What did Marcus call you just now? Some African name, wasn't it?"
"Barack."
"I thought your name was Barry."
"Barack's my given name. My father's name. He was Kenyan."
"Does it mean something?"
"It means 'Blessed.' In Arabic. My grandfather was a Muslim."
Regina repeated the name to herself, testing out the sound. "Barack. It's beautiful." She leaned forward across the table. "So why does everybody call you Barry?"
"Habit, I guess. My father used it when he arrived in the States. I don't know whether that was his idea or somebody else's. He probably used Barry because it was easier to pronounce."
Rice pounces on this:
Although Obama confesses in his book that his name, Barack, is Arabic, on the campaign trial, he is telling the American people that his name comes from the African language known as Swahili.
Why is Obama being so dishonest? Why is he trying to hide his Muslim roots from the American people?
She then goes on to quote apocalyptic Christian fundamentalist Walid Shoebat as further evidence that Obama is "really" a Muslim.
OK, so to risk stating the obvious: (1) in the quote from the book provided by Rice Obama does not in fact claim to be an Arab (let alone "confess" to such a "startling" thing); (2) an Arabic name does not denote Arab ethnicity; (3) the word "Barack" is derived from Arabic via Swahili; (4) the fact that Obama has a partly Muslim family background has not been "hidden" by anyone; (4) the fact that Obama says "My grandfather was a Muslim" implies strongly that he does not identify himself as such.
Hearing people wrongly say that Sen. Barack Obama is a Muslim, Dr. Hafiz Ur Rehman cringes.
He cringes, too, when he hears people expressing relief that Obama is not a Muslim. "Either way, they're implying that there's something wrong with being a Muslim," said Rehman, a Bay Shore pediatrician.
Many Long Island Muslims say that a campaign of whispers, e-mails and videos intended to smear Obama's image has had a much wider effect: It has smeared the image of Muslims in America.
Muslim leaders and believers alike are upset with Sen. John McCain for not condemning anti-Muslim comments and some are disappointed with Obama for appearing to tolerate slurs. "We're all American, and if someone happens to be Muslim, it's nothing to be ashamed of," said Mohsen El-Sayed, an electrical engineer in Islip. "I find it offensive when people are singled out for race, religion, sex or color - all this stuff is not relevant."
Muslims say that an anti-Obama campaign has included distribution in swing states of an hourlong film, "Obsession: Radical Islam'sWar With the West," which features scenes of terrorism.
Earlier this month, at a rally in Columbus, Ohio, a woman told McCain, "I don't trust Obama. ... He's an Arab." McCain shook his head and responded, "No, ma'am, he's a decent, family man ..."
That was tantamount to saying that Muslims are not decent, family people, said Rehman, president of the 7,000-member Islamic Medical Association of North America. He also is the past president of a mosque in Bay Shore. "In this particular election the race card is being played, and the Islamaphobic card is being played."
Many Muslims said they cheered last week, when retired Gen. Colin Powell, the former secretary of State, denounced fellow Republicans for trying to slander Obama by calling him a Muslim.
In Bay Shore, Rehman said many Muslims used to be Republicans, but this year many plan to vote for Democrats.
Oct 25th, 2008 | PHILADELPHIA -- Pennsylvania Republicans are disavowing an e-mail sent to Jewish voters that likens a vote for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama to events that led up to the Holocaust.
"Jewish Americans cannot afford to make the wrong decision on Tuesday, November 4th, 2008," the e-mail reads. "Many of our ancestors ignored the warning signs in the 1930s and 1940s and made a tragic mistake. Let's not make a similar one this year!"
A copy of the e-mail, provided by Democratic officials, says it was "Paid for by the Republican Federal Committee of PA - Victory 2008."
It warns "Fellow Jewish Voters" of the danger of a second Holocaust due to the threats to Israel from its neighbors and touts Republican presidential candidate John McCain's qualifications over those of Obama.
State GOP officials disavowed the e-mail and said the strategist who helped draft it had been fired.
"The Republican Party of Pennsylvania did not authorize that e-mail," Michael Barley, communications director for the state party, told The Associated Press on Saturday evening.
Barley said a "correction" would be sent out to everyone who received it.
The e-mail was sent Thursday morning to 75,000 Jewish voters.
The McCain campaign also repudiated the e-mail. Spokesman Peter Feldman said Saturday night that McCain "rejects politics that degrade our civics."
Political consultant Bryan Rudnick was identified as the person responsible for it. Rudnick, reached Saturday night, confirmed that he no longer works for the party, which employed him a few weeks ago as a consultant to do outreach to Jewish voters.
"I had authorization from party officials" to send the e-mail, Rudnick said, but he declined to say who had signed off on it. "I'm not looking to drag anyone else through the mud, so I'm not naming names right now," he said.
Richard Silverstein writes: I'm pleased to report that Snag Films, the free online distribution service for indie documentaries that was featuring Third Jihad at its site, has removed the film supposedly at the request of the filmmakers. That's laughable since the exposure and credibility Clarion would've received via Snag made the producers salivate. One of my readers, Robin, wrote to Steve Case (yes, of AOL fame) and his wife Jean, who are backers of the site, and warned them of the hateful nature of the film. I too wrote to the site owners via their feedback form. It was gone within a day.
CNN finally goes after 'Obsession' CNN, which earlier had aired portions of Obsession, has finally gotten religion. What took 'em so long. Most of the rest of the media has covered the story of the distribution of the 28 million DVDs in swing states long ago. Journalist Ali Gharib informs me that CNN has finally gotten with the program and aired its own segment critical of the film. Naturally, the reporters don't note that CNN had previously been a willing promoter of the film. A reader notes that Hunter Thompson described the TV industry as a bunch of "thieves and pimps." Though my guess is that the reporters probably didn't even know of CNN's previous role (though they should have).
In the story, Clarion's PR flack, Gregory Ross, refuses to reveal who's financing all the garbage, but pointedly denies that it comes from "foreign" (i.e. Israeli) money. Which ignores the obvious conclusion that the funding is coming from an American Jew who supports Aish HaTorah, Clarion, the Republican Party, and anti-Muslim hysteria. Wonder who that could be?
Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca makes an appearance at a press conference held at the Muslim Public Affairs Council to support a united interfaith opposition to anti-Muslim hate DVD.
Rabbi Steven Jacobs of the Progressive Faith Foundation confronted Greg Ross of the Clarion Fund and Aish Hatorah on the sidewalk over Ross's allegations that MPAC somehow supports or associates with Hamas and Hezbollah.
From the Muslim Public Affairs Council: Sheriff Lee Baca, actor Mike Farrell and nearly 20 members of the newly formed Coalition for Renewing American Democracy held a press conference earlier today to voice their unified opposition to an anti-Muslim DVD called "Obsession."
Since mid-September, roughly 28 million copies of a DVD called "Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West" have been distributed as advertising inserts in 70 newspapers in 12 key election swing states. While the DVD begins with a statement that most Muslims do not support terrorism, it immediately sets to work undermining this idea. "Obsession" is anti-Muslim propaganda which aims to produce anxiety, mistrust, and deep unease in the average American viewer about the presence, activities and attitudes of millions of their fellow Muslim American citizens.
"This is no longer a discussion about Muslims," said Rabbi Haim Dov Beliak, co-founder of JewsOnFirst.org. "This whole enterprise becomes the responsibilites of Christians and Jews and other religious people to stand in their pulpits to educate and refute these claims. I think that this distribution will have echoes in this society for a very, very long time. We will for a very long time be involved in rebutting, correcting the record, and defending those people who are being defamed."
Rabbi Allen Freehling, Executive Director of the Los Angeles City Commission on Human Relations, added: "We are here as a group of diverse individuals representing all kinds of communities to indicate to those people who, for their own self-serving purposes, created this DVD to let them know that they will not succeed. They may have started something that they may resent in the long run. After all, they were hoping for destruction and violence, they were hoping to divide us. The fact of the matter, this has brought us closer together to communicate to the community at large to indicate that those who spew hate will not succeed."
At the press conference, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca also stressed the role of law enforcement in protecting people of all backgrounds.
"Hate crime is something that concerns all Americans, since civil rights and human rights are constitutional guarantees," Baca said. "The proposition put forth by some who are extremists, who want not only to defame a religion but incite other people to discredit them and therefore act out in a violent way toward people of that relgion, is a totally unacceptable practice that cannot in any way be condoned. Law enforcement is vigilent to protect people and their right to practice their religion."
Dr. Maher Hathout, Senior Advisor to the Muslim Public Affairs Council, added: "Democracy becomes healthy when citizens are aware and when they ask questions. I believe the current hurricane of hate we are fighting will ultimately dissipate because the very fabric and the very core of the American people is good and they will eventually resent this vulgarity in dealing with serious issues. The makers of 'Obsession' have the right to speak and we have the obligation to respond. They speak hate and we will speak love. They will speak division and we will speak unity."
Other speakers at the press conference included actor Mike Farrell, Rabbi Steven Jacobs (Progressive Faith Foundation), and Dr. Xandra Kayden (UCLA professor).
The coalition also released a statement, signed by more than two dozen religious, civic and law enforcement officials, voicing their "deep concern over the recent distribution of a deeply divisive and anger-provoking DVD" which undermines "our common and cherished beliefs by inciting fear and furthering ignorant stereotypes."
Salaam writes: Farzana Hassan of the Muslim Canadian Congress posted an op-ed at the Huffington Post that serves up some of the usual slimes and smears on CAIR. I took a look at the MCC's website and they are doing some admirable work there (campaign against domestic violence for example), but so-called moderates put themselves in the service of Muslim-bashers when they go after an organization like CAIR. I wrote in response:
Farzana Hassan founded the Muslim Canadian Congress, and is its current president. It's a serious violation of journalistic ethics to allow a writer to sing the praises of an organization without identifying her relationship to it. At the time I'm writing this comment, there is no bio for this writer identifying her relationship to the MCC, nor is it mentioned in the story. Without that, readers are not in a position to make an informed judgment about the message they are receiving.
I would add that CAIR is the only major national civil liberties organization focused on Muslims in America. Their work and accomplishments defending the rights of US Muslims has been hugely significant during this unprecedented time of Muslim-baiting and Islamophobia in America.
For Hassan to imply that the US would be better off right now without CAIR is to put her in the camp of Muslim bashers who would rather see US Muslims laid out for a beating-stripped of our best organized legal defenders and most recognized national advocates, completely vulnerable to the fallout from the right-wing hate campaign that passes for a Republican presidential campaign these days.
Hassan asks, "Who speaks for moderate Muslims?" Yes, who indeed. Not Hassan, that's for sure.
Isabel Macdonald writes: In the midst of remarkably cynical election-time mud-slinging, the Obsession campaign is truly in a class of its own.
Over the past weeks, 28 million copies of the anti-Muslim propaganda film Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West have been delivered to the doors of newspaper subscribers in swing states. The 2006 documentary, which has been a mainstay of David Horowitz's "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week," describes "radical Islam" as a menace comparable to Adolf Hitler that, according to the film's website, "is threatening, with all the means at its disposal, to bow Western civilization under the yoke of its values."
....
There has really just been one small glitch in the plan: The public doesn't seem to be buying it. Newspapers that carried the DVD have faced floods of complaints from readers, and the past week has seen protests and press conferences denouncing the film.
The problem, it would appear, is that many readers simply do not accept the notion their newspaper should provide a cover for hate propaganda. As one Durham, N.C., News & Observer reader put it, "I cannot believe that I was sent the hate-inflaming, fear-mongering video disk Obsession in my newspaper! What will you enclose next? KKK robes?"
The public, it turns out, is a much a tougher sell than the corporate media. Major corporate media outlets have for years been citing the anti-Muslim pundits featured in Obsession as "experts."
For example: Steve Emerson has been invited regularly on NBC and described as an "anti-terror expert," despite the fact his research has been repudiated many times over. This is an "expert" who initially blamed the Oklahoma City bombing on Middle Eastern terrorists, and who is now going around claiming that the Bush State Department is collaborating with extremists.
And then there's Daniel Pipes. While he's repeatedly been cited by the media as an "expert" on Islam and the Middle East, he has warned that "the presence, and increased stature, and affluence, and enfranchisement of American Muslims" entail "true dangers" for American Jews, and led a witch hunt against a public school official who was slated to run an Arabic-language charter school in New York City.
Just a month before a critical election, there are no signs that the anti-Muslim mud-slinging campaign is going away. In fact, the secretive nonprofit called the Clarion Fund behind the Obsession campaign just came out with a brand new DVD, The Third Jihad, featuring Mark Steyn -- who, as FAIR's new report documents, has warned of the "demographic decline" posed by Europe's emerging Muslim population, and suggests there are lessons for Europeans in the Balkan example of ethnic cleansing.
You can read all about Emerson, Pipes and Steyn in a new report that's just been released called "Smearcasting: How Islamophobes Spread Fear, Bigotry and Misinformation" . The report profiles 12 top anti-Muslim pundits, including prominent talk show hosts Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck.
The media's long record of failing to challenge (and often enabling) anti-Muslim smears should leave us quite worried about how this final leg of election '08 will play out: Will the media continue to provide a platform to the anti-Muslim smear machine, or will they uphold standards of responsible journalism?
Salaam writes: Richard Silverstein reports at Tikun Olam that 'Third Jihad' producer Erik Werth was arrested in 1995 for impersonating a Secret Service agent. He includes an excerpt from an article from the Charlotte Observer, and attributes the discovery of the information to Tampa Bay Tribune reporter Meg Laughlin. I can't find an active link to the Charlotte article (not surprising, considering the age of the story), and I can't find any stories by Laughlin that mention the Werth arrest, so i can't independently verify this report. Richard has a good record of credible reporting, so I'm excerpting his report here.
Richard Silverstein at Tikum Olam writes: Many of the journalists who've reported on the Clarion Fund and its anti-Islam "documentary" Obsession have wondered why the film credits listed fake names for the two producers. Yesterday we reported that the real name of one of the producers is Erik Werth. Thanks to Meg Laughlin of the St. Petersburg Times, we may have the answer. The Charlotte Observer reported the following in 1995:
Charlotte Observer (North Carolina)
August 2, 1995 Wednesday THREE EDITION
Man charged in Secret Service ruse
COLUMBIA - A former U.S. Treasury Department adviser has been charged with impersonating a Secret Service agent in order to get a airline service charge dropped, U.S. Attorney Pete Strom says.
A federal grand jury Tuesday indicted Erik Werth, 25, of Rosslyn, Va., a former policy adviser to the Treasury Department's undersecretary for enforcement, Strom said. Assistant U.S. Attorney Erik Ruschky said the undersecretary oversees agents in the Secret Service; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; and the Customs Service.
The indictment accused Werth of impersonating a Secret Service agent by threatening to have an employee arrested at the Columbia airport on May 22. He caused a disturbance by demanding a waiver of a service charge for changing his plane ticket, Ruschky said. If convicted, Werth faces a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
I can imagine why Clarion might've given Werth a false identity in fear that his past would damage the credibility (if it ever had any) of the film. I also find it ironic that Werth was arrested for assuming a false identity and Clarion did precisely the same thing in shielding Werth from scrutiny.
All of this skullduggery becomes all the more confusing given that the new Clarion documentary Third Jihad DOES list Werth as producer. I guess Clarion decided that they were no longer embarrassed by having someone accused of a federal crime connected to their project.
Maybe Hank Scheinkopf, Clarion's new PR flack will have a ready explanation for this to journalists who call him asking for one. And to anyone in the Jewish community either contemplating hosting a screening of this film or attending one, I'd urge you to factor this little bit of sleaziness into your calculations.
If someone is sleazy enough to believe they can abuse their former role in the U.S. government's national security apparatus in order to weasel out of an airline ticket fee, who knows what they wouldn't do to smear Muslims in pursuit of a juicy story.
To any intrepid researcher who can confirm how this case was disposed I'd be grateful.
'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.
Ah, secret, recently uncovered documents. A "goal of destroying Western civilization from within." A grand conspiracy organized by a globally networked religious minority. Sound familiar yet?
Eli Clifton writing at Lobelog.com (link after excerpt): The film, The Third Jihad: Radical Islam's Vision for America seems, perhaps even more explicitly than Obsession, designed to stir up a climate of fear in the United States in the weeks before the presidential election.
So what is The Third Jihad about exactly? The trailer on its websites says very little, but the brief synopsis tells us more than the film makers may have hoped.
On October 3rd the synopsis reads as follows:
"After the FBI releases a radical Islamist manifesto describing how to weaken America from within, Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, a Muslim American and former physician to the US Congress, decides to investigate. The Third Jihad is about what he discovered.
How is radical Islam operating inside the West? Is a subversive "cultural jihad" underway? How does radical Islam plan to bring America to its knees? What is the endgame?"
And a couple of weeks ago the synopsis mentioned an "infiltration", a "dominating of North America" and "destroying Western civilization."
On September 21st the synopsis read:
"The Third Jihad focuses on an FBI-discovered secret document-the manifesto of the American Muslim Brotherhood. It describes the 'grand jihad' goal of destroying Western civilization from within by infiltrating and dominating North America.
The film reveals the agenda of the radical Muslim leaders in America and provides viewers with an impressively crafted look at the immediate dangers posed."
Ah, secret, recently uncovered documents. A "goal of destroying Western civilization from within." A grand conspiracy organized by a globally networked religious minority. Sound familiar yet? Could be because it's echoing one of the most influential and persistent conspiracy theories of all time. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
....
It looks as if The Third Jihad has taken a lesson from one of the most influential pieces of anti-Semitic propaganda ever produced. Clarion seeks to tell us that a secret document, authored by Muslims, details the systematic way in which Muslims plan to "infiltrate" and "dominate" Western civilization and destroy it from within.
One hundred and five years after the Protocols of the Elders of Zion first appeared, it is amazing to see the same ideas, paranoia, conspiracy-mongering, distrust and racism manifest themselves in such a blatant manner.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 PRNewswire -- A prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group announced today that Howard Gordon, the executive producer of Fox's drama "24," has withdrawn his endorsement of the anti-Muslim film "Obsession" currently being distributed to some 28 million households in presidential election swing states by a shadowy non-profit organization called the Clarion Fund.
"After being contacted by a number of people whose opinions I respect and after reviewing Obsession with their criticisms and concerns in mind, I have asked the film makers to remove my endorsement from the Obsession website and from any future promotional materials. While I remain committed to the film's essential message -- that the hate-mongering promoted by radical Islamism presents a real threat to western values of tolerance and pluralism -- I also appreciate that the goal of co-existence and tolerance is not being served by films like Obsession."
The film's chief claim is that 2008 is like 1938. Inflammatory images of Muslim extremists and terrorist violence are interspersed with footage of Nazi rallies and Hitler's speeches.
Aish Hatorah media production calling card: Every perceived opponent is Hitler. A rash of videos is hitting the web right now like the one above titled, "Fuhrer Obama Hitler Youth - Sing for Change," that superimposes sights and sounds of the Obama campaign with Nazi-era sound and video. Haven't these guys ever heard of Godwin's Law?
Adam Shatz writes: If you live in an American swing state you may have received a copy of 'Obsession' in your Sunday paper. 'Obsession' isn't a perfume: it's a documentary about 'radical Islam's war against the West'. In the last two weeks of September, 28 million copies of the film were enclosed as an advertising supplement in 74 newspapers, including the New York Times and the Chronicle of Higher Education. 'The threat of Radical Islam is the most important issue facing us today,' the sleeve announces. 'It's our responsibility to ensure we can make an informed vote in November.' The Clarion Fund, the supplement's sponsor, doesn't explicitly endorse McCain, so as not to jeopardise its tax-exempt status, but the message is clear enough, and its circulation just happened to coincide with Obama's leap in the polls.
The Clarion Fund is a front for neoconservative and Israeli pressure groups. It has an office, or at least an address, in Manhattan at Grace Corporate Park Executive Suites, which rents out 'virtual office identity packages' for $75 a month. Its website, clarionfund.org, provides neither a list of staff nor a board of directors, and the group still hasn't disclosed where it gets its money, as required by the IRS. Who paid to make 'Obsession' isn't clear - it cost $400,000. According to Rabbi Raphael Shore, the film's Canadian-Israeli producer, 80 per cent of the money came from the executive producer 'Peter Mier', but that's just an alias, as is the name of the film's production manager, 'Brett Halperin'. Shore claims 'Mier' and 'Halperin', whoever they are, are simply taking precautions, though it isn't clear against what. The danger (whatever it is) hasn't stopped Shore - or the director, Wayne Kopping, a South African neocon - from going on television to promote their work.
The 60-minute film was first released in 2006 and shown during the mid-term elections on Fox News. Since then it has received top billing at 'Islamo-Fascism Awareness' week on American campuses, at Christian-Zionist conferences and at events organised by Republican politicians in Florida. It has found a powerful backer in the real estate magnate Sheldon Adelson, who describes himself as 'the world's richest Jew'. The Endowment for Middle East Truth, a neoconservative think tank in Washington DC which recently hosted a series of seminars named after Adelson and his wife, arranged distribution of 'Obsession', at a cost in the tens of millions.
The makers of the film, like their subjects, are soldiers of God. Almost everyone associated with it or with Clarion has worked for Aish HaTorah, an 'education' group with offices in East Jerusalem and strong links to the settler movement. Clarion was incorporated in Delaware to the New York offices of Aish HaTorah and Rabbi Shore was the director, as well as the founder of its media organisation, Honest Reporting, which campaigns against a two-state solution in Israel/Palestine. It's illegal in the US for nonprofit organisations, or for foreign nationals, to try to influence the outcome of an election.
The film's chief claim is that 2008 is like 1938, only worse, since there are more Muslims than Germans and they're more spread out geographically: 'They're not outside our borders, they are here.' Violent raptures and spectacular carnage unfold in slick montages set to throbbing Middle Eastern music: Pakistanis deliriously burning the American flag, Palestinians celebrating the 9/11 attacks, Hizbullah chanting 'death to America', clerics praising the 'magnificent 19' and the murder of unbelievers, children training to become suicide bombers, the planes crashing into the towers. These images are interspersed with footage of Nazi rallies and Hitler's speeches. A chapter - narrated by Martin Gilbert, Churchill's biographer - is devoted to the Mufti's collaboration with Hitler.
The 'Obsession' movie was about the Muslim menace 'over there.' 'The Third Jihad' (trailer above) will be about the invisible Muslim juggernaut here in the US, right now, crawling up your back porch and slipping in through the downstairs window you left open, bwahahahaha...
Richard Silverstein writes at Tikun Olam: Radical Islam wants you...and America
Yes, you read me right. Those crazy imams and ayatollahs want to destroy our American way of life and institute Sharia here in the U.S. of A. They plan on dismantling the Constitution and creating an Islamic state in place of our beloved republic. How do I know? Third Jihad tells me so. What's Third Jihad? Brought to you by the Clarion Fund, the same folks who brought you Obsession. Their new film debuts October 5th. And not a moment too soon I might add, since those radical jihadis are burrowing into the American heartland as I write these words.
As reader Robin wrote, Third Jihad is "Obsession on steroids." Right from the opening scene displaying the World Trade Center in ruins as ominous Arabic sounding music plays on the soundtrack, this film hammers you with one message and one message alone: radical Islam wants what you love and will do anything to get it.
For those of us who lived through the 1950s and remember the horrible TV shows and movies (i.e. I Married a Communist, I Was a Communist for the FBI, etc.) depicting American Communists insinuating themselves into the very fabric of American life in order to subvert and destroy it-Third Jihad will give you a sense of deja vu all over again (to quote Yogi Berra allegedly). Something there is in a human being which loves a bogeyman, someone to fear, someone who represents almost pure evil. I don't quite understand this primeval urge that lurks within us. But it is there.
One of the MOs of the producers of Obsession and Third Jihad is to feature a "good," moderate Muslim informant to "educate" their audience about the evils of radical Islam. In Obsession, those roles are played by faux PLO-terrorist Walid Shoebat, Nonie Darwish and Kahleel Mohammed (who has angrily disavowed the film and his participation in it).
In the new film, the "good" Muslim is played to the hilt by its "star," one M. Zuhdi Jasser, founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy. He is a "devout practicing Muslim" (and he won't let you forget that to distinguish himself from Christian-Arab Muslim haters, Shoebat and Darwish), former Navy Lieutenant Colonel, physician, and wannabe political thinker. He seems to have no special qualifications for taking on the role of analyst of political Islam, but assume it he does and with a vengeance.
To put it plain and simple, Jasser is a Muslim neocon. It's a strange animal considering how hostile the Republican right is to Islam and Muslims. But if Jasser didn't exist then the neocons would have to invent him (which is pretty much what they did in the case of Shoebat-or I should say that the latter re-invented himself to ingratiate himself with his neocon sponsors).
If you read Jasser carefully, he reminds me of the Log Cabin Republicans, American gays who believe that a Republican Party with no gay members is a Party that will treat gay interests even more shabbily than it does already. In other words, Jasser seems to have chosen to become a staunch Republican in order to, in his eyes, advance the Muslim agenda through the ranks of the Republican Party.
