Today, for the first time, I viewed the film "Obsession", a documentary about radical Islam. It is something I should have seen a long time ago, and not because I learned anything new from it. I decided I wanted to see if was a hate-mongering film as people like CAIR claim. Is the film unfair? Does it paint all Muslims as terrorists or terrorist-supporters? I say no to both questions.
The film, which is 27 minutes long (and available on the Internet), begins with the message that most Muslms do not support terror, and that the film is not about them. It is about radical Islam and the threat it poses to the world in general and the West in particular.
In watching the film, one does not have to depend on the words of non-Muslims (except for a handful of terrorism experts like Steve Emerson), rather the viewer only has to watch and listen to the words of radical Muslim clerics and other figures who declare the Islam will take over the world and destroy other religions. One need only view the speeches which were broadcast on Saudi, Iranian or Palestinian TV. Listen also to the words of those who left Islam over the issue of terror like Walid Shoebat and Nonie Darwish. The images shown of Muslim attacks on non-Muslims are documented history-from 9-11 to the Madrid train bombings to the London subway attacks. (Mumbai had not yet occurred when the film was produced.)
This documentary is not a result of the wild imagination of Muslim-bashers. It is fact. The purpose of the film is not to bash innocent Muslims; rather, it is to try and wake up compliant Westerners who refuse to face the truth.
There is also some important history in the film, especially in reference to the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el Husseini, who was a close ally of Hitler and actually spent some years in Nazi Germany. While there, he broadcast anti-Semitic messages to the Arab world over a Nazi radio channel. During the war, he actually organized a Muslim army division in Bosnia which fought alongside the Germans. What did the Mufti and Hitler have in common? They both wanted to eradicate Jews.
Organizations like CAIR must realize that a film of this nature (which is factual) cannot be suppressed in the West or simply condemned as a form of hate speech. Had the film tried to impart the idea that all Muslims are our enemy, then I would myself condemn it. Instead, leading Muslim organizations, if they truly desire peaceful co-existence, must do their part to combat those who preach hate, conquest and violence.
Recently, there was a reported "gas attack" on a Dayton, Ohio mosque that occurred in the wake of the local dissemination of the "Obsession" film. The film was blamed by Islamic leaders for inspiring the so-called attack. Yet, at this point, all indications point to there having been no such attack. It appears that it was at most a case of a Muslim child getting hold of a can of pepper spray inside the mosque and innocently spraying another child while the adults were having a service. If that is, in fact, the case, then "Obsession" had no role whatsoever.
I encourage everyone to view the film including Muslims. If there is something in this film that is not factual, I would like to hear about it.
4 comments:
Here'sa critique for you to read.
Nice try, Bryan.
I read the article. I had never heard of this group before, but it is obvious that their agenda is left and directed against the Christian Right whom they perceive (incorrectly, in my view) to be enemies of Jews.
This article strikes me as a quite tortured attampt to refute the film. What is there to refute? The film states that most Muslims don't support terrorism and that the film is not about them.
The article talks about why the Mufti of Jerusalem opposed Jews, etc. the real reason why the Russian kids died at Beslan, etc. (It was the fault of the Russian commandos. No, it was the fault of the terrorists who held them hostage)
While the film stays on focus and uses the words of the terrorists and radical clerics themselves, this article tries to refute the obvious-that a significant segment of Islam is out to destroy us.
Can they refute the fact that some Muslims in the US are thinking of terror in our country? Witness the recent Ft Dix trial that just conscluded.
The thesis of the film is quite simple: A portion of Islam (not all Muslims) is intent on destroying us. You don't have to use the words of "Islamophobes" to get the message. You just listen to the words of the radicals themselves in speeches that are broadcast on TV in the Middle East. It is undeniable that in many places in the Middle East, young children are brought up to believe in Jihad.
And this article spemds 12 pages going into all kinds of detail trying to convince us that the film is just false propagaanda.
Sorry, Bryan. I don't buy it. (Have you watched the film?-If not, watch it and tell me what is not true.) If Obsession is a lie, then 9-11 never happened-or like the Truthers say, Bush did it.
So because the film has a disclaimer at the beginning, you are willing to just take that at face value and abandon any further analysis of its content and tone?
That would be about the same as trusting certain MSU speakers when they say they're not anti-Jewish, just anti-Zionist, because well, they said so!
Bryan,
If you have seen the film (you can do so on the Internet), pls tell me what is untrue in the film.
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