Back Towards The Locus

The Background

Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West was created in 2006, and drew dozens of protestors at limited campus screenings. It claims to demonstrate that “a peaceful religion is being hijacked by a dangerous foe, who seeks to destroy the shared values we stand for“, but has been described as “a vile piece of propaganda” by the only Islamic Studies Professor that it features. Jeff VanDenBerg, director of Middle East Studies at Drury University, called the film “a blatant piece of anti-Muslim propaganda“, and a full rebuttal was released by the interfaith coalition Hate Hurts America.

The film drew most controversy when it was distributed by newspapers last month, largely in swing states. Publishers compared it to “other product samples, whether it’s cereal or toothpaste“.

It aims to reach 28 million homes, and yet little has been revealed about it’s makers, backers and distributors.

The Film

The makers of Obsession claim that viewers of their film have become “very scared of the future“, and, as it claims that “we will have millions dead” and “several Nazi Germanys“, this is hardly surprising. What they fail to add, however, is that they could only scare people by making a dishonest, fearmongering, propagandistic piece of shit.

This could be guessed from the contributors alone. Walid Shoebat appears as an ‘ex-PLO terrorist’, though this alone is doubted. Previously, he has denounced Islam as “a satanic cult” and – ironically considering Obsession’s coverage of anti-semitic conspiracy-theorising – claimed that “Palestinians keep Jewish testicles and breasts in jars“. Steve Emerson has also indulged in racist theorising: in 1996 he claimed that the Oklahoma City bombings betrayed “a Middle Eastern trait” because it was carried out “with the intent to inflict as many casualties as possible“.

Despite the film’s references to “moderate Muslims” (they who should start speaking up), contributor Brigitte Gabriel – who thinks that Barack Obama is anti-semitic – has said that “every practising Muslim is a radical Muslim” and that Islam “has been butchering and killing people all along“. The anti-arabic Daniel Pipes believes, in contradiction to the “silent majority” that is mentioned in Obsession, that moderate Muslims “constitute a very small movement“.

Such a collection could hardly have given anything less than ignorant propaganda.

According to Obsession, Islamism – also referenced as ‘Islamic extremism’, ‘Islamofascism’ and ‘Islamic radicalism’ – is“part of a single threat”. Bent upon global domination, Islamism – represented in various conflicts, regimes and supposedly subsersive organisations – has formed a “global Jihad“.

Needless to say, little detail is given of this vast, monolithic entity. Examples, or “fronts“, include terrorism in Iraq – where there’s been heated conflict between Sunni and Shia Muslims – and *cough* “the Palestinian war in Israel“. The nauseatingly earnest Caroline Glick goes so far as to assert that Russia is “dealing with” Islamism in Chechnya. Even Russia Today couldn’t give such a simplistic summation of the conflicts in the Caucasus.

Possibly in the knowledge that this unsubstantiated “Global Jihad” thesis is a laughable one, the makers  of Obsession delve back into history in order to demonstrate that Islam is more of a latent threat. The historian Martin Gilbert – who has been criticised for ignoring Arabic sources in his work – states that “history has an unfortunate habit of repeating itself” over pictures of Palestinians and Iranians giving Nazi salutes. Shoebat – who takes the immediate top spot as the Stupidest Person I’ve Ever Encountered – claims that “Nazism is less dangerous than this Islamofascism that we see today“, and warns of “several Nazi Germanys if they get their way“.

To support these outrageous assertions, we see clips from Palestinian and Iranian TV that do indeed show vile, anti-semitic crap. Similarly obscene material can be found in the American Press, however, so what’s significant is how widespread such beliefs may be. A Gallup poll released this year has suggested that the proportion of Iranian, Saudi-Arabian and Lebanese citizens that support attacks on civilians is lower than proportion of American citizens that do. Hardly rampant imperialism there, then.

Obsession also presents videos of Palestinian children wielding weapons and spouting horrific death-threats. They are chilling, but, again, images of Israeli children signing missiles are chilling but are they representative? Dingbat thinks so, and declares that “the eggs are hatching and what’s coming out is literally something from Nazi Germany“. This certainly wouldn’t be true of the Palestinian Youth Association For Leadership And Rights Activation (PYALARA), which involves children in such evil activities as, er, writing their own newspaper. It also wouldn’t be true of the Gazan children who took part in Summer Games organised by DFID this year. Those events brought “joy, happiness and hope” to Dingbat’s little Nazis.

One might be forgiven for pointing out that promoting a fallacious, but terrifying, perception of a group is rather reminiscent of Hitler’s Germany.

In order to demonstrate that their supposed Islamist block is an urgent threat to the US, a “Eurabia” thesis is put forward. Luckily for me, the makers choose Britain as their target.

John Loftus informs us that “the infiltration of Radical Islam is so deep it’s shocking…the minute you say ‘this is an extremist group’, it’s all ‘oh, you’re not being politically correct’”. Really? Well, the example given is Al-Muhajiroun’s London protests of 2005, but – oopsie – the sect had been banned before Obsession was even made. Anjem Choudary is given further consideration, but he is a just a marvellous strawman for the film because, as Indigo Jo once wrote, “he speaks for a tiny, and dwindling, minority of uncouth extremists“. I can only assume that they gained their knowledge of Islamism in Britain from Robert Spencer, who once slavered over “several thousand Muslims” protesting against Rushdie’s knighthood, when in fact it was roughly twenty.

Some ‘infiltration’.

While blathering historical, Dingbat claims that the modern treatment of Islamism is more dangerous than the Munich Accords, leading me to wonder just where “appeasement” is taking place. What do the makers of Obsession advocate? The invasion of Iran? The complete occupation of Palestine? Well, very probably I’m afraid.

So, Obsession: a dishonest, badly-researched, propagandistic piece of shit.

The Clarion Fund, Aish HaTorah and HonestReporting

Obsession was distributed by the Clarion Fund, an organisation founded in 2006 by the Producer and Co-Writer of the film, Raphael Shore. Clarion’s website, Radical Islam, once featured a pro-McCain article, which concluded that “McCain’s policies seek to confront radical Islamic extremism and terrorism and roll it back while [Barack] Obama’s, although intending to do the same, could in fact make the situation facing the West even worse“.

Shore is an employee of Aish HaTorah, an organisation that “is dedicated to revitalizing the Jewish people by providing opportunities for Jews of all backgrounds to discover their heritage in an atmosphere of open inquiry and mutual respect“. Clarion’s corporate filings apparently shared the same adress as Aish HaTorah New York, while Jacob Fetman – another employee – has been listed as an officer of Clarion.

Wayne Copping, the Director, Editor and Co-Writer of Obsession, previously Co-Created the film Relentless: The Struggle For Peace In The Middle East. Relentless was produced by HonestReporting – a pro-Israel media watchdog that was established with the assistance of Aish HaTorah. Last month, HonestReporting admitted that it had helped with the production of Obsession.

Joe Wierzbicki and Russo Marsh & Rogers

Obsession has been promoted by Joe Wierzbicki. Wierzbicki is employed at Russo Marsh & Rogers, a Republican affiliated public relations company. He also works as coordinator for the pro-war lobby Move On America and for their splinter organisation Our Country Deserves Better, which “has one objective: to defeat Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election“.

Reporting on his promotion of Obsession, the Detroit Free Press stated that Wierzbicki is a “spokesman for a California-based public relations company hired to promote the film“. Russo Marsh & Rogers is also based in California, and it seems likely that this was the public relations company mentioned.

Endowment for Middle Eastern Truth

IPS claimed that the Clarion Fund had been partnered with Endowment for Middle Eastern Truth (EMET), a Washington-based think-tank that works to “tell the truth about Israel’s heroic story, and to bring this truth to policy makers and to the public at large“. EMET admitted that they were involved in the promotion of the film, and backed out of the project.

Their website now claims that they “regret [agreeing to involvement with Obsession] without having had the project and EMET’s association with it fully considered by EMET’s Board“, but this strains credulity. The advisory board of EMET includes Daniel Pipes, Walid Shoebat and Caroline Glick, all of whom feature in Obsession. Also on the board is Meyrav Wurmser of MEMRI, which is given prominent promotion on the website of the film.

Their regret has not stopped EMET from praising the “tremendous” documentary and declaring that:

“It is an unfortunate irony that many of the very people who are leading the charge to suppress this important documentary in the name of “moderate” Islam are the ones who are suppressing the voices of moderate Islam that are speaking out so courageously, in the film…the true voices of moderation such as those of Nonie Darwish and Walid Shoebat.”

Darwish and Shoebat are such moderate Muslims that they’re, er, Christians. ‘Nuff said.

Conclusion

Obsession was distributed, largely in swing states, in order to inspire an utterly irrational fear of Islamic jihad. Considering that the numerous backers and supporters include individuals and organisations with Republican affiliations, it seems natural that the release should be investigated by the Federal Election Commission.

Tips of the hat to Pickled Politics and Bartholomew’s Notes On Religion for a few of the links.