Obsession…

So, I found an interesting thing attached to the Sunday newspaper of The Toledo Blade. A DVD titled “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against The West.” It appears that it was also attached to 50 other Newspapers throughout the country. What gave its agenda away to me was more than its “O” being replaced by a Star and Crescent, and it’s “N” converted into an AK-47. I have been following the work of most of the people interviewed in this documentary for a long time. Do Muslim extremists exist? Certainly. Should they be dealt with when they try to undermine the liberty of others? Most definitely. But the people involved in this documentary have a much sinister agenda in mind. Throughout their books and speeches, they present in a subtle manner, the idea that “true Muslims” are the terrorists, and “secular Muslims” are the ‘good ones.’

What this means is that they will regard any Muslim who actually believes in their faith as suspect, and will slander them as being extremists even if they’re not. But those Muslims who are not very connected with their faith are to be regarded as ‘good’, because their values are supposedly more aligned with ‘western values’. Again, what this means is that these Muslims’ belief in tolerance, freedom, and liberty isn’t really Islamic, but ‘western’, and this ‘proves’ that Western=Awesome, and Islam=Suck. They will never fully admit this because they are dishonest about what their agenda is.

They also set up a debating technique that doesn’t allow them to lose an argument. For example, one of the people interviewed in this film is Daniel Pipes. Pipes has accused Khaled Abou El Fadl, a Muslim well versed in Islamic thought, law, and ethics, of being a ’stealth Islamist.’ What he means by this is that El Fadl will say certain things to please his American audience, but says something entirely different to Muslims. He had no evidence to support this assertion, but he kept repeating it anyway. The reason why people like Khaled Abou El Fadl and Tariq Ramadan to a certain extent, bother Daniel Pipes and other supporters of this doctrine of ‘true Muslims=evil’, ’secular Muslims=good’, is because they give the lie to what they are saying and can dig deep into the history of Islamic civilization to prove them wrong. And Pipes and Co. can’t turn to their ‘go to’ mental construct of dismissing them as ’secular Muslims’, because they are deeply committed to their faith.

Therefore, Muslims like this break down the simplistic stereotypes that Pipes and others have concocted to satisfy their hatred of Muslims. But since they feel like they are going to be exposed for their dishonesty and telling half-truths, they accuse these Muslims as being insurgents who are merely playing the ‘western game’ to get ahead, but if they got their way all Americans would be reciting the Shahada before school starts, instead of the Pledge of Allegiance. Thus, they play to a fear of foreigners to cloud peoples judgment, instead of allowing them to make up their own mind.

I found it quite appropriate that this film was titled ‘Obsession’, because the people involved in it are certainly obsessed with trying to convince as many people they can that ‘true’ Muslims are potential terrorists, and non-practicing Muslims are an example of the superior ‘western values’ overcoming Islam. Films like these will always be made in political climates such as we have in this day, and they have the right to say what they’re going to say. But what bothers me is that if someone were to ask an organization like Fox News to run a film praising Islam, they would respond by saying that it’s not the media’s job to promote one faith/ideology over another. But when they show something that makes all Muslims look like potential terrorists, it’s lauded as a ‘free exchange of ideas.’ Got it…Message received. When it’s bashing a group of people, it’s ‘democracy in action’. But when it’s giving them a fair shot to present themselves in a good light, it’s ‘intrusion.’

What I found the most ironic with the description of the film on the card it was attached to, was its tracing ‘the parallels between the Nazi movement of World War II, the Radicals of today, and the Western world’s response to both threats’, when in fact it is tactics like these that parallel the Nazi movement! (I.E. repeating a lie enough times makes it true)

My real problem is not that movies like these are made. It’s that movies like these are made by people who have ‘ins’ in the government, and are giving their own personal views a political platform that will affect millions of people. It’s not just ‘radical Muslims’ that Daniel Pipes and his lot are against, but all Muslims who are practicing. They’re just not so upfront about that…yet. They claim their only desire is to see ‘radical Islam’ destroyed, but since they make no distinction between ‘radical Islam’ and ’simply Islam’, they are silently saying that Radical Islam is Islam, and it must be destroyed. Its adherents can either be converted to western ideas of secularism, or they can be condemned as extremists. Knowing that most Muslims won’t conform to this test they have created, this only further ‘proves’ that Muslims are ‘uncompromising fanatics’ that will always be a thorn in the proverbial ‘western’ side.

What I would like to say at the end of this is that I do believe there are Muslim extremists who have fantasies of world domination where their misinformed idea of ‘Islamic Law’ is enforced upon all nations, whether they like it or not. And people like that must always be opposed to protect the freedom of others. This is a given and there is no compromising. But I am entirely convinced that the people featured in this DVD and the many other forms of media they pursue don’t make a distinction between radicals and normal Muslims, thereby supporting a racist proposition that will only lead to discrimination and persecution in the long run if it is left unchecked. They will become like those they hate.