[R-G] Propaganda film plays to Muslim stereotypes

[Anthony Fenton]

Propaganda film plays to Muslim stereotypes

September 17, 2008

http://www.news-leader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080917/OPINIONS/809170448


Like other newspapers across the country, this Sunday's News-Leader  
contained a glossy insert and DVD of the film "Obsession: Radical  
Islam's War Against the West."
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Ordinarily, such a blatant piece of anti-Muslim propaganda wouldn't  
merit much attention, but this "advertisement" was sent to about 28  
million newspaper subscribers in key electoral swing states. It was  
paid for by The Clarion Fund, an opaque nonprofit organization that  
doesn't list its directors or staff or sources of funding on its Web  
site.

Whatever the mystery behind The Clarion Fund, the timing in  
distributing the film now isn't hard to discern: Fan the flames of  
fear to influence the November elections.

Despite its opening line that "most Muslims are peaceful and do not  
support terror," the film makes use of all the standard tools of  
propaganda to create an image of Muslims as terrorists.

It juxtaposes scenes of Muslims praying in mosques with ominous music  
and images of militants brandishing weapons and burning flags. It uses  
the Muslim call to prayer alongside scenes of bombings and selected  
radical clerics ranting about the West.

The main flaw with the film isn't primarily its facts, although there  
are some factual errors. For example, Daniel Pipes proclaims that  
"there was a general response of delight to 9/11 across the Muslim  
world." This is a gross misstatement.

Leaders across the Islamic world condemned the 9/11 attacks, and the  
overwhelming sentiment of Muslims was sympathy for the victims. In  
Iran, for example, tens of thousands of people joined candlelight  
vigils in the days following the 9/11 attacks. Instead, the film's  
biggest problem is with its main argument: that radical Islam is a  
monolithic, undifferentiated ideology connected everywhere by similar  
goals and strategies. From Palestine to Pakistan to Peoria, Islamists  
apparently all want the same thing and are all working together.
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No one can deny, of course, that there are violent groups acting in  
the name of Islam. And of course there are those in Muslim-majority  
countries who preach hatred and violence. But it is entirely unhelpful  
to paint with such a broad brush.

It is just wrong to argue, as the film does, that the goal of all  
Islamists (even radical ones) is to destroy the West. This is the case  
with Al-Qaida, but one doesn't need to accept the ambitions of  
militant Islamists in Palestine and Chechnya and Indonesia to  
recognize that they are different from those of Osama bin Laden. Most  
Islamism is focused on local rather than global goals.

The film is relentless in its comparisons of Islamism with Nazi Germany.

Its message is clear: Islamism wants total world domination and anyone  
who questions this is an appeaser (the film blames Hollywood for the  
"political correctness" that blinds America to the threat).

Even more troubling is its McCarthy-esque warnings about a vast  
conspiracy of militant Islamic infiltrators into western societies.  
Just like during the Red Scare, the idea is to use fear to exaggerate  
the threat from within and create pressures for military solutions  
abroad.

If America is going to deal with the real challenges of extremism and  
terrorism around the world, it needs to do it with a careful  
understanding of its complex causes and varying manifestations.

The film "Obsession" plays to the crudest stereotypes and promotes the  
simplest solutions. In the end, this kind of thinking will do far more  
to harm American security than it will to help it.

Jeff VanDenBerg is director of Middle East Studies at Drury University.