City of Brass blogger, Aziz Poonwalla, takes the Simon Wiesenthal Center to task for screening “The Third Jihad”. Is he right? Yes and no. There is no question that it’s an incendiary film and to that end, it’s fair to ask what good comes from screening it. Calling it educational doesn’t work because even those parts of the film which are accurate (and there are many more of those than Mr. Poonwalla is either willing or able to admit), tend to shed more heat than light on the very real problem of violence and hatred which draw their inspiration from Islam.
And any time an organization as large and influential as the Wiesenthal Center acts, they should consider not only whether or not they have the right to do what they are doing, but also whether or not there is real benefit to their doing it. I am sure that they did ask in this case, but fail to see what value lay in screening a movie which will do nothing more (or less) than stir people’s rage without creating any constructive outlet for addressing the problems on which the film focuses.
All that having been said, the comparison by both Mr. Poonwalla and CAIR-Los Angeles of this film to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is beyond shameful, unless of course they mean to suggest that some portion of that book are factually correct. And if they believe that, then they are the last people who should be complaining about any kind of ethnic or religious hatred.
The real problem here is that both CAIR and Poonwalla fail to address the challenges of even the small minority of Muslims (and that is how the film identifies them) who are using their tradition to create the underpinnings for a culture of hatred and violence. Or, do they not agree that there is such an active minority and that they do indeed present a real danger? If that is the case, their brothers and sisters in faith have far more to fear than the rest of us since Muslims kill far more Muslims in the name of Islam than they do non-Muslims.
By focusing obsessively on islamphobia, they not only fail to address a real threat, they undermine their own ability to raise legitimate concerns about the dangers of screening a film like “The Third Jihad”. Like those Jewish defense agencies that see anti-Semitism everywhere and call anyone who questions anything done by Jews, anti-Semites, they become parodies of themselves and unable to be heard by anyone who doesn’t already agree with them.
Of course the ultimate irony here lies in the fact that those who would most castigate the actions of the Wiesenthal Center, are in fact most like their own ugly assessment of the organization they most deeply oppose.
Author, radio and TV talk show host, and President of CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, Brad Hirschfield is the author of 
posted May 19, 2009 at 5:17 pm
Rabbi Hirschfield,
You assume the role of the neutral sage who sends everybody to their room without regard to partisanship, but you don’t play that role too well and your biases quickly ooze through.
On the one hand you scurry to offer homage to the Weisenthal Center as a “large and influential” organization, But then you turn around and strip CAIR from the same – though it also be a “large and influential” organization. In fact, you explicitly cast your own aspersions on CAIR by entertaining the cynical and preposterous fantasy that CAIR may possibly accept that the Elders of Protocols of Zion is partially true.
This is neither fair nor honest on your part. CAIR has never said anything to lead you to believe that, indeed it has explicitly stated the very opposite. So your brand of humor, probing, or whatever that was completely backfired and only displayed your double standard in showing respect to established Jewish organizations while working to undermine respect for established Muslim organizations.
This sort of antagonism and display of contempt and disdain for Muslim enfranchisement that you – hopefully inadvertently – infuse in your piece, is in turn carried out explicitly in this film. A film whose hypocritical and deceptive nature you apologize for by pointing out that it has “elements of truth” in it. What are those elements of truth? That Muslims have a radical minority? Is that a revelation missed upon us? Do we need a new film for that? CAIR is the first to acknowledge and condemn violent and radicalized tendencies among Muslims.
Oh but that’s not even it.
You see the film is not so much concerned with “that” minority, the radical minority, the real threat. You, like the film, befuddle the tiny fact that the minority targeted in 3rd Jihad is a whole other minority, it’s the religious minority of American Muslims in the US – a minority vis-a-vis Christians, but mainstream American nonetheless – living and working through honor, hard work, and fair opportunity to represent the underrepresented.
The Third Jihad is about casting suspicion on the mainstream American Muslim establishment as some sort of fifth column conspiratorial, massively deceptive insurgency that is out to take over America. There is zero truth in this claim. That precisely invites a comparison to the Elders of Zion, and missing that on your part does not say much for your actual familiarity with the film.
posted May 19, 2009 at 7:57 pm
Zero truth to the claim that the American Muslim establishment is out to take over America?
Absolutely zero?
You may be right. I simply do not know. Those few Muslims I know personally seem to be genuinely happy to be in the USA. The real question is how many extremists of any group (Christian, Jewish, Muslim, atheist) bent on violence there are. And if The Third Jihad overstates their number to incite fear to rouse support for Jewish causes, it does us all a disservice. But from what I see from snatches of Arab television, fearmongering is not an exclusively Jewish or Christian failing.
posted May 20, 2009 at 4:26 am
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
THE THIRD JIHAD DRAWS CAPACITY CROWD IN L.A.
FILM PREMIERE AT WIESENTHAL CENTER’S MUSEUM OF TOLERANCE CELEBRATES COURAGEOUS VOICE OF AMERICAN MUSLIM PATRIOT
(LOS ANGELES, CA – May 19, 2009) The Clarion Fund announced today that the West Coast premiere of its newest documentary film, The Third Jihad, was a stunning success, drawing a capacity crowd at the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles on Sunday evening. Though the event was billed as a film screening, it was transformed into a celebration of the courageous voice of Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, a devout Muslim and American patriot who is leading the charge against radical Islam.
“The Museum of Tolerance showed courage in hosting this event, and class in not responding to its critics,” said Peter Connors, Executive Director of Clarion. “It was the perfect atmosphere for Dr. Jasser to rally the American Muslim community to stop the radicals that are co-opting their peaceful religion and promulgating heinous human rights injustices.”
Despite great personal risk, Dr. Jasser, a former physician to the U.S. congress and the founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD), has taken a leading role in exposing and fighting the threat of radical Islamism and jihadism in America. He promotes the synergy of the Muslim faith, in belief and practice, with the American values of democracy, freedom, and liberty.
“It is time for the mainstream Muslim population – and the American public – to raise its voices louder than the theocrats, militants and radical Islamists who generally voice the ‘opinions’ of Islam,” said Dr. Jasser. “It is my mission to rally the Muslim ‘business community’ to begin speaking for themselves, so that the radical Islamists can no longer articulate and define what Islam is and what it isn’t.”
The Third Jihad, which is narrated by Dr. Jasser, centers on the FBI discovery of a Grand Jihad Manifesto calling for “civilization jihadist process,” a cultural jihad to undermine the U.S. from within using non-violent strategies. Dr. Jasser illustrates how this silent war has already begun in America and other Western countries.
“The most important contribution of this film is introducing the American public to moderate Muslims who unequivocally denounce terrorism and extremists in their midst,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, itself a producer of the Academy Award-winning documentary films The Long Way Home and Genocide through Moriah Films. “It provides a window into the inner struggle of these brave individuals over which values will ultimately prevail in their community.”
The film features interviews with experts on radical Islam and American security specialists, including leading expert professor Bernard Lewis, former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Senator Joe Lieberman, CIA Director Jim Woolsey, New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, as well as a first-hand account from a former terrorist. All those interviewed agree that the spread of Islamic fundamentalism in America is a societal reality that cannot be ignored.
The successful Washington, DC, and Los Angeles premieres of the film have paved the way for additional screenings across the country over the next several months, including an exclusive event at The New York Directors Guild Theatre in June.
# # #
The Clarion Fund (www.clarionfund.org) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that aims to educate Americans about issues of national security. The organization focuses primarily on the emergent threat of radical Islam. To that end, Clarion produces and distributes documentary films and facilitates online education to help Americans better understand the real dangers posed by radical Islam. In addition to RadicalIslam.org, the organization’s interactive online educational and social networking tool, Clarion has a popular live-blogging presence on Twitter: @No2RadicalIslam.
Nancy Duncan
Clarion Fund PR
917-806-8809
media@clarionfund.org
posted May 20, 2009 at 11:04 am
Here we go again “Labeling” but if the Americans worry that the “Muslims” will take over America……… then I say get off your behind and work, most “Muslims” try to make a living and if whatever is there to be taken, take it.
The only complaint I have for everybody, if you in this Country of America then you should obey the Laws otherwise you should go whereever you come from.
posted May 20, 2009 at 11:41 am
The Wiesenthal Center really does deserve to be strongly criticized here. A central objective of this documentary is to incite a fear of Islam as Aziz was pointing out. Griping about CAIR is a purely ad hominem attack, they can be rightfully ‘sensitive’ about this film as can Jewish groups concerning anti-Semitic material. You can’t simply blow this sort of stuff off.
With regard to the film, I am also amazed by the participation by various discredited members of our own government in this movie. Having James Woolsey, a buddy of Ahmed Chalabi and the first claim a connection between Bin Laden and Iraq says a lot about the movie. Can we trust this guy to protect our country’s interests or say anything truthful? The latest studies from the DHS/FBI are entirely opposed to the ‘findings’ in this movie.
Others will be able to dissect this movie better than me as a dishonest effort to promote intolerance and expose its neo-con agenda more fully. Sometimes, people do ‘cry wolf’ when they shouldn’t, but this time, the analogy does not apply.
posted May 22, 2009 at 2:53 pm
I have not seen the film, and cannot comment on it, but if the description is accurate, I have doubts about some of those labeled “experts” therein. That some of them have had experiences in NYC with tragedy, does not make them experts on Islam and its demographics via-a-vis number of terrorists. Further, those whose careers are dependent upon fear-mongering are unlikely to be objective.
The discrimination against a perceived identified group due to the acts of a very few persons perceived as being of that group is immoral and irrational.
posted May 27, 2009 at 5:47 am
This film doesn’t go far enough. Winston Churchill (the identifier of the Nazi threat) compared Islam to Nazism and warned on Islam that “the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of Ancient Rome”. Look up Churchill’s quotes on Islam if you want to know the truth about Islam. Churchill lived and worked in Islamic countries before becoming Prime Minister, and won a Nobel Prize for his scholarship. The ideology of ‘moderate’ Islam is a greater threat than the violence of the extremists, and Churchill understood this. Trust Churchill. Don’t trust any modern politician.