Critics should give Obsession DVD a chance

Too much has been said recently about the film Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West without saying anything.

Detractors have called it hateful and fear mongering and Islamophobic, and many criticized The Oregonian for allowing the DVD to be distributed with its newspapers, like it would any other advertisement.

I have no reason to think The Oregonian did anything wrong. But I am not as concerned about ethics in advertising as I am with the anti-free speech and untrue statements about the film calling it “hate speech.”

I want to tell you about the real contents of the film.

I watched it closely, and this is a movie filled with hate–hate for the right people. And it goes way out of its way to state whom the film is not about.

If you missed the movie’s subtitle, it’s Radical Islam’s War Against the West (the ridiculously redundant reemphasis is mine). Not enough?

The very first material shown on the DVD, in fact, are the words, “This is a movie about radical Islamic terror. A dangerous ideology fueled by religious hatred. It’s important to remember most Muslims are peaceful and do not support terror. This is not a film about them.”

Nowhere does the film suggest anything but that. And I have yet to see any examples from the media about what specifically qualifies it as inspiring hatred or fear of all Muslims. Not a one.

What it does do, however, is suggest that the greatest targets of radical Islamists are Muslims themselves. One Palestinian journalist, Khaled Abu Toameh, said, “As a Muslim … I feel that Islam has been hijacked by different fanatic groups.”

Abu Toameh also offers the single most critical point of Islam as a whole of any interviewed in the film. He is critical of what he calls a “silent majority” of Muslims who are not speaking up loud enough against radical Islam.

That’s it. Even if he overstates the case, how does this espouse hatred toward Muslims and Islam?

Why protest and call him a bigot? Would you think to call someone “anti-Christian” and bigoted if they made a film about the extremist, un-Christian Christians who blow up abortion clinics?

You can disagree with the arguments of the film, which assert radical Islam is a present threat. Why is it hateful, though, to suggest that it is a threat, and make a film about it? If by “fear-mongering” critics of the film mean that it is meant to inspire fear, then yes, the film is fear mongering.

Why, even Barack Obama could be called a fear monger! His own Web site says, “The gravest danger to the American people is the threat of a terrorist attack with a nuclear weapon and the spread of nuclear weapons to dangerous regimes.”

Likely the most contested argument of the movie is the link it makes between Nazi propaganda and some radical Islamic propaganda. Even if you thought this link was overplayed, please tell me where in the movie it states that this is mainstream Muslim propaganda.

It doesn’t. And I’d cry foul if it did.

The movie makes the point that there are terrorists at home–what it does not do is encourage you to interrogate your neighbor and beat them, or spray chemicals on them, as happened in Dayton, Ohio.

Only disgusting fools as bad as terrorists themselves would think this. If Obsession was the straw the pushed these fools over the edge (which was only speculation, according to the Dayton Daily News) they have other problems entirely.

And it also means that they were so overtaken by hate that they couldn’t even finish the movie before running over to the mosque: The end of Obsession shows, on the other hand, the brave and vocal Muslims who are speaking out against radicals, with large crowds chanting “death to terrorists!”

Fear that people will see Obsession and suddenly treat their Muslim neighbors differently or violently show a lack of faith in the average American’s judgment. Again, there are some loonies and evil people are out there, but that’s another issue entirely.

Don’t be misled into reading out the “Radical” in the film’s title. It could not be clearer whom the film is describing. You may not like the film, or disagree with its arguments about the threat of radical Islam, but undercutting the film as bigoted and Islamophobic, and calling on The Oregonian to censor Obsession discourages diversity of opinion and free speech.

So watch it. I know many detractors of the film only have the best in mind, in protecting our neighbors from what they view as slander. But suspecting the worst, and refusing to watch it, only falls prey to what one woman in the film calls, “strangling ourselves with our political correctness.”