Thursday, December 14, 2006

[OBRL-News-Bulletin] Obsession, and the "Top Media Liar Award" for 2006

2 items below:

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1.  Honest Reporting gives its
"Top Media Liar Award" for 2006 Journalist Lies & Fabrications

http://www.honestreporting.com/articles/45884734/critiques/2006_Dishonest_Reporter_of_the_Year_Award.asp
Worth a look, on the event of the Iranian "Holocaust-Denial" Conference, where an even larger collection of truth-benders will be presenting speeches. 

Honest Reporting also has a short film worth the time to review:
"Demand Accuracy: Honest Reporting's 2006 Review of the Media"
http://www.honestreporting.com/a/demandAccuracy.asp
"From whitewashing the terror record of Hamas to promoting the lie that the Israeli Navy had shelled a Gaza beach, the Media in 2006 were responsible for many glaring errors and biased reports. ...Please take two minutes to watch our latest film, Demand Accuracy which looks back at the year's coverage of Israel..."

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2.  The documentary "Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West" is one of the more clarifying things one can view on the current international situation.  Highly recommended.  Get it at:
http://www.obsessionthemovie.com

Following is an interview with the film's director.

 Obsession
By Jamie Glazov
FrontPageMagazine.com | December 11, 2006

Frontpage Interview's guest today is Wayne Kopping, director of the documentary film Obsession, Radical Islam's War Against the West. [To see a twelve minute clip from the video, click here.]

FP: Wayne Kopping, welcome to Frontpage Interview.
 
Kopping: Thank you for the opportunity.
 
FP: What motivated you to direct Obsession?
 
Kopping: The producer and co-writer of Obsession, Raphael Shore, is really the visionary behind the project. He was the one that first exposed me to the vicious hate speech and propaganda coming out of the Arab world. I remember thinking to myself, "the world has got to see this". This lead us to make a film called, "Relentless" [
RelentlessTheMovie.com ] which was about the Arab-Israeli struggle.
 
Obsession is a sequel of sorts that takes a much broader look at the issue of Radical Islamic terrorism, and the threat it poses to practically every country in the world.

We felt compelled to make the film because the threat is so grossly misunderstood. We made the film so that people could hear from the Radical Islamic leaders in their own words, on their own Islamic TV networks how they see the struggle.

People often tell us that once they've seen Obsession, they walk away with a clarity about the true nature of the conflict that they never had before - and that's why we wanted to make the film.
 
FP: Why do you think the threat we face is so grossly misunderstood in the West?

Kopping: I think it's because we have a hard time wrapping our heads around the notion that there are people out there that really, really hate us. We can't wrap our heads around a culture that, as we speak, is teaching its men, women and children that the greatest honor and reward a Muslim can earn is by killing the infidel [non-Muslims] - and dying in the act as a martyr. This is part of what we expose in
Obsession.

We have an impossible time understanding these things because we, in the West, don't see the world that way.

So, what we do, is we say to ourselves that if there are those that hate us, and that are literally raising a next-generation of suicide bombers, it must be for a good reason. Therefore, we believe that it has to be that we, in the West, have committed some heinous crime in order to invoke such hatred. And so we navel gaze and try to find something, anything, everything that we have done to raise the ire of the Islamic world.

This plays directly into the hands of the Radicals, who point to Iraq, for instance, and say to the West, "Look what you've done! The Sunni and the Shiites are murdering each other on a daily basis! Their blood is on your hands!"

What people fail to realize is that the Sunni's and Shiite have been violently at odds with one another for centuries.

I'm not saying US foreign policy has nothing to do with the current crisis, but the US is not the root cause of the conflict. And that is a critical point that we fail to understand -- that Radicals understand how we see the world, and they prey on our willingness to blame ourselves for the misdeeds of others.

People also fail to realize that the Radical Muslims see this conflict with the West as part of a centuries-long, historic struggle with the non-believers. In many ways, it's as if they see themselves as still fighting the Crusades. The Radicals believe it is their religious duty to cleanse the Muslim lands of the infidels, and to bring the world under the aegis of Islam.

We, in the West, grossly underestimate how religion almost entirely forms the Radical's world-view. In the majority of Islamic countries, there is no separation between "church and state". In Iran, for instance, there are so-called 'Religious Police" that closely watch the population and regulate their dress- codes, limit interaction between the sexes and the like. In Saudi-Arabia, for instance, it is haram, forbidden for women to drive a car - let alone vote. The point here is that we are living in a very different worlds to the majority of the Islamic population.

And until we begin to understand how the Radical Muslims see the world, we are not going to fully understand the nature of the threat we are facing.

FP: How would you define the enemy we face?

Kopping: Radical Muslims present themselves as defending the lands and honor of Islam against the "Great Satan" [ie, the West, and America, in particular]. Radical Muslims have cast themselves in the role of the victim because they know that it is the surest way to galvanize their entire population to rise up against the onslaught of this "Satan". Add to that, they believe that they have a religious imperative commanded by Allah Himself to fight the kuffar (infidel, non-Muslim) no matter where they happen to live. Therefore, they believe it is incumbent of every believing man, woman and child to play an active role in this Jihad, the highest of honor of which is to die as a martyr. These factors make for an intensely volatile situation.

FP: What is analogous between the new enemy and the Nazis?

Kopping: Until one has seen "Obsession" one may have a hard time seeing a connection between the Radical Muslims and the Nazis, but we have been told that, after watching the film, it's almost impossible to deny. We see the connection most strikingly, perhaps, in the propaganda the Islamists use, which is, in some cases, directly duplicated from the Nazis.  We also see it in the endless hate speech in the Islamic media, which is reminiscent of the Nazis.   We also see similarities in the indoctrination of a generation of youth trained to hate and kill without compunction.

We take it a step further, though, and we show that Radical Islam has many of its strategic roots in Nazism. Many people are shocked to learn that Haj Amin Al-Husseini, the
Grand Mufti of Jerusalem was a close ally of Adolf Hitler. In Obsession, we show rare film footage of a meeting between Hitler and Al-Husseini, where Hitler reveals his secret, genocidal plans to his willing co-conspirator. Today, Al-Husseini is regarded by some as the "Great-Grandfather of Modern Terrorism" and we are left with no doubt as to the Nazi influence in the Radical Islamic world.

And finally, we examine the tragic consequences of the policy of appeasement that was employed by the West when dealing with Hitler pre-WW2. Despite the fact that Hitler had, in his speeches and writings, practically declared his murderous intentions, the West failed to take him at his word, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Today, as in the late 1930's, we find ourselves facing an enemy that seeks the destruction of the West (in fact, they openly and clearly tell us as much). The question is: are we going to learn from history and pay attention this time?

FP: Let us suppose we do learn. What strategy must we pursue in confronting jihad?

Kopping: I am not a strategic analyst, nor do I pretend to be one. What I do know, is that the single most vital thing we can work on is education. We need to educate ourselves about how Radical Muslims see the world so that we understand the threat. We need to educate ourselves to know that not every Muslim is a terrorist [the majority are not] - and we need to know how to tell the difference between a 'radical' and 'moderate'.

We also need to educate ourselves about who WE are - as the West. We need to remind ourselves about the nobility of our cause and the greatness of our democratic values and freedoms.
 And most of all, we need to find a way to educate those children in the Middle East, who, every day, are force-fed a diet of hatred for the West. We need to find a way to stop that dangerous brand of child abuse for their sakes, and certainly for ours [because these children are the next generation of suicide bombers]. We need to find ways to empower the hundreds of millions of Muslims, throughout the Islamic world, who want a better life, free from the repressive tyranny of their religious and political leaders. I believe that each of us, in whatever way we can, needs to be a part of winning this war. Gone are the days when we could say that none of this has anything to do with us. As we saw from 9/11, the London attacks, the Madrid attacks, terror can happen anywhere, anytime - and if the Islamists get their way, terror may be coming to a "neighborhood near you".
 
FP:
Why do we not see masses of Muslims in the streets protesting against Islamic extremism, which is supposedly, as we are told, a perversion of the "real" Islam?
 
Kopping: That is a question I am unable to answer. It's a question that demands an answer from moderate Islamic political and religious leaders. They have to know that their silence is deafening.
 
What I do know, is that voices of moderation and dissent are very often not tolerated in the Islamic world. Often, those that speak out are murdered with their corpses displayed as a warning. So, we in the West need to do whatever we can to protect, embolden and strengthen the moderate voices - and we need to help create a platform from which they can voice their opinions and fight for their freedoms. We all need to find a way to push past this intimidation, because the threat of Radical Islam faces us all, wherever we live, whether we are Muslim or non-Muslim.
 
FP: Tell us a bit about your own intellectual journey. How did you end up being the courageous person that you are in getting the truth out in this way? How come you didn't end up being a liberal director of documentaries that simply focuses on popular and politically correct anti-American themes? Tell us about what influenced you in terms of the direction of your own political odyssey.

Kopping: I really don't see myself as courageous. This is a story that needed to be told, and we tell it. The courageous people are those in law-enforcement that work tirelessly to infiltrate terror cells in the West and abroad to thwart their murderous plans. The courageous ones are those on the front-lines of Iraq, who have committed their lives to ensuring that wrong factions don't gain control of Iraq - because they know that if the radicals win in Iraq, they will immediately link up with Iran & Syria and use their entire collective wealth, arsenal and populations against us. These are the courageous people that need our support.

And regarding my personal journey: what truly motivates me is peace. I really, really want to see a true and lasting peace for all peoples - and I really believe that it is possible. Some people may find that strange to hear - they may ask, "but if you want peace, then why are you making films like 'Obsession' and 'Relentless' which focus on the hate coming out of the Islamic world?" And my answer is that for us to ignore the blatant, genocidal worldview of our opponent is suicidal. Unless we see the Radicals for who they truly are, we are not going to be able to defend ourselves against them.
I often tell people: we have to make sure that we don't treat the moderates as if they are radicals. And we certainly can't make the mistake of treating the radicals as if they were moderates - because they are not. The radicals want to see us all either subjugated or converted to their brand of Islam. The sooner we wake up to that frightening reality, the sooner we will be on a road to a lasting peace - a true peace with our Muslim brothers and sisters that share our freedoms, our values and our vision for a world free of tyranny and intolerance.

FP: I am not so sure that our Muslim "brothers and sisters" share our freedoms, our values and our visions of what the world should be like. They may share our freedoms because they live under them. Those freedoms would not exist if they implemented Islamic law and that's why "our" freedoms do not exist for Muslims that live in Islamic countries.

I am not saying that many Muslims are not our allies against Islamic fanaticism. We have many allies and we have a huge stake in supporting them and allying ourselves with them.

But to suggest that the majority of Muslims who are true believers in their own faith share our views of secularism, free speech, the freedom of conscience, the crucial importance of the separation of Church and State, gay rights, the rights of women to wear what they want and to have self-determination, including of the sexual variety, etc. is a bit problematic.

Kopping: Let me be clear about this - we are not in a war against Islam. We are in a war against those who are using Islam to oppress and subjugate their people -- and who also seek to subjugate us in the West. The problem is that for hundreds of millions of Muslims subjugation has become a way of life to such an extent that they are even prepared to die and kill to defend it.

But we also have to appreciate that it's against human nature for people to live a life that is wholly oppressed by their religious and political leaders. There will come a time when Muslims everywhere will have to make a choice - either to stand with the oppressive radicals, or to fight for a better life for themselves and their children.

So, in the end, it's going to come down to the power of the individual and the choice he or she is able to make. The more Muslims living in the Middle East and around the world are exposed to the notion that they, too, can live a life of freedom, I believe that the more they will crave it. The more we in the West do to create the vehicles through which those individuals can choose democracy and freedoms, the better it will be for all.

Of course there are certain aspects of Western culture that are not compatible with the Islamic culture and world-view, including gay rights, separation of church and state and many others. But those aren't the issues that are necessarily going to make or break a democracy. There are many key issues, like the right to vote, which could become compatible with the mainstream Islamic culture.

We have to realize that we simply can't fight a war against 1.25 billion Muslims. We will lose. We have to find a way to identify, empower and embolden those Muslims that share our values, no matter how few they may be today, and we have to work together with them to root out the radicals. After that, a reformation could begin to take place in the Islamic world and a tipping point may occur.

So the onus is really now on those moderate Muslims who do share our values to step forward, make their voices heard and make a real difference in the conflict. Because, sadly, up until now, their silence has been deafening, and it's deadly.

FP: That we can't fight a war against 1.25 billion Muslims is exactly right. And that we need to support and ally ourselves with those Muslims who stand against extremists is exactly right as well.

But I am not sure you and I agree on human nature and that it makes all people opposed to living a life of oppression. I am not so sure that human history reveals that all people thirst to be free. And I don't mean that you are so sure of these things either, since many points are being made quickly here and might be taken out of context.

Let's just say that a discussion on this complex topic will have to await another forum my friend.
Let's turn over to the efforts to censor your documentary. The Muslim Students Association, for instance, has been
shutting down Obsession screenings on college campuses. What are your thoughts about that?

Kopping: We denounce these actions of the MSA in the strongest terms. Rather than furthering vital debate around the issue of Radical Islamic terrorism, they are sabotaging dialogue.

It is a spurious claim to make that "Obsession" will incite Islamophobia or an anti-Islamic backlash. In "Obsession", we go out of our way to make a distinction between 'radical' and 'moderate' Muslims, and we repeatedly declare that the majority of Muslims are not radicals. In the film, we also include several quotes from experts and leaders that call upon the West to support the moderates. To date, despite millions of people seeing the film, there have been absolutely no reported incidents of violent backlash as a result of 'Obsession'.

The truth is, if the MSA are truly the moderates they purport to be, then they should be supporting films like "Obsession".

Unfortunately, the MSA's censoring of 'Obsession" could be seen as tantamount to their defense of the Radical Islamic terrorists. Is that the message they seek to send? Shall we glean from their actions that the MSA support radical Islamic terrorism and therefore want to participate in the war against the West? If so, one has to ask if such groups truly have a place on Western college campuses, benefiting from the hard-won freedoms of speech and democracy they seem to be working to undermine.

FP: Absolutely. "Moderate" Muslims who are truly against fanaticism and terror should be the greatest supporters of documentaries such as Obsession, since you would think it would be in their highest priority to expose and defeat the extremists in their religion who supposedly taint and discredit the "true" Islam.

Wayne Kopping, thank you for joining Frontpage Interview. It was a pleasure and a privilege to speak with you. Thank you for your latest excellent documentary.

Kopping: The pleasure is all mine. Thank you for the opportunity -- and keep up the good work.

To purchase Obsession:
http://www.obsessionthemovie.com

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In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
[Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml]

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In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only. [Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml]

If you find this material of value, please donate to OBRL: http://www.orgonelab.org/donation

Or, purchase books on related subjects from our on-line bookstore: http://www.naturalenergyworks.net

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