Obsession Is More Than A Perfume
Reported by Chrish - November 5, 2006 -
NOTE: GUEST BLOGGED by Priscilla
If it’s Tuesday, it must be election day and with that in mind, Fox News is pulling out the “fright card” to scare its viewers into voting. Along with the ominous specter of Pelosi and Rangel (liberal women and blacks are high on the Fox threat index) we have radical Islam and Fox is making sure you get a “fair and balanced” view of yet another enemy to be scared of. Reported by News Hound Chrish in an earlier thread, Fox is showing the documentary “Obsession, Radical Islam’s War Against the West” four times this pre-election weekend and as my main man, John Kasich, was pre-empted for this – here it is. 11/5/06
The film was hosted by none other than Fox former morning chat show host, E.D. Hill who introduced the segments and interviewed the film’s director Wayne Kopping. After a short film clip of generic Jihadists shouting (translated, of course) “bomb, bomb, USA, Death to America, and Kill the Jews,” E.D. explained that Islamic Radicals are the “new Nazis and they want you dead.” She claimed that Islamic Jihad is the “most deadly threat of our times” and noted that “we here at Fox believe every American should know” about this. (Comment: In a recent British poll, George Bush was second to OBL and ahead of Kim Jong-Il as the person most threatening to world peace.)
The hour-long film was non-stop footage of various jihadist groups making anti-American and anti-Israeli statements. The translations of the jihadists were provided by Middle East Media Research Institute which, according to Source Watch, is connected to Israeli intelligence organizations and Christian evangelicals and is funded in part by the right wing Olin Foundation.
There were several lively “Bush as the Great Satan” music videos included in the relentless exhibition of hateful jihadists and the perfunctory shots of Muslim children, supposedly talking about their future careers as suicide bombers.
Commentary was provided during the film by anti-Islamic “pundits” including the born again, former Muslims Walid Shoebat and Nonie Darwish, popular on such right wing sites as FrontPageMag and pro Israeli sites such as Arabs for Israel. The line up wouldn’t have been complete without Brigitte Gabriel of the American Congress for Truth – an organization that includes neo-con R. James Woolsey on its Board . Naturally, all these folks asserted that radical Islam wants to kill Americans and make Islam the law of the land. (Comment: Don’t the American fundamentalists want to make their brand of Christianity the law of the land?)
There was one pundit whom I had not seen before, Caroline Glick, for the Center for Security Policy, which, according to Source Watch, has close ties to the Bush administration.In detailing the ever-present danger of radical Islam, Ms. Glick said, “every single country in the world is dealing with it.” (Comment: Norway? New Zealand? – Just to name a few of the many where terrorism is not an issue)
E.D.’s interview with the producer, Wayne Kopping, included a question regarding the funding of the movie, to which Kopping responded that it was “completely independent.” (Comment: Kopping is a very devout Jew who has also done a very pro-Israel movie “Relentless.” Shouldn’t E.D.have asked him about his “objectivity” in doing a movie about Islam?) He also noted that this jihadist propaganda is shown almost all the time on Middle Eastern TV.
Comment: It’s not suprising that Fox, as a propaganda network, would show a propaganda movie complete with many of the so-called “pundits” who are Fox “Middle East experts.” The movie was clearly not a scholarly examination of a movement that is a response, in part, to American and Israeli policy. While someone from the Israeli Sassoon Institute was interviewed, there was only one comment from an Islamic scholar who defined Jihad as an “internal struggle” – which was then debunked by the “pundits.” Absent was any historical perspective on the mid-twentieth century rise of the Islamic Brotherhood. Absent were any references to the Shatilla massacre and the plight of those in refugee camps.
While E.D. did some perfunctory “disclaimers” such as “most Muslims are peaceful” she then completed the sentence by saying that “while that may be true, how many are not?” In previewing an upcoming segment she used the words “shocking, hateful, and unbelievable.” She referenced a Fox poll that showed that 70% of Americans feel that there will be an all out war with Islam in the next 20 years. The film footage of the jihadists gave no background on who or how significant they were. A clip was shown of some “radical” shouting on a street corner in NY City with perhaps 5 curious on-lookers!
E.D. summed it up by saying “as we have just seen, the threat is close to us. It’s worth repeating that most Muslims are peaceful; but radical Muslims want to kill us.” She then directed viewers to the Fox website for more information in case they weren’t sufficiently scared. But I thought Bush has made us safe. It’s so confusing.
NOTE: GUEST BLOGGED by Priscilla
