concern and even alarm that The Oregonian chose advertising dollars
over responsible journalism in the distribution of the DVD, "Obsession:
Radical Islam's War Against the West." Though the movie begins with a
disclaimer that its subject is not about the majority of peaceful
Muslims, the images it provides are overwhelmingly of violent words and
deeds against the West.
Using frightening footage of disturbing events, the effect if not the
purpose of this film is to portray Islam as a threat to our way of
life. In the guise of a documentary, in reality it is hate-mongering
propaganda that uses the horrendous actions of terrorists and the
violent words of religious extremists to exploit our fears of strangers
and foreigners, especially those of Middle Eastern descent. We must
remember that it was such fear-mongering after the 9/11 attacks that
led us into our war on a country that had no involvement in that
terrible day.
We are not naive. We know terrorism represents a real threat and that
there are terrorists who are supported by radical religious ideologies.
But distortions and half-truths taken from the complex realities of the
Islamic world will not help us find solutions to real threats of such
terrorism and religious extremism.
Religious militant extremism is dangerous whether from a Muslim, Jewish
or Christian perspective. "Obsession" is silent on the historical,
economic and sociological contexts in which extremism emerges in many
societies. It portrays an over-simplistic view of our world in which
the only choice is us versus them, good versus evil. Despite the
message of this film, Christians, Jews and Muslims live and worship
peacefully side by side, in this country as well as within many Muslim
countries around the world.
Extremism, present in virtually all religions, is a difficult issue and
requires serious attention. To focus solely on the extremist elements
of one religion makes it appear that only their religion has a problem.
When that is your belief, it is a very short step to thinking their
religion is the problem.
It is hard to watch this DVD without concluding that something must be
wrong with Islam to allow such horrors to continue. It is even harder
to watch without developing doubts about your Muslim co-worker or fears
about that Arab-looking man on the street.
We deserve better. In a time when we need to be building bridges of
good will and trust between faith communities, this movie erects only
walls of fear and hate. It speaks of a dangerous ideology within Islam
without recognizing the dangerous ideology it promotes against Islam.
We -- a rabbi, a minister and a Muslim leader -- have worked together
for years to build better understanding of how religious bigotry
against any of our faiths is a threat to all of our faiths. We
encourage readers of The Oregonian to reach out to your Muslim
neighbors to overcome the broken trust and suspicion created by this
movie.
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Daniel Bryant is the senior minister of First Christian Church
(Disciples of Christ), Eugene. Yitzhak Husbands-Hankin is the senior
rabbi at Temple Beth Israel, Eugene. Ibrahim Hamide is the president of
the Eugene Middle East Peace Group. This column is presented on behalf
of the Anti-Hate Task Force.