“Obsession” - Happy Ramadan:  “The Third Jihad” - Happy Eid

by Sheila Musaji

Resources for Responding to “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War With the West” DVD Mass Distribution to 28 million Americans. 
History of Obsession: Radical Islam’s War With the West
Who is behind Relentless, Obsession and The Third Jihad? for a background on those responsible for the production, mass distribution, and promotion of the film. 
In-Depth Summary & Analysis of “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War on the West” for a point by point discussion of the film. 
What You Can Do to respond to Obsession.
November 2008 - Jews on First has published a very comprehensive and detailed rebuttal:  Rebutting Obsession: Historical Facts Topple Film’s Premise That Violent Muslim Fundamentalists are Nazis’ Heirs, Expose its Fear-mongering by Rabbi Haim Dov Beliak, Eli Clifton, Jane Hunter and Robin Podolsky.

The current mass distribution to 28 million American homes of the DVD “Obsession:  Radical Islam’s War With the West” was timed to be a Ramadan Gift.  We have provided responses to this which are still being updated daily.

Now, the same folks who brought us that outrage are prepared to release another film called “The Third Jihad” at the beginning of October, I guess to say Happy Eid.

The trailer for The Third Jihad can be found at http://www.thethirdjihad.com/  It opens with a scene from 9/11 followed by a series of clips of extremist statements by some alQaeda leader, someone named Abu Uzair identified as the leader of the Saved Sect, an unnamed Arab speaker and someone named Imam Abdul Alim Musa, someone from the Islamic Thinkers Society.  Interspersed there is a clip of Rudy Guliani saying “it’s an entire movement and the idea of it is hatred for our way of life”.  Zuhdi Jasser talking about an FBI document proving that the Muslim Brotherhood is planning a grand jihad aimed at eliminating and destroying the western civilization from within.  A different trailer on the radical Islam site is primarily of the Beslan atrocity with a voice over by Zuhdi Jasser identifying the criminals as Muslims and identifying himself himself as a Muslim who has dedicated his life to fighting radical Islam. 

Who are these people?  According to Wikipedia The Saved Sect (Arabic الفرقة الناجية, al-Firqat un-Naajiyah), formerly and more generally known as The Saviour Sect, is a Muslim organization that operated in the United Kingdom from its formation in November 2005 until the British government banned it on 17 July 2006.  It is widely believed, along with Al Ghurabaa, to be the reformed Al-Muhajiroun which Omar Bakri Muhammad disbanded in 2004.[1] It is believed that Omar Bakri today still heads this organisation.  Obviously these folks are extremists.  There is not much that Americans can do about this except to encourage the Muslim community in Great Britain to get these folks deported or at least to marginalize and isolate them. 

Abdul Alim Musa, is a former black panther who converted to Islam in prison and who appears to still be a political activist, according to Wikipedia.  According to the ADL he is “the head of Masjid Al Islam mosque in Washington DC and founder of Sabiqun (Arabic for “vanguard of Islam), a movement that propagates a radical and anti-Semitic ideology.”    I can’t find anything for a mosque by this name in D.C.  Perhaps it is a storefront operation.  I did find a blogger who listed the address as Benning Road and C Street in Southeast D.C.  He is obviously not a representative of anything but his own small group.

I have written about the Islamic Thinkers Society in June of 2007 when they made a scene at the Muslim Day Parade.  They are a small group of rabble rousers in New York whose extremist banners and flag burning are featured on every anti-Muslim site and in the film Obsession, and now this new film.

Such individuals and groups are marginal at best, but they are “useful idiots” in this well coordinated and well funded campaign of villification of the entire Muslim community.  Local communities need to speak out forcefully and loudly against such individuals and groups and the venom they spread.  They are certainly not a threat to America, but are a threat to the Muslim community.

On September 7th there was a sneak preview of The Third Jihad, a film by the makers of the Obsession film at Ezra Habonim Niles Township Jewish Congregation in Skokie, Illinois.  According to their flier,  To Protect Our Heritage PAC, Ezra Habonim Niles Township Jewish Congregation, and Clarion Fund, Inc.  were the sponsors of this event and:  “The Third Jihad is political jihad, using the freedoms of the West against it.  Radical Islamists support the armed jihad with lawsuits, intimidation, political correctness, and civil rights claims.  With Q and A with Associate Producer Richard Green. Reed Rubinstein will discuss the libel tactics of the Council on American-Islamic Relaions (“CAIR”). ”  

In a September 2, 2008 interview with Front Page talking about the Obsession film, Gregory Ross said:  ”...we are just a few weeks from completely [sic] our next documentary, “The Third Jihad” - though it is not a sequel.  This new film will take a look at radical Islam’s activities here in the U.S. We should be releasing the film in early October. So stay tuned.” 

A Christian site called Jesus is Lord has a hysterical article called “America’s Greatest Danger - The Third Jihad”  and includes statements such as:  “We must learn that though all Muslims are not terrorists, all terrorists who pose a threat to us are Muslim. So profiling among them is absolutely necessary if we are to survive at all. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out how and where to find a Muslim terrorist.”  This idea that all terrorists who pose a threat to us are Muslim is a common - though false - talking point.

This is all that we have been able to learn at this point in time.  This article is meant as a heads up for the Muslim community in America that there is a storm coming our way.  These folks seem determined to take us down a dark and dangerous road, and we need to at least know what is coming so that we are prepared to respond to the possible reactions of our fellow Americans to this propoganda blitz.  We will continue to update you as information is available.