Lieberman Lends His Name To Fear-Mongering Documentary On American Muslims And Terrorism
Justin Elliott
Joe Lieberman, who is locked in a fight to hold onto his Senate Homeland Security Committee chairmanship, is lending his name to a lurid sequel of the documentary Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against The West. That film, which was distributed through newspaper inserts and mass mailings to 28 million swing-state households during the campaign, was denounced by religious leaders for painting all Muslims with the same broad brush and for its cartoonish portrayal of Islamic terrorism.
The new documentary, called The Third Jihad: Radical Islam's Vision For America, focuses on the "hidden war against the freedom and values we all take for granted" being waged by radical Islamists trying to take down America from within. Among other things, the film warns of the "subtle dangers of non-violent cultural jihad and its influence in America's universities."
The Third Jihad's backers plan to disseminate the film through TV licensing, free screenings, and DVD distribution, The Jewish Week of New York reported.
After Obsession was sent out in the run-up to the election, Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic described it as "the work of hysterics." One rabbi quoted by The Jewish Week called Obsession "the protocols of the learned elders of Saudi Arabia."
While The Third Jihad focuses on the domestic threat of radical Islam, it uses the same tactics as Obsession, showing clips of burning churches and a beheading, alternately set to techno-rock and call-to-prayer-evoking tracks. It goes after groups like the Muslim Students Association and the Islamic Society Of North America -- a large umbrella group of Muslim organizations around the U.S. And it plays up an FBI-uncovered "secret document ... believed to be the manifesto of the Muslim Brotherhood in North America" outlining plans to eliminate Western civilization from within.
Senator Lieberman is pictured as a "Major Player" on the featured interviews page of The Third Jihad Web site, along with National Review writer Mark Steyn, Jim Woolsey, and Walid Phares of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. Beginning at around the 9-minute mark in this preview of the film, Lieberman appears. "It is definitely here," he says. "I don't want to overstate the problem, but there is a danger of understating the problem of homegrown Islamist terrorism. And the fact is that we have now had a series of cases that have thankfully been broken."
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