It's been awhile since I've posted anything here, but now that I am finding some time to do so, I have something that is a bit provocative. It's a trailer for a movie called Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West. I admit that I have mixed feelings about the subject in general. But I thought the movie would still be worth a look.
And it is, in fact. The neocon presence in this movie is kept to a minimum, although there are interviews with a few. Most of the interviews however are from moderate Muslims and former Muslim Arabs. One guy is former PLO, and calls himself a former terrorist. Another's father was a Muslim Brotherhood leader.
What I find so peculiar and problematic is how there is undoubtedly an international problem with a small but dangerous religious sect that is undoubtedly terrorizing the West, and Westernized people in the East. In Bali, it was a nightclub. These people weren't rich, but they were doing the next "worst" thing: acting modern.
And so the movie starts to explain to me why it is that we don't hear a lot of mainstream Muslims condemning terrorism, or why we don't see them taking the lead. It's because they and their family members, who largely do not agree with the fundamentalists, have to live with them or near them. Their fear is far more legitimate than the vague but uncountable fears of another terrorist attack in the United States.
It troubles me that as progressives, we cannot crack this problem. The right has owned this subject over the last few years, and I hardly need to say we would do a better job about "winning hearts and minds." The phrase has even become kind of a joke, which is sad.
But are we working on what to do about this? How can we reach out and talk to the moderate and mainstream Muslims who live throughout the Mideast and reassure them? How can we free them from the fear of the illiberal zealots in their midst?
I don't have an answer. Would love to hear your thoughts. And below is the trailer for the movie.