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Whistle Stopper - Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West
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List Price: $19.99
Our Price: $11.75
Your Save: $ 8.24 ( 41% )
Availability: In stock soon. Order now to get in line. First come, first served.
Manufacturer: Trinity Home Ent
Directed By: Wayne Kopping
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0692865441632
Format: Color
Label: Trinity Home Ent
Manufacturer: Trinity Home Ent
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Trinity Home Ent
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2007-09-11
Running Time: 77
Studio: Trinity Home Ent
Theatrical Release Date: 2005
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Hysterical, Deceptive, Partly True
Comment: I strongly disagree that the film--as some negative reviewers have noted--tars all Muslims as terrorist. It begins with the standard "the Muslim religion is beautiful" apology before stringing together twelve or so years of footage together to try to prove that international jihad is the new Nazism, and that all who disagree have their heads in the proverbial Neville Chamberlain sand.
Now imagine you live in Indonesia and a fellow Indonesian gathers a couple decades worth of KKK footage and puts it together with ominous music plus converts-from-the-dark-side and converted-daughters-of-the-dark-side talking heads. How can you refute it? Now no one, of course, believes that the threat of the KKK is on the level of the Islamofascists--but that's not the point. The point is how capable are you really to judge the actual threat posed in this film? How well can you really judge this slanted movie? Now much of the footage is important and true. It's true that much of the Middle East erupted in euphoria after 9/11. It's true that young children in some Middle Eastern countries are indoctrinated to hate the west and Isreal to the overzealous extent of wanting to give their young lives to the cause. And there are plenty of groups, even governments, that advocate destruction of the west. The clips in the film well represent these valid points. Yet it is dangerous to go from that belief to what another reviewer claims:
"The evidence and footage displayed in this film are genuine and would be very difficult to discount or dispute. How anyone can claim 'ignorance' in the face of that evidence is beyond reason and common sense."
The reviewer seems not to realize that films can be highly manipulative in their arrangement of facts, and that's exactly what propaganda does. I don't totally reject the film, but too many red flags were flying as it rolled for me to be comfortable.
The facts in the film are marshaled to conflate Arab anti-Israelism to Nazism, for one. This falls even short of a blatant and dangerous half truth. Jews are fond of making this claim, and it is certainly true that it often looks like textbook anti-semitism. But I seem to recall some deep history of a group being pushed out of their homeland and marginalized, colonized, and denied a homeland for many decades. Whether you react to this statement with hostility or not, anyone with knowledge of this issue has to admit that the film totally ignores a rich, important context here to make an absolutist point. And incidentally, regarding the claim that negative reviewers to "Obsession" are politically correct, nothing is more politically correct in the US than being pro-Israeli. (The most politically correct moment in the current election so far: Joseph Biden, in last Thursday's VP debate with Sarah Palin, saying that his keystone criterion for joining the ticket was Obama's fervent Israeli advocacy.)
How foolish to claim that jihadists just, plain, hate the west. No reasoning with savages, right? (Again, trot out Chamberlain on cue.)
A question for the film: where in the film are the Taliban, the biggest fascists in the Muslim world? I guess when the movie was made (2004-2005?), the Taliban must have seemed like history and therefore, not important to the forward thinking agenda of this film? If only we had known how to pick and choose, we'd be in 1000x better position. Invade Afghanistan--yes; Invade Iraq--no. I'm guessing that the "Obsession" filmmakers would advocate the wide-net yes approach--except for a big fat no to Palestinians.
And I agree that the timing of this film's free distribution--it came with my Sunday paper a week ago--is designed to cause anxiety and fear in order to sway people toward McCain. It's a tactic straight out of the Bush-Rove playbook.
Etc. Etc.
See Joseph Plummer's excellent review for more.
Customer Rating:
Summary: More Agenda than Michael Moore
Comment: Don't waste your money or time on this ridiculous piece of propoganda. This movie is being sent out to thousands of Americans under the guise of an informative, unbiased look at radical Islam. The reality is (as the timing of these mailings should indicate) that this film is a disgusting attempt at frightening Americans into voting for Mccain.
Don't believe it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Free in the mail, not even worth that
Comment: This movie is given out for free by a political organization (the Clarion Fund) that is *ahem* "not related to McCain 2008" *ahem*.
It goes through a lot of extremely misleading statements that tell a story that is (unsurprisingly) very misleading. It is VERY close to outright lying. It pairs unrelated events in order to falsely associate them. It also has people speculating about incidences very openly and then applying that logic to conclusions.
My opinion is that it crosses the line into degrading an entire faith community through such irresponsible statements. It insinuates that mistrust of Muslims is fine because there is a reasonable chance that "they" are looking to harm you. It inflames religious intolerance in a way analogous to Nazi propaganda films.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The threat is obvious, but how do you deal with it?
Comment: The threat of radical Islam is out there and is rather obvious. How big it really is that is difficult to assess. I do agree with the authors that we must not stick our heads into sand and ignore it. However, the movie does smells like propaganda, especially since it was distributed during election season. But since I haven't gone to their website and learned more about the authors I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that their motive is raise general awareness. Hence the four stars.
But to me, general awareness is not the right question. I believe that a much more pressing question is "how to properly deal with such a threat?" If the militant imams and Madrasas are the sources of instigation, hate and recruitment for militants, what have we done in the past eight years to deal with it? What alternatives have we provided or supported in the Muslim world? Do we sponsor or support schools and provide proper education so that their youth has alternatives? What legal actions can we take without abandoning our constitutional rights to prevent the spread of militant Islam on our soil? And the list of questions goes on....
I wish the movie addressed these issues or at least offered suggestion on what it is the authors believe is a proper course of action. But to simply point that there is a threat and we should therefore support the authors' foundation in order to combat it isn't adequate in my mind. It sounds a lot like a scare tactic. But once again, I do give the authors credit for putting this together and reminding us as we tend to forget as we go about our busy lives. We must not let our guards down and remain vigilant in our fight against evil. However, we must be sure we're taking the right course.
Customer Rating:
Summary: IF YOU ENJOY BEING CONNED THIS MOVIE IS FOR YOU!!!!!!
Comment: If you are one those people who hate to think for themselves, and accept untruthful representations of others by racist propagandist than this movie is for. Just some quick background on this movie- It was done by several Right wing Israelis, who's mission is to shore up support for their repressive, racist and miserable occupation of the palestinian people. They continue to try and scare people into believing that there is this huge clash of civilizations, where muslims are on a mission to destroy the west. Their main goal is to place the legitimate resistance that Palestinians are engaged( which is a right they maintain under international law) into a larger group of terrorist acts, so to give the israeli government justification for their sick and disgusting occupation of another peoples land, among all the other crimes against humanity they have committed over the last 6 decades. The movie also starts out with that now popular narrative that Not all Muslims are terrorists but all terrorists are Muslims. Also the people they use in this movie have some real credibility issues among them Walid Shoebat the " Former Palestinian terrorist" who people within the PLO have never heard of, and can never prove his involvement in any terrorist acts. The seriously don't get conned by these racist individuals who are intent on conning Americans into believing our struggle is their struggle, but America's struggle which is just and righteous can never be the same as Israelis racist, repressive and just mentally disturbing struggle to justify their occupation and deny others the freedom and dignity all humans deserve. Any elementary investigation into this movie will expose the many historical flaws they use to support their claim.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Obsession is a film about the threat of Radical Islam to Western civilization. Using unique footage from Arab television, it reveals an 'insider's view' of the hatred the Radicals are teaching, their incitement of global jihad, and their goal of world domination. The film also traces the parallels between the Nazi movement of World War II, the Radicals of today, and the Western world's response to both threats. Featuring interviews with Daniel Pipes, Steve Emerson, Alan Dershowitz, a former PLO terrorist, and a former Hitler Youth Commander
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