The Third Jihad | |
---|---|
Directed by | Wayne Kopping Erik Werth |
Story by | Wayne Kopping Michael Pace Raphael Shore Erik Werth |
Produced by | Erik Werth Raphael Shore |
Narrated by | Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser |
Edited by | Wayne Kopping |
Music by | Alun Richards |
Production company | Public Scope Films |
Distributed by | Gallagher Entertainment |
Release date |
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Running time | 72 minutes |
Country | United States |
Languages | English Arabic Persian |
The Third Jihad: Radical Islam's Vision For America is a 2008 documentary style film directed by Wayne Kopping of South Africa and Erik Werth. It was produced by Werth and Raphael Shore, a Canadian-Israeli, with financing from the Clarion Project, an organization described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an anti-Muslim group. [1]
The film dwells on the idea of an alleged threat to the United States by radical Islam using a Muslim Brotherhood document [2] accepted as evidence in the 2007 Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development terror financing trial. Based on the document, the filmmakers contend that radical Islamists are engaging in a "multifaceted strategy to overcome the western world," waging a "cultural jihad" to "infiltrate and undermine our society from within". [3] The film is narrated by Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, a controversial Muslim American.
The film later created widespread controversy when media discovered that it was being shown to New York Police Department recruits purportedly as a training video.
Raphael Shore, producer of Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West , and founder of the Clarion Fund is the producer of The Third Jihad. The film was directed and edited by Wayne Kopping, who was also the Director, Editor, and Co-Writer of Obsession. [4] Co-Directing and Co-Producing the film was Erik Werth . The film is narrated by American Muslim Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser. [5] [6] [7]
The film uses video clips from American Broadcasting Company (ABC), Fox News Channel, MSNBC, CNN, As-Sahab media production house of the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization, Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), Islamic Republic of Iran News Network (IRINN), Al-Aqsa TV and other non-specified news outlets.
According to the filmmakers website, the film "reveals that radical Islamists driven by a religiously motivated rejection of western values cultures and religion are engaging in a multifaceted strategy to overcome the western world." [3] In contrast to the concept of violent jihad, the filmmakers introduce the concept of "cultural jihad as a means to infiltrate and undermine our society from within." [3] The overriding theme from their perspective is how this "cultural jihad" is a threat to United States national security. [5] [8] [9] [10] The film contains excerpts of speeches by Islamic organizations and terrorist groups, includes interviews with government officials, interspersed with footage of terrorist attacks, human rights violations, and growing support of jihadist movements. A distinction is drawn between radical Islam and Islam as a whole.[ citation needed ] An article in The New York Times states that " portrays many mainstream American Muslim leaders as closet radical Islamists, and states that their “primary tactic” is deception.". [11]
Persons interviewed in the film include: former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Director of the American Center for Democracy Rachel Ehrenfeld, founder and president of the Alliance of Iranian Women Manda Zand Ervin, former Jammaa Islameia terrorist Dr. Tawfik Hamid, British columnist and author Melanie Phillips, Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University Bernard Lewis, Wayne Simmons, founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, Senior Fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies Walid Phares, head of Masjid Al Islam mosque in Washington, DC Imam Abdul Alim Musa, Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman, former CIA Intelligence Expert Clare Lopez, FBI Assistant Director for Public Affairs John Miller, President of the National Ten Point Leadership Foundation Rev. Eugene Rivers, journalist and author Mark Steyn, former CIA Director during the Clinton Administration Jim Woolsey, [12] and Police Commissioner of New York City Raymond Kelly.
The film was used to train New York Police Department officers during required counterterrorism training. One officer who viewed the film at an NYPD training facility stated "It was so ridiculously one-sided, it just made Muslims look like the enemy. It was straight propaganda". [13] Members of the City Council, civil rights advocates, and Muslim leaders objected to the Department's use of the film. [14] Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne said that it "never should have shown to officers," stating "it was reviewed and found to be inappropriate." [11] [13]
In January 2012, The New York Times reported that documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act indicated that 1,498 officers viewed the film during the period it was used for training. [13] [14] [15] [16] Police Commissioner of New York City Raymond Kelly, who was interviewed in the film, later stated he considered that decision a mistake and called the film "objectionable." [11]
Fox News Channel Hannity showed a preview of the documentary live on December 22, 2009. [17] The Third Jihad received endorsements from former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani, U.S. Senator Jon Kyl, U.S. Representatives Trent Franks and Sue Myrick, among others. [18]
Al-Qaeda is a pan-Islamist militant organization led by Sunni jihadists who self-identify as a vanguard spearheading a global Islamist revolution to unite the Muslim world under a supra-national Islamic caliphate. Its membership is mostly composed of Arabs but also includes people from other ethnic groups. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian, economic and military targets of the U.S. and its allies; such as the 1998 US embassy bombings, the USS Cole bombing, and the September 11 attacks.
Al-Jamāʻah al-islāmīyah is an Egyptian Sunni Islamist movement, and is considered a terrorist organization by the United Kingdom and the European Union, but was removed from the United States list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations in May 2022. The group was dedicated to the overthrow of the Egyptian government and replacing it with an Islamic state. Following the coup that toppled Mohamed Morsi, the group has committed to peaceful activities.
Islamic terrorism refers to terrorist acts carried out by fundamentalist militant Islamists and Islamic extremists.
Lashkar-e-Taiba is a terrorist group formed in Pakistan, and a militant and Islamist Salafi jihadist organisation. Described as one of Pakistan's "most powerful jihadi groups", it is most infamous outside Pakistan. The organisation's primary stated objective is to merge the whole of Kashmir with Pakistan. It was founded in 1985–1986 by Hafiz Saeed, Zafar Iqbal Shehbaz Abdullah Azzam and several other Islamist mujahideen with funding from Osama bin Laden during the Soviet–Afghan War. It has been designated a terrorist group by numerous countries.
The Muslim Students Association, or Muslim Student Union, of the U.S. and Canada, also known as MSA National, is a religious organization dedicated to establishing and maintaining Islamic societies on college campuses in Canada and the United States. It serves to provide coordination, community, outreach and support for affiliated MSA chapters in colleges across North America. Established in 1963, the organization now has chapters in colleges across the continent, and is the precursor of the Islamic Society of North America and several other Islamic organizations. The Muslim Students Association has at times been the subject of scrutiny; for example, the New York Police Department (NYPD) targeted MSAs across several US college campuses for monitoring as part of their Muslim surveillance program.
Anjem Choudary is a British Islamist who has been described as "the face" of militant Islamism or the "best known" Islamic extremist in Britain. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2024 after being found guilty of directing a terror organisation.
Asra Quratulain Nomani is an Indian American journalist and author. Born in India to Muslim parents, she earned a BA from West Virginia University in liberal arts in 1986 and an MA from the American University in international communications in 1990. She subsequently worked as a correspondent for The Wall Street Journal with her colleague Daniel Pearl in Pakistan post-9/11. Pearl was kidnapped and murdered by Islamist terrorists while following an investigative lead. Nomani later became the co-director of the Pearl Project, a faculty-student investigative-reporting project which has looked into Pearl's murder.
Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami is a Pakistani Islamist extremist, fundamentalist and terrorist organization affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
Islamic extremism, Islamist extremism or radical Islam refers to a set of extremist beliefs, behaviors and ideologies within Islam. These terms remain contentious, encompassing a spectrum of definitions, ranging from academic interpretations of Islamic supremacy to the notion that all ideologies other than Islam have failed and are inferior.
Muslim supporters of Israel refers to both Muslims and cultural Muslims who support the right to self-determination of the Jewish people and the likewise existence of a Jewish homeland in the Southern Levant, traditionally known as the Land of Israel and corresponding to the modern polity known as the State of Israel. Muslim supporters of the Israeli state are widely considered to be a rare phenomenon in light of the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the larger Arab–Israeli conflict. Within the Muslim world, the legitimacy of the State of Israel has been challenged since its inception, and support for Israel's right to exist is a minority orientation. Pro-Israel Muslims have faced opposition from both moderate Muslims and Islamists.
Terrorism in the United Kingdom, according to the Home Office, poses a significant threat to the state. There have been various causes of terrorism in the UK. Before the 2000s, most attacks were linked to the Northern Ireland conflict. In the late 20th century there were also attacks by Islamic terrorist groups. Since 1970, there have been at least 3,395 terrorist-related deaths in the UK, the highest in western Europe. The vast majority of the deaths were linked to the Northern Ireland conflict and happened in Northern Ireland. In mainland Great Britain, there were 430 terrorist-related deaths between 1971 and 2001. Of these, 125 deaths were linked to the Northern Ireland conflict, and 305 deaths were linked to other causes, including 270 in the Lockerbie bombing. Since 2001, there have been almost 100 terrorist-related deaths in Great Britain.
The Clarion Project is an American nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. that was founded in 2006. The organization has been involved in the production and distribution of the films Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West, The Third Jihad: Radical Islam's Vision For America and Iranium. These films have been criticized by some for allegedly falsifying information and described as anti-Muslim propaganda. The organization publishes a weekly "Extremism Roundup" newsletter.
Mohamed Zuhdi Jasser is an American religious and political commentator and physician specializing in internal medicine and nuclear cardiology in Phoenix, Arizona. Jasser is a former lieutenant commander in the United States Navy, where he served as staff internist in the Office of the Attending Physician of the United States Congress. In 2003, with a group of American Muslims, Jasser founded the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) based in Phoenix, Arizona, and in 2004 he was one of the founders of the Center for Islamic Pluralism.
American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) is an American Muslim think tank formed in 2003 by Zuhdi Jasser in Phoenix, Arizona.
Pamela Geller is an American anti-Muslim, far-right political activist, blogger and commentator. Geller promoted birther conspiracy theories about President Barack Obama, saying that he was born in Kenya and that he is a Muslim.
Qanta A. Ahmed is a British-American physician who came to prominence as a doctor specializing in sleep disorders. She has also worked as an author, women's rights activist, journalist, and public commentator.
Islamic extremism in the United States comprises all forms of Islamic extremism occurring within the United States. Islamic extremism is an adherence to fundamentalist interpretations of Islam, potentially including the promotion of violence to achieve political goals. In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, Islamic extremism became a prioritized national security concern of the U.S. government and a focus of many subsidiary security and law enforcement entities. Initially, the focus of concern was on foreign Islamic terrorist organizations, particularly al-Qaeda, but in the course of the years since the September 11 terror attacks, the focus has shifted more towards Islamic extremist radicalized individuals and jihadist networks within the United States.
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