Posted: Tuesday, September 30, 2008 12:00 am
"Obsession" is not a fragrance but a short movie that got some people in Portland upset, without good reason.
The Oregonian distributed copies of the DVD as an insert on Sunday. A group in Portland tried to prevent it, urging people to demand that the paper stop the distribution. On Sunday night, various talking heads on Portland TV denounced the movie as hate speech.
It is not hate speech. The movie warns viewers about the danger of radical Islam and its jihad against the West. More than once it makes the point that it is not against Islam, only against the jihadists.
"A peaceful religion is being hijacked by a dangerous foe, who seeks to destroy the shared values we stand for," the online ad for the movie says. "The world should be very concerned."
The movie is not inflammatory. Instead, it summarizes the numerous attacks that have taken place in the name of jihad across Asia, Africa, Europe and the United States. It uses clips from televised speeches and events to show what motivates the radicals, in their own words.
The world has seen enough demonstrations of this to know that it isn't fiction. The movie does not make up the fact that people strap bombs on their bodies and then try to blow up as many other people along with themselves. It does not need to embellish the toll that massive attacks have taken in New York, Madrid, London and many other places. The footage tells the story.
Obviously the movie was made for a purpose: To keep reminding westerners that a splinter group of fundamentalist followers of Islam has declared war on the West and is pursuing that course.
There hasn't been a spectacular attack for a while outside of Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan. People in this country are preoccupied with other things. So it's perfectly legitimate and even useful to remind the public of the war that has been waged for years and whose end has not yet been declared. (hh)