New Film Highlights Cultural Jihad Threat,Elliot Resnick, <i>Jewish Press Staff Reporter</i>

The director and producer of the controversial 2006 documentary, "Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West," have teamed up again.

Last month Raphael Shore and Wayne Kopping released "The Third Jihad: Radical Islam's Vision for America," which highlights radical Muslims' dream of destroying America - either militarily or culturally. In the words of a recently uncovered Muslim Brotherhood manifesto featured in the film, their aim is "eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and 'sabotaging' its miserable house so that it is eliminated and Allah's religion is made victorious over all other religions."

Officially launched in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles last month, "The Third Jihad" will make its New York premiere June 11 at the Director's Guild Theater in Manhattan.

The Jewish Press recently interviewed Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, the film's narrator, described on TheThirdJihad.com as a devout Muslim. Dr. Jasser is also the founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy and a former U.S. Navy doctor and attending physician to the U.S. Congress.

The Jewish Press: In your own words, what is this film about?

Dr. Jasser: I think we've been complacent in feeling that we're fighting a tactic: terrorism. We're actually fighting an ideology. The Muslim Brotherhood manifesto shows that their grand jihad is to infiltrate and spread their ideology in the West through the use of religious freedom. They want the Islamicization of the West and to me this is what the third jihad is.

The first jihad was at the inception of Islam, the second was during the Ottoman Empire, and now in the 20th and 21st centuries the third jihad is more of a soft contest of ideas that pits western secular democracy against the plans of political Islam and Islamist hegemony.

The film opens with the statement, "Only a small percentage of the world's 1.3 billion Muslims are radical." Do you agree, and, if yes, how small is small?

Most studies find that about five to seven percent of the Muslim population condones terrorist acts. That's a small percentage. But underlying that, the fuel of that five percent, is an ideology that I would say a potent plurality would agree with - the ideology reflected in the Muslim Brotherhood document which prefers Islamic states and the Islamicization of Western society over secular, liberal democracy.

What percentage makes up this potent plurality?

My guess would be 30-40 percent.

You're described as a devout Muslim, and yet you espouse such liberal ideas as tolerance toward Jews and separation of mosque and state. How can you maintain these beliefs considering the many anti-Jewish and anti-liberal statements in the Koran and Hadiths [oral traditions about Muhammad]?

I've never heard a negative comment about Jews from anybody in my family or those ho taught me my faith. My grandfather in Syria and my parents taught me that Islam is not the only path to God. There are other paths as equally valid and Judaism is one of those.

Concerning the Koranic passages, a lot of what you're calling Koran are radical Wahhabi translations which take passages that may apply to a certain conflict in history and one particular tribe and [universalizes them to all Jews at all times]. But this is one of the primary aspects of reform: to reinterpret some of the passages.

Also, I wouldn't mix Koran and Hadiths. Certainly the Islamists do that, but I was taught that Hadiths that are racist or anti-Semitic are not the words of the prophet. We [the American Islamic Forum for Democracy] actually signed a petition to remove the Hadith that says, "Kill a Jew behind every stone," and condemn it as not being Hadith.

But some would argue that you're whitewashing Islam; that one can't possibly gloss over or reinterpret the many anti-Semitic Koranic passages.

I'm not glossing over it. I'm acknowledging there are Muslims who say exactly what you're saying.

But we can either frame this as a battle of the West against Islam or we can say this is a battle within Islam, and we want to help those forces who will use Islam as a stimulus for good in their life.

So, in other words, you claim that what you believe in is true Islam while the radicals' Islam is a distortion.

I was taught to be an honest humanitarian who would never say anything except the truth. The Islam I believe in is what I've been expressing to you. Now, either that expression is a huge deception or it's the reality of my life.

It's not only my ideas; these are the ideas of generations of my family and many communities that I know. We certainly are not as vocal as we should be. But the bottom line is we exist and this interpretation of Islam is not a figment of an imagination. It's an honest interpretation and expression of the faith that we practice.

As a reformer, what did you think of President Obama's speech in Cairo last week?

From a PR perspective he's certainly making a lot of progress. He also laid down some principles that I was glad to hear him say, especially women's rights, the threat of a nuclear Iran, respect of minorities, etc.

Where I think it fell short is that it was a significantly missed opportunity because here he is speaking from Cairo - the birthplace of the Muslim Brotherhood, the ideology that hatched Al Qaeda and Hamas - and he didn't mention political Islam once.

He felt comfortable enough to quote the Koran but yet didn't balance that with a critical discernment of the conflict between modernity and Shariah law. It's like talking about treating lung cancer without talking about smoking.

He even identified Al-Azhar University as a beacon of Islamic learning. I mean, give me a break. Al-Azhar has produced the majority of the radical imams who are stuck in the 15th century.

You would have liked him to squarely address radical Islam?

I think people listening to his speech, especially the reformists who are fighting the war of ideas, were not left really hearing that they were going to be backed up and helped against the dictatorship of Egypt, for example, or the theocracies that come out of Al-Azhar and other places.

One last question: "The Third Jihad" discusses the infiltration of radical Islam in American prisons. This threat has suddenly become very real with the attempted bombing of two Bronx synagogues last month. Can you discuss this danger?

In the movie you hear Warith Deen Umar, who was the head of the imams in New York correctional facilities for 20 years, talking about armed jihad against infidels, America, etc. This type of rhetoric is lethal.

I think we have to look at what some have termed "Prislam." It's not only the individuals; if you look at the books in the prison libraries, they're mostly Wahhabi, militant ideology. This really needs to be exposed. Even the New York City plot last week really didn't receive as much media attention as it should have.

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