Obsession

[October 1st, 2008]

Having taken the hour required to endure Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West—the DVD that came in The Sunday Oregonian, I am relieved to report the film takes rigorous pains to distinguish between mainstream Islam and its most violent fringe elements. “It’s important to remember,” a title card warns in the first minute, over the sounds of ominous ululating, “most Muslims are peaceful and do not support terror.” A pause follows, then another card. “This is not a film about them.”

Clearly not. The rather transparently titled Obsession, having unburdened its conscience with this opening qualification, does not worry itself with further subtlety for the next 60 minutes. It has far too much information to convey, much of which will be new if, say, you were struck by an SUV on the evening of Sept. 10, 2001, and awoke yesterday morning. For instance, it appears several Islamic clerics are not especially fond of Jews. Also, (very catchy) Iranian music videos describe the United States as “conceited Satan.” It is difficult to overstate how solemnly this information is conveyed by Obsession’s talking heads. “Some people view the current situation with the Middle East as a clash of civilization,” one of them intones, shaking her head sadly. “I think it’s more than that.”

About halfway through Obsession, it becomes clear what director Wayne Kopping and the producers at the ultra-hawkish Clarion Fund think—and possibly hope—is at stake: World War III. The film, which studiously avoids using the words “Sunni” or “Shiite,” presumably to avoid confusing people with any nuance, suddenly focuses on parallels between monolithic Islam and Nazi Germany. The implication, so far as there is any, is that we should rush out to vote against quisling appeasers (who might also be secret Muslims trying to replace the Constitution with the Qur’an) and defend ourselves against dark-skinned children pointing Uzis at us. “History has an unfortunate habit of always repeating itself,” concludes another expert. He neglects to mention the part where it returns as farce.