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John Long

Recent columns

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From the RoundTable blog

Try as I might, I can't ignore the fact that across the globe, there are untold numbers of violent men who would kill me and my family if they could.

Not us in particular -- but us as an abstraction. Had we been on certain planes one Tuesday a few Septembers ago; were we by chance in a London subway one afternoon in 2006; if we someday happen to be somewhere else that opportunity affords a chance for indiscriminate mass casualties -- my family could be a target for radical Islamic terrorists. So could yours.

The probability may be remote, but it is not zero. And the chances increase if the threat is misjudged.

Not long ago, Shanna Flowers' column in this paper questioned the distribution of a DVD to some 28 million mailboxes in the U.S. "Obsession: Radical Islam's War against the West" was produced two years ago by the Clarion Fund, a nonprofit group formed to raise awareness of the threat of terrorism ("DVD recipient gets the message," Oct. 21 column). (Shanna and I have never met, but we correspond on occasion by e-mail and I consider myself one of her fans, though we often represent opposite ends of the political spectrum.)

I, too, had received "Obsession," but tossed it unopened into a pile of other mail until I read Shanna's column. Curious, I put the disk in my computer and watched it. Scary stuff, indeed: images of radical clerics' diatribes, comparisons to Nazi ideology and the naiveté of appeasement in the 1930s, video footage of children being steeped in violent rhetoric. There is even a pro-bin Laden rap video.

Flowers didn't doubt the scary part, but questioned the timing. Was the DVD timed to affect the election, scaring voters into supporting John McCain over Barack Obama?

Flowers did not mention that the Council on American Islamic Relations has filed suit against the Clarion Fund for unfairly trying to influence the election in swing states with overblown propaganda. Clarion responds that it "does not endorse any candidate for president nor is it acting at the behest of any political campaign." That some of the commentators on the video are opponents of Islam and that Clarion may have connections to Israeli groups are also noted by CAIR. Certainly some aspects of the film offend moderate Muslims -- but that does not negate its warning.

Is the DVD an electioneering ploy? I can't speak to that point with any authority, but saw nothing in the video that suggested a presidential favorite. Clarion asserts that the distribution was timed for the recent anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, but was delayed by the complexity of sending 28 million pieces of mail. On the group's Web site, the anti-terrorism plans of each campaign are linked, and both candidates are emphatic in their commitment to defend American.

(Why, I wondered while looking at Obama's homeland security positions, are Democrats so defensive on this question?)

The more pressing question to me is not the impact the video might have on the election. Rather, we need to ask if the warning is accurate or overblown.

I'm far from an expert on Islam. But as a teacher who has studied and taught the rudiments of Muslim history and beliefs, I agree with the oft-repeated formula that the majority of Muslims are peaceful believers who reject terror. That does not, however, deny that some radicals pervert the teachings of Muhammad to practice violence in the guise of religious devotion.

Yet some cringe that anyone would point out the dangers of radical Islam. Catch-phrases like "fear-mongering" or "hate speech" are used to describe any analysis of radical Islamists. Less commonly do the hand-wringers ask if the boy is crying wolf because the wolf is actually there. Some even willfully deny that the threat exists at all -- witness Michael Moore in "Obsession" baldly proclaiming, "There is no terrorist threat."

Does "Obsession" over-inflate the threat of radical Islam? I hope so. Had I watched it on Sept. 10, 2001, I might have thought the Clarion folks were alarmists. I pray no event in the near future makes me think they -- and we -- took the threat too lightly.

Long, director of the Salem Museum and a history teacher at Roanoke College, is a Roanoke Times columnist.