Radical Islam DVD

A friend recently loaned me a DVD of the new movie on radical Islam, Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West, and I watched it last night. I must say that I think it was quite sobering, even though many of the things that were said in it were not new to me. Having lived overseas in an international community for three years at the beginning of the Conflict in Iraq, I was exposed to a lot of what the film portrayed. For instance, in the building where I lived, there actually were muslims who ran around outside celebrating and cheering after 9/11, rejoicing that tragedy had struck the U.S.! I was astounded.

In spite of this exposure, much of the film's footage, especially of the violence and hatred spewed forth by the religious leaders (the imams or ayatollah) in religious contexts was shocking. On one occasion, a local ayatollah even pulled out a sword while he was preaching and began waving it about as though he were using it as a weapon to accomplish what he was asking his hearers to do: i.e., kill Americans and other "westerners."

Among the most provocative features of the movie were the links it made between radical Islam and pre-WWII Naziism, on the one hand, and between U.S./Western reaction to Islam and the U.S./Western reaction to pre-WWII Naziism, on the other. Is there a WWIII on the horizon? If history teaches us anything at all, there would certainly seem to be (humanly speaking, that is).

The main difference, of course, between Naziism and radical Islam is that the latter is doing what they are doing according to the "will of God." As these ayatollah spewed forth their lies, encouraging their listeners to kill Americans and westerners (even other muslims who disagree with them), all under the guise of the will of God, I couldn't help but think of what the Bible says about Satan, namely, that "he was a murderer from the beginning" and the "father of lies" (John 8:44) and, yet, masquerades as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14). How thankful I am that Jesus Christ, the anticipated seed of the woman, has crushed the head of the serpent once and for all and will, yet, gain the victory! It's only a matter of time.