Who’s the Terrorist?

On October 30, the Arabic Language and Cultural Student Association (ALCSA) hosted “Obsession: A Public Panel on Radical Islam” at NDSU’s Memorial Union.
Sarah Mayo, ALCSA President, stated in the press release that the discussion would allow North Dakotan’s to begin to address “Islamophobia and xenophobia” in our community and our country as well as discuss the need for “hate crime” legislation in North Dakota.
Whether the goals of the ALCSA were met is hard to say. Few people asked questions after the panelists gave their prepared statements to listeners. Most of the questions asked seemed more like monologues in support or opposition to the DVD and its message. Other “questions” sounded more like critiques of the panelists’ point of view.

Panelists included Dr. Ahmed Afzaal, Concordia professor of Islamic religion and history; Dr. Jarret Brachman, NDSU professor and formerly director of research at West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center; Scott Hennen, radio talk show host on AM 1100 The Flag; and Matthew von Pinnon, editor of the Fargo Forum. The moderator of the panel discussion was Dr. Daniel Klenow, dean of Sociology at NDSU.

Each panelist received three questions prior to the discussion. The questions were (1) Should the Obsession DVD have been distributed? (2) An evaluation of the content of the DVD; (3) What was the impact of the DVD, if any?

Matt von Pinnon, the first to speak, vigorously argued “This is exactly what a newspaper ought to do”, explaining that the DVD elicited a community conversation.

To hear him tell it, one might easily assume it was always the intent of the Forum to bring about this “discussion” of what he called “an important issue”. In fact, Matt remarked the panel discussion at NDSU would not have occurred if not for the release of the DVD while adding sheepishly “some of you might find that to be wrongheaded of me”.

Matt claims that it was not wrong for the Forum to distribute the “ideological message” of the Obsession DVD. While some readers of the Forum were offended by the “political” nature of the DVD, Matt finds nothing wrong with that.

According to von Pinnon, The Forum essentially asked itself if the DVD violated laws or drove people to violate any laws. Matt acknowledged that the public might debate that the DVD did indeed drive people to violate laws. However, the Forum’s answer to those questions was “no”.

The public did indeed “debate” that the viewing public acted out in hate following the distribution of the DVD by the Forum. Even Dr. Ahmend Afzaal reported his wife and daughter were verbally attacked in the week following the release of the DVD. The Concordia professor also argued that there was a very clear message and call to action in the DVD.

Von Pinnon argued there was no “take away” message from the DVD in his defense of the Forum’s decision to distribute it.

Dr. Afzaal, however,  argued there definitely was a take home message adding, “it doesn’t have to be obvious. No one has to actually say it. But it is there.” Dr. Afzaal explained “if you watch the film without suspending your critical faculties, it is very easy to recognize that this film does not need any outside critique. This film very effectively deconstructs itself”.

Afzaal went on to explain how: the DVD first required the acceptance that “the west” and “radical Islam” were mutually exclusive, distinct entities. Afzaal boiled down the DVD’s message to a “us versus them” mentality and a classic fight of “good against evil”. He asserted the DVD could be deconstructed in five steps:

(1) Radical Islam has launched a war against “the west”;

(2) The reason “radical Islam” launched this war is stated in the title “obsession”; with the obvious assumption that “the west” goes to war for good reasons but “radical Islam goes to war for bad reasons;

(3) “The west” must do something about the threat facing it from “radical Islam”; adding that obsessed people are irrational and that “You don’t listen to obsessed people. You kill them;”

(4) Since “radical Islam” is irrational and violent, “the west” must deal with “radical Islam” in equal measure to their irrationality, by going to war against them.

Dr. Afzaal also asked the audience questions to ponder about the USA and its policies (using “we” to mean Americans and “they” to define “radical Islam”:

1. If they are obsessed with world domination, are we not?

2. If they are religious fanatics, what are we?

3. If they are liars, are we not?

4. If they are terrorists, aren’t we?

5. If they are racist, who are we?

6. If they are genocidal maniacs, are we not as well?

Afzaal maintained it would “take great courage” for the Forum to admit it had made a mistake, even alluding to “ideological sympathy” as a possible reason why for the Forum’s steadfast defense of the DVD’s distribution, but reiterated a passionate appeal that the Forum admit its error.

Von Pinnon made no such apology on the Forum’s behalf in response to Dr. Afzaal’s plea.

Scott Hennen expressed shock and disbelief that Dr. Afzaal could somehow draw a moral equivalence between “The United States of America - - the greatest country on the face of the earth - - and people like Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda”. Hennen continued his critique of Afzaal’s statements asking “Are we at war? Yes! We’re at war! And It’s like Pollyanna over here!”

He also pointed out that the information contained in the DVD was all factual and taken from newsreels that Americans are rarely able to see. Hennen relayed some of the more sensational parts of the DVD, describing that children and toddlers were saying things like ” I hope Bush dies in flames and I want to go to Ariel Sharon and kill him with a gun”, and “I want to tell Bush I think he’s a pig and I hope he dies”.

In true radio talk show/rock star fashion, Hennen offended some of the public with some of his views, but drew applause from others.

Hennen also offered that the DVD provided a service to Americans that the “mainstream media” had failed to deliver by informing them that “these things are going on”, while pointing out that “radical Islam” was only a sect of an otherwise peaceful religion.

He elaborated that the DVD lets Americans know that there are some people that seek to dominate the world; will kill others because they disagree with them, have a “culture of hatred” and are willing to indoctrinate children adding “I’ve never seen anything sicker in my life”.

Hennen supported the Forum’s decision to distribute the DVD adding that the public are “thinking people” who can decide for themselves. He argued that parents need to be vigilant about what their children see. “I can’t let my twelve year old son read the sports page cuz there’s some adult book store ad”.

At one point, Hennen even trotted out the tried and true “I have good friends of the Muslim faith” statement. He interrupted panelists, as well as members of the public and made sweeping statements about America and its values such as “All this country has ever done is give freedom!” and “We are a freedom loving people”, in his familiar booming voice.

Hennen also had the distinction of being the only panelist to overtly show aggression toward another panelist, namely Dr. Afzaal, asking questions like “Someone like this is teaching our children?”, followed by what appeared to be concern that Concordia allow Dr. Afzaal’s ideas to be taught to “our children”.

In the end, Hennen stated that his Muslim friends were also sickened by the actions of radical Islam and called for “more peaceful Muslims to speak out about” and distinguish themselves from “radical Muslims” by saying “that’s not us”.

Perhaps the most interesting discussion of the DVD and its impact on the public came from Dr. Jarret Brachman.

Brachman started out by noting the importance of the discussion held at NDSU and differentiating his statements from other panelists as “more academic.”

He expressed frustration with the DVD from a national security perspective, explaining the danger of lumping Al Qaeda with other groups that operate in the name of Islam using terrorist methods on more local agendas like Hezbollah and Hamas do.

Brachman also explained that one of Bin Laden’s tactics has been pool all people of the Islamic faith under one umbrella. He argued that it was not “useful to paint them with the same broad brush” as the DVD has done, adding that the “DVD is counter productive to the intentions of those who produced it” because it “plays directly into the hands of Bin Laden” and helps him recruit more terrorists.

Dr. Brachman explained that America has been very successful at affecting the operations of Al Qaeda which has prompted their response to operate as an “insurgency”. This distinction is important in that, as Brachman explained, insurgencies can only be successful when “the insurgents are able to blend in with the people” where they are operating.

This blurring of lines allows insurgents to use a Maoist encirclement strategy to “blend in with the host population” and recruit from those populations as well as their own sympathizers. Therefore, diferentiating radical Islam from mainstream Islam is not useful to terrorist recruitment strategists.

Dr. Brachman also showed how Al Qaeda has “tried to split the world into two halves” pitting those who are “with them” against those who are “against them.” Dr. Brachman compared the DVD’s message to the tactics used by AL Qaeda showing how they both make the same argument that “the world can be divided into two. There are those who are with us (Americans) and there are those who are against us”.

He also illustrated how the DVD’s message compares to radical Islamic terrorist tactics of “blurring the lines” between radical Islam and mainstream Islam.

Although Dr. Brachman did not directly address whether the DVD should have been distributed by the Fargo Forum, he did clearly demonstrate how its distribution and the “consequences” were “very problematic” from a National Security perspective.