More emerges about Islamophobic propaganda film shown by NYPD

I missed this story when it broke a year ago. The rightwing scaremongering propaganda film The Third Jihad was shown over a period of several months in 2010 to NYPD officers as part of their training. When the reports first came out, those in charge refused to tell the full story. Now they’ve had to reveal more.

The Third Jihad



was produced by Raphael Shore and bankrolled by the Clarion Fund, which appears to be closely connected to if not simply an offshoot of Aish HaTorah, an Israeli Orthodox organization, and heavily funded by the Donors Capital Fund. The Donors Capital Fund is directed by the AEI/Cato/Heritage crowd (I’ll also note the involvement of the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, which is part of the Atlas network and thus linked toTempleton,* and which I’ve mentioned before).

As Steve Rendell and Isabel MacDonald describe,

The term “Islamophobia” refers to hostility toward Islam and Muslims that tends to dehumanize an entire faith, portraying it as fundamentally alien and attributing to its followers an inherent, essential set of negative traits, such as irrationality, intolerance and violence. And not unlike the charges made in the classic document of anti-Semitism, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, some of Islamophobia’s more virulent expressions…include evocations of Islamic plots to dominate the West.

These campaigns are not about criticism of Islamic religious beliefs or religiously-inspired crimes (note the lack of interest in, and even support for, similar crimes by non-Muslim movements and governments). They feed exaggerated fear and the marginalization of Muslims in countries where they’re a minority, imperialist foreign policy, and violence toward Muslims (or those perceived as Muslims) at home and abroad. It’s especially dangerous when those targeted for propaganda are police or military. It’s part of a clear rightwing political, economic, and often religious agenda. It shouldn’t remotely need pointing out that these individuals and organizations are no friends to social justice, human rights, equality, or secularism. They exist, they have a real effect, and they shouldn’t be ignored.

*And, as probably shouldn’t even need mentioning at this point, winner of at least three Templeton Freedom Awards.