The Third Jihad and the NYPD

by guest blogger Gordon Shumway

Here are two articles on the NYPD using the video produced by the Clarion Fund titled “The Third Jihad” during training, which was reported to be viewed by at least 1,500 recruits. There is also a follow up article from the New York Times with two letters to the Editor, one of which is from Raphael Shore, the producer of the video.

http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/Crime%20and%20Safety/20120201/4/3678
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/24/nyregion/in-police-training-a-dark-film-on-us-muslims.html?_r=1
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/31/opinion/a-police-training-film-about-muslims-2-views.html

The film from the get go makes the sweeping generalization that many Islamic leaders in the U.S. support or defend “the radicals”. How is this film helping the image of Muslim and Middle Eastern communities in America? How is this film educating people on the differences between religion, culture and extremists? Considering that this video coincides with the “recent revelations about the NYPD” targeting, profiling, and surveillancing, “Law-abiding Muslim Communities” as Asim Rehman puts it in his letter to the editor in the New York Times article, I would have to say the likeliness that the video has spread positive awareness is unlikely, and is not helping. I think it keeps Islamaphobia alive, it keeps people misinformed, and keeps the Muslim and Middle Eastern communities planted firmly as the feared other in American society.