November 13, 2006

Two Highlights from the Liberty Film Festival: “Stop the ACLU” and “Suicide Killers”

The just-concluded Liberty Film Festival premiered a lot of great films. One personal favorite was "ACLU: At War with America," written and directed by Alan Browne of CitizensUnited.org. This 43-minute film does a powerful job of showing how the ACLU is attacking this nation. If you want info on this, or want a way to communicate to others about the activities of the ACLU, get this DVD.

Another highlight was the 80-minute film, "Suicide Killers." Filmmaker Pierre Rehov spoke to failed suicide bombers in Israeli prisons, and also risked his life to go into Gaza and talk to those currently working to become suicide killers. The film was introduced by David Horowitz, who noted that - unlike what we are so often told - suicide killers are not motivated by a sense of oppression. They are motivated by a belief that they will literally go to paradise and be rewarded with 72 virgins. You can't believe they really believe this until you look into their eyes and see them say it for themselves, in their own words, as shown in this documentary.

These people - mostly in their teens and early twenties - are deprived of any kind of life at all. They are not permitted to be with people of the opposite sex. They are few opportunities for them to work. They are taught that the Koran looks at life as a bad thing. And they are promised that if they kill in the name of Islam, they will go to paradise and begin to have sex with 72 virgins, and will have a good existence. Again, you can't believe it until you see them say it in their own words.

Horowitz also noted that, whenever children are targeted for death, anywhere on earth, it is being done by Muslims. No one else does this.

During a Q&A session, Pierre was asked where he thought this situation was headed. Transcribed from a recording I made:

Audience Member: This is the only documentary on this subject I've seen that addresses what these people are thinking, being deprived of any kind of pleasure - economic, social or sexual. And I was wondering, since you don't really present a solution and you don't really have a hope at the end, what is your personal opinion about where this is going to be going in the future?

Pierre Rehov: Tough question, and very hard to answer it too. I'm going to give you my honest opinion. I think we are on the edge of World War III. This is no longer between Israel and the Palestinians. This is between Islam and the West. What is happening in Israel is, if they win, it will be the first step. They're never gonna stop there. There are Arabs who dream of going back into Spain, because in the Muslim mentality, once a Muslim has put his foot on the land, this land automatically must be Islamized. And it's in their language. "Salam" doesn't mean "peace," like "shalom" means "peace" in Hebrew. "Salam" means, "you've been Islamized! You're my brother! Salam, you are Muslim, like me!" And there are two things for a Muslim. There are "dar al-harb", which is the land of fighting, and "dar al-Islam," which is the land of peace. So, everything which is not dar al-Islam, must become dar al-Islam. And especially if they have conquested this in the past, like Israel, like Spain, they must get it back. Because if not it means that god, their god, is wrong, and this is not acceptable for them. My answer to that is, we are in 1938, and the real war is coming very, very soon. And we better push our governments to do the right thing. Because as long as they are trying to negotiate with the President of Iran, and as long as we are letting an atom bomb being built in North Korea, and all these kind of things, without actually reacting to it in a tough way, we are in big danger. It reminds me of Munich - not Steven Spielberg's film - but of what I call the Munich syndrome in 1938, when the French said to Adolf Hitler, it's okay, you can invade Czechoslovakia, no problem with us, as long as you don't attack us, so we can have our 35-hours week, and eat foie gras, and have a night life. This is the French mentality, and unfortunately right now the French mentality is spreading around the world. Because everybody's fat, and nobody sees it coming. But it's coming.

You can see the trailer for this film on Rehov's website.