Islam: What the West Needs to Know

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Islam: What the West Needs to Know is a controversial documentary film featuring discussions on Islam. Produced and distributed by Quixotic Media LLC, the film includes commentaries by Robert Spencer, Bat Ye'or, Walid Shoebat, Srđa Trifković, and Abdullah Al-Araby. The film premiered at the American Film Renaissance Festival in Hollywood on January 15, 2006 and had a limited theatrical release in summer 2006 in Chicago, Washington DC, and Atlanta.

The film was produced and directed by Gregory M. Davis and Bryan Daly.

1 Synopsis
2 Reviews
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Synopsis

Islam: What the West Needs to Know argues that Islam is a violent religion bent on world domination. The documentary uses passages from the canonical texts of Islam as its source material. It is presented in six parts:

1. There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his Prophet: In the first part, various commentators argue that Islamic violence stems from the teachings and examples of Muhammad and that the Qur'an prescribes and sanctions violence against non-Muslims.

2. The Struggle: In the second part, Walid Shoebat defines the word "Jihad" to mean the struggle to impose Allah's will over the earth, resulting in holy war against the non-Muslim world in order to bring it under the rule of Islam.

3. Expansion: In the third part, Bat Ye'or describes the expansion of Islam through conquest and presents historical evidence of enslavement and massacres of Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians and Hindus by Muslim invaders.

4. War is Deceit: In the fourth part, Robert Spencer and Serge Trifkovic discuss the Islamic principle of Taqiyya, Islamic dissimulation, which the lecturers argue, enjoins Muslims to deceive non-Muslims in order to advance the cause of Islam.

5. More than a Religion: In the fifth part, the documentary asserts that "Islamic law governs every aspect of religious, political, and personal action, which amounts to a form of totalitarianism that is divinely enjoined to dominate the world, analogous in many ways to Communism".

6. The House of War: The final part covers the division of the world into Dar al-Islam ("the house of Islam"), the land governed by the Islamic law, and Dar al-Harb ("the house of war"), the land of non-Muslims. According to the film, Muslims are enjoined to bring the Dar al-Harb under the control of Islam. "Muslims in Western nations are called to subvert the secular regimes in which they now live in accordance with Allah's command".

[edit] Reviews

"Directors Bryan Daly and Gregory Davis don't pretend to be neutral. Commentators use the Quran and Hadiths (religious commentaries) to make some points I could accept and some I couldn't. But if their central thesis is true -- and it's worth considering -- then this is the most horrific film of the 21st century so far." -- The Charlotte Observer http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/entertainment/15746693.htm

"The extreme right and the extreme left, as has been noted elsewhere, are seemingly so rigid in their positions and so quick to resort to aggression that it’s often hard to tell the two apart...The film is quietly persuasive in its arguments and if half of what these experts assert is true, the world is in for decades of bloody strife...As the film sees it, the opposite is true and followers of Islam won’t be happy until every non- believer joins their ranks or failing that, is wiped off the face of the earth " --Richard Knight, Jr, ^[1]

"What they have to say is very interesting and, on occasion, nothing short of mind-blowing. It's just presented in a manner that, even to the most patient of viewers, is monotonous and dull... According to these folks, the majority of Islam-following Muslims wish to lay waste to the entire Western world - and at any cost." --Gwinnett Daily Post ^[2]

"Sept. 11, 2001 triggered a genre of films and books that all ask: why do they hate us? Because they are Muslims following in Mohammed's footsteps is the answer given by first-time producers-directors Gregory M. Davis and Bryan Daly in this alarmist documentary... What viewers need to know -- if provoked by this film -- is there's far more nuance in Mary Habeck's book Knowing the Enemy: Jihadist Ideology and the War on Terror and Paul Berman's Terror and Liberalism. **½" --Chicago Sun-Times ^[3]

"[a] documentary-style film, "Islam: What the West Needs to Know," asserts that, properly understood and practiced by its followers, Islam is a violent, expansionary ideology that seeks the destruction or subjugation of other faiths, cultures and systems of government. [A] bound-to-be-controversial project.. its stark look, long-winded interview segments and citations from Islamic texts, "Islam: What the West Needs to Know" isn't exactly scintillating viewing. But even those who don't share the perspective of the filmmakers will find themselves face to face with some disconcerting and thought-provoking suppositions, sure to fuel lively discussions about religion, politics, terrorism and war. " --Atlanta-Journal Constitution ^[4]

"'What the West Needs to Know' relies on the same five talking heads parroting each other for 95 tedious minutes. One is Robert Spencer, who runs the Web site jihadwatch.org...Islam, Spencer asserts at one point, stands as the only big-league religion that 'mandates violence against non-believers.' Considering what has been done to whom in the name of other religions, that may well end up being the funniest line of 2006."^[5]