Time to start 'monitoring' mosques

Chad Groening   (OneNewsNow.com) Friday, January 27, 2012

The head of a Messianic Jewish ministry is defending the producers of a documentary on Islamic Jihad that has created a deal of controversy in New York City.

"We believe Islam will dominate" -- those are the opening words of the trailer. "It's an entire movement, and the idea of it is hatred for our way of life," former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani goes on to comment. He is just one of the terrorism experts featured in the full-length documentary, The Third Jihad: Radical Islam's Vision for America , produced by the Clarion Fund.

The New York Times reports that nearly 1,500 officers in the New York City Police Department had viewed the video since early 2010 as part of their counter-terrorism training. But the NYPD stopped showing the film after a few officers, as well as the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), complained about it. On Friday, New York's police commissioner said the "inflammatory" film was shown by mistake -- and described the department's relationship with the city's Muslim community as "excellent." The Clarion Fund has stood by its project, saying it is not a film about Islam, but a film about the threat of radical Islam. Jan Markell, founder and director of Olive Tree Ministries in Minnesota, was present when the film was introduced, and she is glad that New York City police officers had a chance to see the documentary. "I think this is very, very appropriate, and I think they can learn a lot," she contends. "And what's good about it is they're learning about it from a balanced Muslim, Dr. Zuhdi Jasser. He's a faithful, loyal practitioner of Islam, but he is showing its dark side. So I say Hallelujah! I'm glad this happened." And Markell has no problem with the idea of the NYPD "spying" on activities in the mosques. "I think it's time we start monitoring our mosques," she suggests. "I'm sure that it gets over into the area of political correctness and it looks like persecution, but I would maintain the source of a lot of our problems within our borders [is] mosques in America."

And the Olive Tree Ministries founder does not think peaceful Muslims who love America should have a problem with mosques being searched.