‘This is the final struggle:’ Newt Gingrich sells a movie about the Islamic threat to America

America At Risk

In a straight-to-DVD movie that will premiere tomorrow night in D.C., Newt Gingrich and Citizens United warn Americans of the impending threat of radical Islam. As one of their talking heads says in the trailer, “This is the end of times. This is the final struggle.”

The movie, called “America At Risk“, paints the world as a dangerous place filled with radicalized Muslims who want to – and, importantly, can – destroy America.

If it looks familiar, that’s because it’s extremely similar to movies by the Clarion Fund, the nonprofit which produced “The Third Jihad” and “Obsession.” The latter, sent to 30 million homes during the 2008 election, helped plant the seeds of the current spate of anti-mosque protests and anti-Muslim rhetoric.

It has the same themes (immediate threat of death by Islam), the same shots of terrorist attacks and scary “death to America” rallies, and many of the same people, like M. Zuhdi Jasser, a Muslim doctor from Arizona, and Bernard Lewis, a Princeton professor and sounce of the aforementioned “final struggle” line.

“America At Risk” goes on the attack against the Obama administration much more than the Clarion movies, however, calling it “crazy” that the administration doesn’t say “Islam” enough when discussing the war on terror.

TPM, 10 September 2010