Journalist in the Jihadi: Murd

Catching up on some noteworthy documentaries, I was eager to check in with HBO's "The Journalist and the Jihadi" about the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. The horrific details, and subsequent broadcasting (which I refused to watch), of Pearl's beheading are still emblazoned in my memory years after the fact. Taking a dignified and restrained approach to the tragedy, the documentary sets up an interesting narrative device--paralleling Pearl's life with that of Omar Sheikh, the Jihadi responsible for his abduction.

Pearl, a successful and intelligent family man, quickly achieved success and respect within the political arena. Sheikh, educated in England and from a privileged background, distanced himself from his upbringing to take up a very different political crusade. But due to the nature of the resources available, Pearl's life is more fully examined within the film. Interviews with family, friends and coworkers provide a detailed look at a man who sought to make a difference. Sheikh, meanwhile, is more superficially profiled through archival footage and historical documents as he progressed through the ranks of terrorist organizations.

When the two get together in Pakistan, the film becomes a harrowing account of Sheikh's betrayal and Pearl's abduction. The procedures that led to the uncovering of Sheikh's identity and Pearl's fate are faithfully rendered--absolutely riveting and heartbreaking. Ultimately, though, I didn't learn much that I didn't already know--but this is still a powerful and relevant examination of the event. What emerges, and what lingers, from the film is the portrait of Daniel Pearl. This film honors his memory, and his pursuit of truth amounts to an act of heroism. Mariane Pearl, Daniel's wife, wrote "A Mighty Heart" based on her husband's kidnapping and is featured prominently in the documentary. "Heart" is being adapted into a feature film with Angelina Jolie, and one can hope it will be as fitting a tribute to Daniel as "The Journalist and the Jihadi." KGHarris, 01/07.

The documentary 'The Journalist and the Jihadist - The Murder of Daniel Pearl' is a well produced, thoroughly documented account of the gruesome and tragic death of the American/Jewish journalist, Daniel Pearl as orchestrated by the English born Muslim terrorist Omar Sheikh. This contemporary event that unfortunately has not been a one time aberration, punctuates the ever increasing violence between East and West, more specifically Muslim and non-Muslim. This is in my opinion the most dangerous and crucial issue facing the world today. It's a simple, unavoidable fact that should make each and everyone of us ponder the situation, examine our thoughts and beliefs, and strive to come to a mutually acceptable solution to this escalating conflict.

That is exactly what journalist Daniel Pearl set out to be, an honest and open bridge of communication between two opposite and opposing factions. You have to admire a man who would travel to such a troubled area just after 9/11. I still have trouble understanding how an American and Jew could so boldly go into Pakistan, a known hot spot of terrorist activity and expect to come out unscathed. To be honest I can't fathom his rational, it's certainly something I would never consider. He was truly someone willing to put his life on the line for the truth, in fact the film posits the thought that the reason for his death might well be that he was killed because he uncovered something too important to allow him to share with the outside world. I guess we'll never really know if that was the reason.

While being the antagonist in this unfortunate true story Omar Sheikh was also a man just as passionate, just as committed to a cause as Daniel was. His cause and his methods were diametrically opposed to those of his victim and his thought processes, belief system, and emotional detachment from his actions are something that we in the West will probably never be able to comprehend. While watching this documentary I felt only revulsion and anger over Omar Sheikh's actions, feelings which I would assume would be shared by most of the viewers out there. Oddly enough, I'm also certain that there are innumerable potential viewers out there who identity with the other side of the equation and view Omar's acts as moral, heroic and justified. In the final analysis it is this juxtaposition of cultural paradigms where the battle between East and West will eventually be won or lost.

'The Journalist and the Jihadist' is an important film that deserves to be watched not only because it's an excellent production concerning an event that captured the attention of a worldwide audience not so long ago, but more importantly because it illuminates an ongoing dilemma the world has yet to come to grips with. God save us all.

The Journalist and the Jihadi isn't as interesting as it deserves to be. The complicated world of Middle East Islam that reporter Daniel Pearl lived to report and died reporting is warped into a background for Pearl's own horrid kidnapping and murder. Writer Amit Roy reads almost comical meaning into the video scraps of Pearl's and Sheikh's young adulthood. Sheikh is depicted as a Muslim youth getting into arm-wrestling, and a speaker talks about the anger he reflected back at his middle-class London Western opponents. I just saw somebody who liked to compete.

Pearl is presented as an open-minded, fact-tracking violinist-turned-journalist, who loved Islam and the Muslims even if he criticized their governments. After 9/11, he especially shines, when he tries to track the money of al-Qaeda's supporters in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He eventually settles down in Pakistan for a few years with his wife. I felt respect for a man who risked life and limb to secure important stories, but shook my head in surprise that a man with a baby on the way would agree to meet a fundamentalist Muslim leader on the word of a man who turns out to be the executor of his kidnapping.

We are thankfully spared a viewing of the brutal beheading of Pearl that was available for viewing everywhere.

As a primer on how Daniel Pearl wound up dead, this is first-rate. The best part is the chronicling of the moments leading up to, in the midst of, and in the aftermath of the kidnapping. On what his life and death could mean--on how the world should interpret this--it's quiet. But to me that's the spark that would have ignited my interest.