This month marks the 100th anniversary of the first printing of the infamous anti-Semitic forgery, “Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” The anniversary will be commemorated throughout the world including a two-day conference at Boston University’s Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies. Tonight in New York, HBO Films will premiere the documentary “Protocols of Zion” by Marc Levin’s Blowback Productions (www.blowbackproductions.com). The documentary will be screened later in the month in selected theaters throughout America.

“The Protocols” are frequently referred to in the Arab and Iranian press connecting Jewish conspiracies to, among other things: assassinations of Arab leaders; the war in Iraq; control of Hollywood, the press, economics, and world resources; and an alleged war on Islam. As Mr. Levin’s film illustrates, the most popular conspiracies are related to Jewish involvement in the attacks of September 11, 2001.

For example, the president of the Middle East Center for Studies and Public Relations, Hisham Jaber, appeared on Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV on July 11, 2005, stating: “I believe the events of 9-11 were not … perpetrated by Al Qaeda alone … it is global Zionism that stands to gain the most from this … we know that since the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Zionism has forged the New Testament – and by now, 60 million in the U.S. alone have left Christianity to become believers in the Torah. Global Zionism has tried to forge the Holy Koran.”

The secretary-general of the Islamic Universities Association, Jafar Abd Al-Salim, also appeared on Hezbollah TV on April 22, 2004: “The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion clearly refer to this: ‘Spread corruption amongst all human societies so you can rule.’ …All the pornographic films in the world are made by Jewish companies, and the same goes for drugs.”

Sheik Muhammad Al-Mussayer of Egypt’s Al-Azhar University, the most prominent school of Sunni Islam, spoke on Saudi Iqra TV on July 12, 2004: “What do they have to say about the perverse ideology of ‘The Protocols of the Elders of Zion?’… What do we have to say about Zionism penetrating Christianity these days? Christianity and Judaism have a long history of animosity…This is not love but a relationship whose goal is to destroy Islam.”

Leading Palestinian Authority religious figures often cite the “Protocols.” Saudi Al-Majd TV aired an interview on February 20 with Palestinian Arab Mufti Ikrima Sabri on the assassination of Lebanese leader Rafiq Al-Hariri: “‘The Protocols of the Elders of Zion’ and specifically the Talmud will discover that one of the goals of these protocols is to cause confusion in the world and to undermine security throughout the world.” Another example includes a Palestinian Authority TV Friday sermon by Sheik Ibrahim Mudeiris on April 16, 2004: “Our battle with our enemy is great … We face a battle against the Crusaders and against World Zionism, which was exposed by the French intellectual, Garoudy, some 20 years ago … He converted to Islam and wrote of World Zionism’s covetous aspirations, based on ‘The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.'”

A Muslim cleric from Denmark, Nabil Shaker Al-Taleqani, gave an interview on October 30, 2004, to Iran’s Al-Alam TV explaining: “Go back to the book ‘The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.’ We must return to the 24 protocols, to these secret documents. When we turn the pages of these protocols, we see there are some people who pretend to be Muslims, but are actually Jews, and they are the ones who began to distort Islam. These people are behind this media, which is entirely against Islam …”

Last year the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting’s channel directed at America, Jaam-E-Jam 2, broadcasted a series dealing with the Jews and the film industry, which centered on the “Protocols” detailing “the satanic Jewish ideas of taking over the world.”

The Iranian news channel IRINN TV also aired a program about a book published on the “Protocols” by the Organization for Culture and Arts of the Tehran municipality on July 14, 2004: “These ‘Protocols’ [the Jews] emphasized the role of economics and the need to control it in order to advance their goals … They believed that in order to rule the world they must have two tools in their control. The first is gold … and the second is the international media … In another place [in the ‘Protocols’], they note the following solution to deal with countries that resist Zionism.”

Mr. Levin’s documentary will make an important contribution to all future historical studies of the “Protocols.”

Mr. Stalinsky is the executive director of the Middle East Media Research Institute.