tagged w/ the clarion fund
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On Friday, September 26, the end of a week in which thousands of copies of Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West -- the fear-mongering, anti-Muslim documentary being distributed by the millions in swing states via DVDs inserted in major newspapers and through the U.S. mail -- were distributed by mail in Ohio, a "chemical irritant" was sprayed through a window of the Islamic Society of Greater Dayton, where 300 people were gathered for a Ramadan prayer service.
The room that the chemical was sprayed into was the room where babies and children were being kept while their mothers were engaged in prayers.On Friday, September 26, the end of a week in which thousands of copies of Obsession:... more
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A New York nonprofit called the Clarion Fund is distributing an hourlong DVD, "Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West," as paid advertising in The Sunday Oregonian.
Muslims and scholars of Islam in Oregon and across the country denounce the DVD as divisive Muslim-bashing propaganda designed to foment fear among Americans, bolster support for Israel and sway the presidential election in candidate John McCain's favor.
Fred Stickel, publisher of The Oregonian, said the newspaper is treating the DVD as it does other paid advertising or product inserts.
"I've always felt we have an obligation to keep our advertising columns as open as possible," said Stickel, who viewed the DVD. "Our acceptance of anything -- our acceptance or rejection -- does not depend on whether or not we agree with the content...There is a principle of freedom of speech involved here. I could find no reason to reject this."
The DVD was produced by the Clarion Fund, which has spent millions to distribute "Obsession" to 28 million U.S. households through about 70 newspapers, including The Miami Herald, The New York Times and The Denver Post. A few newspapers, including The St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the News & Record in Greensboro, N.C., refused to distribute it.
The DVD presents interviews with people identified as scholars, journalists, a former terrorist, the daughter of a martyr and others. It also shows images of radical Islamic groups blowing up buildings and cars, strapping on suicide bombs, shouting "death to America," burning the American flag and declaring war on the Western world. Part of the film compares Muslim radicals to Nazis, arguing that both employ similar propaganda techniques and share anti-Semitic values and ambitions to conquer the Western world.
A New York nonprofit called the Clarion Fund is distributing an hourlong DVD,... more
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The New York Times alone distributed some 145,000 copies of Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West to 11 markets.
Millions of voters in U.S. states crucial to this fall's presidential election received DVD copies of a controversial documentary film as advertising inserts in their morning newspapers over the past week, with more expected to be sent out over the upcoming weekend.
The 2006 film, Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West, which has been accused by critics of encouraging Islamophobia, was reportedly delivered, or slated for delivery this weekend, into tens of millions of households in states such as Ohio, Michigan, Florida, Colorado, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Missouri and other "swing states" that don't vote consistently for either party and usually decide elections.
Republicans and their candidate, Sen. John McCain, have made battling the threat posed by radical Islamists a central platform of their campaign, while presenting their Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama, as being weak on the issue. Obama has also fought off persistent smear campaigns, particularly among Jewish voters, that he is a closet Muslim.
Gregory Ross, the spokesman for the Clarion group, which produced and is distributing the DVD, told the Harrisburg Patriot-News that the movie was being delivered to 28 million homes throughout the month of September and that the intention was not to sway voters to either candidate.
The Clarion Fund is a shadowy non-profit group created to "educate Americans about issues of national security," according to its website. The staff and organizational information of the group is not listed on the website.
Clarion Fund was founded by the writer and executive produce of Obsession, Israeli-Canadian Raphael Shore. The group also runs the website Radicalislam.org -- an educational site which implores its readers to "take action against radical Islam" by exploring its resources under four headings: "fueling terror," "Sharia law," "vote 2008," and "radical Islam overview."
Because of Clarion Fund's non-profit, tax-exempt status, it is not permitted to sway voters in a partisan manner. But Radicalislam.org reportedly was, until it was recently pointed out in the media, carrying an article that explicitly endorsed Sen. John McCain.
IPS telephoned the Clarion Fund and its reported contact and counsel, Eli D. Greenberg of the New York law firm Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman and Herz. The calls were not returned.
The documentary, despite an initial disclaimer that the material covered applies only to radical Islamists and not all Muslims, has drawn fire from critics for conflating mainstream Islam with violent and militant tendencies of a smaller subset of the religion. Critics argue that it makes little distinction between the religion of Islam and the political realities that inform terrorism.
Among the film's stable of experts are "reformed" Palestinian Liberation Organization terrorist and convert to evangelical Christianity Walid Shoebat, self-described terrorism expert Stephen Emerson, and another evangelical convert from Islam named Noni Darwish who runs a website called Arabs for Israel.
An investigation by IPS last year revealed that the production and promotion of Obsession was tied to several right-wing Zionist groups in the U.S. and Israel. Raphael Shore's brother, Rabbi Ephraim Shore, heads up the Israeli group Aish Hatorah, which helped form HonestReporting, an organization which, the IPS investigation revealed, had ties to the film despite the apparent denials of the relationship.
Several of the newspapers that ran the advertising insert were contacted for interviews by IPS, and those who responded all gave similar responses that, though the material may or may not agree with the editorial positions of the papers, the DVDs met the standards for advertising. The newspapers said they did not want to participate in censorship.
**CONTINUES***The New York Times alone distributed some 145,000 copies of Obsession: Radical... more
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