WASHINGTON: A controversial DVD distributed to millions of Americans during the past week through direct mail and newspapers, has angered Muslims and non-Muslims alike in the United States.
“Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West” is being packaged as an advertising insert in 70 newspapers throughout the country.
The Clarion Fund, a nonprofit organization that says it promotes ‘’national security through education,’’ and whose financial backing is unclear, is sending the hour-long preview of the documentary to 28 million households, many in election swing states such as Florida, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
This correspondent, a resident of Arlington, Virginia, received her free DVD in the mail yesterday.
The incendiary DVD includes montages of terrorist training camps and suicide bombers paired with narration by commentators such as Daniel Pipes, founder of the conservative Middle East Forum think tank.
The documentary describes itself as part of a “grassroots effort to involve the public to work against the radical Islamic threat.” It has been criticized by some religious groups as biased and divisive.
“The film has really shocked all Muslims, as well as a large number of people of other faiths,” said Sayyid Syeed, national director of the Islamic Society of North America.
“Quite a number of US-based organizations, Christian and Jewish, are doing what they can to help. Many have already sent out alerts to their communities and condemned it by saying it is destructive and negative and it does not belong in America, especially at election time.”
Syeed said American Muslims are dealing with the situation. “We pray and hope that during this holy month of Ramadan the Muslim community takes this news with a sense of discipline and does not react in a manner which does not reflect Islamic restraint and discipline as the distributors of this film might wish,” said Syeed.
The film is disturbing, and many of the film’s analysts are known for controversial views on Islam. In one part of the DVD, clips of Muslim children being recruited as suicide bombers are interspersed with images of Nazis.
Huffington Post, writer Erik Ose notes this is not the first time the DVD is being distributed.
“The program was originally shown on Fox News in the days leading up to the 2006 midterm elections, and far right-wing activist David Horowitz toured the country screening the film on college campuses during 2007. Mainstream religious groups have called Obsession biased and divisive. It cuts between scenes of Nazi rallies and footage of Muslim children being encouraged to become suicide bombers.
“Talking heads in the film include infamous anti-Muslim, self-proclaimed ‘Islamophobes’ like Daniel Pipes and Walid Shoebat. In 2001, Pipes claimed the ‘presence’ and ‘enfranchisement’ of Muslims in the US presented ‘true dangers to American Jews.’ Shoebat is an evangelical Christian who falsely claims to be a former Muslim terrorist. Last year, Shoebat told the Missouri Springfield News-Leader, ‘Islam is not the religion of God, Islam is the devil’,” writes Ose in the Huffington Post.
Despite this, the DVDs were distributed last weekend in national editions of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal within selected swing states. Over 70 newspapers were paid to distribute them in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Colorado, Iowa, Florida, Wisconsin, Nevada, New Hampshire and Virginia.
Because it coincides with a hotly contested presidential election, the effort seems politically motivated, Greg Sapp, associate professor of religious studies at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida, told reporters.
“It could have been produced by anyone wanting to instill fear into the minds of Americans,” said Sapp, who studies the different ways religion affects politics.
He said the DVD gives a skewed view of Islam. “This depiction is no more representative of Islam than (polygamist sect leader) Warren Jeffs and the fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints are representative of Christianity,” Sapp said.
On MSNBC’s Countdown, Keith Olbermann did not mince his words. He charged that the Republican Party, which he referred to as the “Grand Old Terrorism Party,” is engaging in “terrorism” against Americans by distributing DVD copies of an anti-terrorism film, which he referred to as “neocon pornography.”
Olbermann portrayed the film as a “hate DVD.” The Raleigh News & Observer in North Carolina distributed copies of the DVD with this Saturday’s newspapers. Jim McClure, vice president of display advertising for the N&O, said the “ultimate decision” to distribute the DVDs had been made by publisher Orage Quarles, and compared the propaganda to harmless household samples.
“’Obviously, we have distributed other product samples, whether it’s cereal or toothpaste,” he said. He declined to say how much the agency paid.
Gregory Ross, Clarion Fund director of communications, told reporters the article “crossed the line” and would be removed.
Where else exactly are these DVDs landing, and who’s funding the Clarion Fund?
In Washington, Islamic experts reacted sharply.
Wendy Chamberlin, president of the Middle East Institute, said: “... the tape first came out years ago but has suddenly popped up now. Why now? It adds nothing to public understanding of the current tensions, nor does it offer solutions.
“I believe we need more appreciation of what unites us with the large Muslim center and more understanding of what makes the very small extremist groups tick. It seems to me that this DVD just inflames the unhelpful us vs. them attitude that only makes staunching extremism more difficult.”
