U.S. newspapers deliver Anti-Islam DVDs

WASHINGTON. 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 millions of households in Ohio, Michigan, Florida, Colorado, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Missouri and other "swing states" that don't vote consistently 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 website does not list the staff and organizational information of the group.

Clarion Fund was founded by the writer and executive producer 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 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 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.

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. They also said they did not want to participate in censorship.

"We're getting many concerned calls and emails from Muslims around the country who see this as an attempt to marginalize and demonize the American Muslim community, and also to sway the election by targeting swing states," Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told IPS. "People are outraged. I haven't seen this kind of outrage in a long time. It's coming to their homes, it's coming to their neighbors and they believe its going to impact their lives and their children's lives negatively."

Hooper also said there had apparently already been an incident of bias against a bus driver for Islamic school children in Ohio likely inspired by the film.

At least one newspaper, the News and Record of North Carolina, declined to carry the DVD. John Robinson, the editor wrote on his blog that the revenue it would have brought in was not a motivator.

Indeed, the print newspaper industry has seen a precipitous decline in revenue, and many critics contend that it's a tough decision for newspapers in economic straits to turn down advertising dollars.

Exactly who paid for the distribution of the DVDs is still in question.