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Newspaper-insert DVDs on 'radical Islam' stir up swing states
Distribution of the controversial Clarion Fund documentary is pegged to 9/11, not the presidential election, the group says. Some see a 1st Amendment issue. By DeeDee Correll, Special to The Times
September 28, 2008 DENVER -- Newspaper subscribers are accustomed to the sample-size boxes of laundry detergent or aspirin bottles that sometimes arrive packaged with their morning paper, courtesy of advertisers. But readers in battleground states are getting a different kind of freebie: the DVD of a controversial documentary on Islam.
Millions of copies of "Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West" were delivered over the last few weeks to homes in states whose votes will be critical in the presidential election, and more will be distributed through early October. Most of the 28 million DVDs were included as advertising inserts in newspapers. Some also were mailed directly to homes.
The campaign by Clarion Fund -- a nonprofit organization founded by filmmaker Raphael Shore "to educate Americans about issues of national security," its website says -- has prompted criticism of the newspapers for distributing what some describe as Muslim-bashing propaganda.
There are also accusations that the group is trying to influence the election in favor of Republican presidential candidate John McCain, cast by some as tougher on terrorism. One Islamic advocacy group recently filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission, alleging that Clarion is abusing its tax-exempt status by engaging in politics.
"Any neutral observer would say this is a biased, one-sided, inflammatory portrayal that seeks to portray Muslims and Islam as Nazi-like," said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council for American-Islamic Relations, a nonprofit based in Washington, D.C.
Hooper claims the DVD campaign aims to steer voters toward McCain.
"If you're able to raise the level of fear in the public about terrorism or national security, those people are more likely to skew toward John McCain," he said.
Hooper said he heard reports that some DVD recipients in Ohio also had received automated phone calls referencing the film and saying, "We hope you take it into consideration when you go into the voting booth."
Clarion spokesman Gregory Ross said the group had no involvement in such calls.
Ross called the DVD campaign a nonpartisan effort to show Americans the dangers they face. The timing of the distribution, he said, relates not to the election but to the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
"It's a reminder that a 9/11 could happen again, and we need to remember the past," Ross said.
He said the group chose to distribute the DVD in swing states -- including Ohio, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Michigan, Florida and North Carolina -- because that's where media attention is focused.
"That's where the press is these days, and we want to get the press engaged," Ross said.
Until recently, one Clarion website,
RadicalIslam.org, had an article that expressed pro-McCain views. When questioned by the news media, Clarion took the article down. Its inclusion on the site, which has links to a number of articles, was an accident, Ross said.
"There was one article that slipped through the cracks," he said. He said the group had hired an editor to ensure it didn't happen again.
Ross declined to reveal how much Clarion had spent on the DVD campaign, but said it was in the "multimillions." He also would not name donors to the project. Ross said donations had risen sharply since the distributions began. "Obsession" is Clarion's first project; the nonprofit has financed a second film, "The Third Jihad," due out next month.
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