Local peace activists got word this week that the Oregonian was planning to distribute a DVD in the Sunday paper–a paid insert from a group called “The Clarion Fund,” according to emails zooming around among activists.
The DVD, characterized as “incredibly biased,” and “highly inaccurate, biased and hateful” in an email from local peace activist Maxine Fookson–it’s unclear if she authored the email or forwarded it–is called “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against The West.”
A still from the intro:
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has complained about to the FEC about the controversial DVD, alleging that it’s being distributed to “28 million homes in presidential election swing states” in a bid to help McCain. (Today, the St. Petersburg Times tied the Clarion Fund to a “well known Jewish education group,” Aish HaTorah, “that vehemently denies any involvement with the film.”) CAIR writes:
The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is urging the FEC to investigate whether the Clarion Fund, a shadowy non-profit organization that distributed DVDs containing “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West,” is really a front for an Israel-based group seeking to help Sen. John McCain win the U.S. presidential election. (No information about a board of directors, staff or even a physical address is offered on the fund’s website.)
There’s a YouTube video of the DVD, but embedding has been disabled. Click here to check it out. The World Trade Center crumbles just after the two minute mark!
When I called CAIR this morning to ask if they were aware whether or not the Oregonian would be distributing the DVD, spokesperson Amina Rubin pointed me toward a watchdog website listing papers that have been paid to distribute the DVD. Other papers have turned the Clarion Fund away. The Oregonian isn’t on the list of those that have distributed the DVD–nor is Oregon on the list of swing states apparently being targeted–but Rubin was doing further research.
Meanwhile, local activists aren’t taking any chances, and have been sending letters to the Oregonian’s publisher, Fred Stickel. “I am writing to express my utter outrage. In a world divided by arbitrary lines, drawn most often by people who do not have our best interests in mind, we do NOT need to spread any more hatred and distrust,” writes Katherine Knowles.
And Mayor Tom Potter’s office did their own digging–after getting the alerts from local activists–and were told that the paper did plan to insert the DVD in the Sunday paper. After learning that, and watching the YouTube clip, Mayor Tom Potter called Oregonian publisher Fred Stickel, according to the mayor’s public advocate, Jeremy Van Keuren.
The mayor reportedly told Stickel: “If you’re planning on distributing this, please don’t. It contributes to a climate of distrust towards Muslims, and holds the entire Muslim community accountable for the actions of a dangerously misguided few.”
Delivering the DVD with the Oregonian, Van Keuren explains, also “lends it objectively and legitimacy it doesn’t deserve.”
I’ve got a call in to the Oregonian to see what they plan to do.
Matt Davis contributed to this report.
CAIR is a front for Hamas
They are not a civil rights group – they do not represent muslims – they represent Hamas.
U.S. Senator Charles Schumer said: “we know [CAIR] has ties to terrorism”…intimate links with Hamas”
Anything associated with Radical Islam that CAIR opposes should be embraced by all Americans
“Anything associated with Radical Islam that CAIR opposes should be embraced by all Americans”
Anything that OPPOSES or EXPOSES radical Islam that CAIR opposes should be embraced by all Americans
Poor terrorist loving peaceniks.
Why would anyone ever distrust radical muslims Potter?
I hardly think it paints a such broad brush against the entire Islamic religion.
Let’s focus on those suicide bombing Amish.
Karl Rove.
Maybe if we, the readers of the Mercury, actually subscribed to the O, they wouldn’t have make ends meet like this.
Still, absolutely reprehensible.
Doesnt matter if you are American or Arab, jew or muslim, what matters is whether you are for love or for hate. spread what you believe in and believe that you will get it back too.
you have to hand it to the GOP…They will stop at nothing before an election.
Big money from the oil fields of Iraq spent on DVDs circulated in the Oregonian and other papers before an election.
Does this mean the voting machines are working properly?
I remember many years ago when the O sponsored a film festival at which the movie “Hail Mary” was shown. Many local Catholics – I was one of them, even though I was and still am employed by The O -protested the movie’s anti-Catholicism. The O (and various local intellects) kept saying in response “have you actually seen the movie before protesting it” and/or “nobody’s forcing you to watch the movie”. And so I ask those of you protesting the DVD: have you seen the movie? If not, is anyone forcing you to watch it?
What a waste of money. 99.9% of those DVDs will go directly into the trash, like those old AOL disks.
The religious fundamentalists I’m concerned about are those Christofascists in front of the Planned Parenthood at 15th/Fremont. But every time I see them, I give $1 for each protester to Planned Parenthood…
Let’s see now a mysterious group with unknown funding sources invests millions of dollars to spread questionable “information” about a segment of the population which adamantly denies it is representative or even accurate added to a population that knows very little about the subject or what they know is inaccurate and we call a it a documentary and is sent with the states largest mews outlet? And we shouldn’t question it or ask for verification of the information or the source? And we should accept this from the Oregonian?
“verification of the information or the source?”The information source is the jihad’s them self’s. Do you think actors are portraying these raving mad killers?
Hmmm.. can someone tell me please if I make ‘Anti Semitism’ DVD if any newspaper in the USA will send it as an ‘advertisement’ ? after all we believe in freedom of speech right?
Well, it’s Sunday morning, and those whores at the O went ahead and included the DVD. I am so done with that POS paper.
fyi ppl…..jihad is a verb…it means holy struggle..it is not a noun nor can it be used to describe people *shakes head in disbelief*
“Jihad”
Function: noun
Variants: also je·had /ji-‘häd, chiefly Brit -‘had/
Etymology: Arabic jihAd
1 : a holy war waged on behalf of Islam as a religious duty ; also : a personal struggle in devotion to Islam especially involving spiritual discipline
2 : a crusade for a principle or belief
A friend of mine forwarded this to me:
Muslim Children Gassed at Dayton Mosque After Obsession DVD Hits Ohio
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-rodda/muslim-children-gassed-at_b_130076.html
A serious letter writing campaign, if not cancelling of subscriptions, need to be undertaken. This is blatantly not acceptable in my community, and if you feel the same way, the Oregonian needs to hear it.
http://www.oregonlive.com/contactus/
This is too much! The DVD placed in Sunday’s Oregonian is hate speech not free speech. They next “insert” will be an DVD from the KKK. I am terminating our subscription on Monday
I dislike both the Oregonian and islam. Although I’d rather have the Oregonian living next door to me.
Just canceled. See ya Oregonian.
Our American fathers are rolling in the grave now…
Oregonian making money, i will be buying one as soon this DVD is in.
Oh by the way I’m Muslim from Bosnia And Herzegovina and no DVD will make mi hate or love somebody is just a piece from newspaper, that i have option to get or not. If by spreding hate McCain is hopping or his helpers to win elections America is over. But trust me America is not over there is no place in world like this and America is not place for these who spread hate nor these who don’t want freedom of speech. Oregonian go ahead distribute DVD and yes make sure you show atom bombs, tenks, artilery, airplane cariers that “terorist” have or you could show the rifles “terorist” caries from 1978 Afghanistan war against SSSR. hm
You know what’s making this worse?
I JUST RECEIVED THIS DUMBASS DVD IN THE MAIL. I have no affiliation with the Oregonian or any of these things whatsoever! Are they just sending this out to registered Democrats or something??
While the pro-Israel, anti-Muslim zealots are peddling their wares with the Oregonian’s help, here is what is happening today, Israeli Jewish settlers (living on stolen Palestinian lands) are going on a pogram of violence against Palestinians:
‘Hundreds join’ settler violence
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7647991.stm
“These hundreds are engaged in conspiratorial actions against Palestinians and the security forces. It’s a very grave phenomenon.”
“The margins [in the settler community] are expanding, because they are enjoying a tailwind and the backing of part of the leadership, both rabbinical and public, whether in explicit statements or tacitly.”
See also
http://www.btselem.org/English/Video/20080913_SB_Settler_riot_in_Asira_al_Qibliya.asp