When racism and politics collide: "Obssession"

Ali brought to my attention the recent mass-mailing of anti-Islam DVDs in the US. According to the Huffington Post (read this article! Read it!), 70 large newspapers are distributing 28 million copies of the DVD, titled “Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West” - which was first broadcast on Fox News (where else?)

In today’s McCarthyist world, Muslims are the new witches. (the witches with a beard, ha, ha). We - Muslims and non-Muslims alike - are actually getting used to it.

But the fact remains that 28 million DVDs - can we say, an average of 4 people per household == 100 million potential viewers? That’s a shitload of money spent to make a point. And to scare a country.

The DVD features the likes of Daniel Pipes, the Richard Reid of the academic world (a terrorist, and a failed one with that) whose pathetic life is dedicated to demonise all Arabs in academia, and who reminds me of the Saddam Hussein character as the Devil’s bitch in South Park; Walid Shoebat, an Evangelical Christian falsely pretending to be a ‘former terrorist’ and who says that “Islam is the Devil” (oh, how inventive!); and Nonie Darwish, also known as the Milka Cow (I met her - she does look a little purple) a voice-for-sale whose father, an Egyptian officer, was killed by the Israeli army so she decided to, ehemm, mass-embrace Ho Hos, and the Israelis (and somehow blame Egypt, Islam, Muslims, Arabs, Pakistanis, various brown people, and Ho Hos, for the death of her dad).

So who funded this crap?

Aptly described as “shadowy” by progressive Jewish website “Jews On First!”, the Clarion Fund is (nominally) behind the distribution. NPR does a great job digging (and some more) behind the origins of this new front organisation. The Clarion Fund is set up by the film’s producer, Israeli-Canadian Rabbi Raphael Shore, who works/ed (his current employment situation differs according to sources) for Aish HaTorah (‘Fire of the Torah’), a hardline Jewish advocacy group. Tikun Olam reports more on that. Let’s simply say that - Clarion’s postal address is Aish’s!

Despite supposedly being an apolitical charity, Aish - and its front organisation, Clarion - are heavily connected to numerous pro-McCain groups; the DVD distribution operation has immediately been considered - particularly given the geographical distribution of the film - to be a pro-McCain (and, of course, anti-B Hussein O) move.

I refuse, however, to acknowledge that this is just a political gimmick. IT IS NOT. Fear-mongering is a full-time activity for many in this world, and Muslims are sitting ducks. The rabid anti-Muslim racism featured in this film and which is an underlying policy of the organisations behind it, should be dealt with as a purely racist attack on a religion, and on the millions of American Muslims (and Muslims overseas) who strive to be a building block in their community.

So I’ll end this entry by referring you to Hate Hurts America, which does a great job working on minority advocacy, and their latest website “Obsession with Hate” which provides a point-by-point rebuttal to the film’s lies.