The Council on American Islamic Relations wants U.S. election authorities to probe the mass distribution of a DVD on radical Islam.
CAIR wrote to the Federal Election Committee on Tuesday asking it “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.”
The complaint notes that the 28 million DVDs have been distributed tucked inside newspapers in recent weeks in swing states. It also notes that some of the officers of the distributor, the Clarion Fund, are close to Aish HaTorah International, the support group for the Jerusalem yeshiva.
“American voters deserve to know whether they are the targets of a multimillion-dollar campaign funded and directed by a foreign group seeking to whip up anti-Muslim hysteria as a way to influence the outcome of our presidential election,” the statement said.
Spokesmen for Clarion denied the distribution was aimed at influencing the elections, and said the distribution in swing states was aimed at drawing media attention. A number of newspapers have refused to distribute the DVD.
Producers of the documentary insist that it only targets a radical minority among Muslims; however, a number of the interviewees in the documentary are on the record as describing Islam as inherently prone to hegemony.
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