Interfaith group blasts Obsession

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An interfaith group blasted the creators and distributors of a film critical of radical Islam.

At a news conference Tuesday in Washington, Interfaith Alliance chairman Rabbi Jack Moline described the film, “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War with the West” as a “thinly veiled call for disparagement and distrust of all Muslims.”

By “exercising the rights guaranteed to them by the Constitution,” the film’s distributors have “attempted, by inference and innuendo, to limit the rights of Muslims to enjoy the free exercise of their faith,” he said.

Twenty-eight million DVD copies of the film were distributed in U.S. presidential election swing states by the Clarion Fund, a nonprofit organization founded by Raphael Shore, a producer and co-writer of the film.

Shore also works for the Aish HaTorah, but that group has said it is not involved in the distribution and that Shore’s involvement with the film was in his free time.

While not mentioning Shore by name, Moline said he was personally disappointed by Shore’s involvement.

“As a board member of the Interfaith Alliance, I promised to turn a critical eye first to my own community,” said Moline. “The rabbi whose name appears in the credits of this film as producer and co-writer has a hard repentance ahead of him on Yom Kippur. I will include his actions in my own confession of sins.”

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