Release of fear-filled "Obsession" puts Hills area Muslims in uncomfortable place

By Mary Garrigan, Journal staff | Saturday, October 11, 2008

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Copies of a documentary film that a local Muslim says manipulates political fears about her religion arrived in Rapid City mailboxes this week.

Samira Choudhury's first thought when she saw a DVD of "Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West" was, "They really got the wrong address."

But the 22-year-old Muslim woman quickly wondered if her neighbors also had received the DVD, and what their reaction would be.

"Oh my goodness, all my neighbors are getting this, and that kind of scares me," she said.

"I suddenly found myself running through the faces of the neighbors and families who have lived on my street for years and the classmates I had gotten to know in grade school here in Rapid City. What impact will this film have on their perceptions of people like me?"

The Council on American-Islamic Relations is concerned that anti-Muslim bias against individuals and mosques has increased around the country because of the film. One Chicago-area mosque has been the target of four vandalism attacks in the past two months.

"Obsession," produced in 2006, is enjoying a resurgence of interest after more than 28 million free copies of the DVD were distributed nationwide in mid-September to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Washington. About 70 newspapers, most in key election states, and several national magazines included copies of the DVD as a circulation insert.

No South Dakota newspapers were part of that distribution, but the DVD that the Choudhury family and other Rapid City households got in the mail Monday was part of a limited direct mailing throughout the state, a Clarion Fund spokesman said. Gregory Ross, director of communications, declined to say how many copies were mailed in South Dakota or if the mailing was targeted to any specific demographic or political persuasion.

The Clarion Fund is the nonprofit, tax-exempt group created in 2006 to distribute the film. Its mission is to address what it sees as the biggest national security issue facing America -- radical Islam.

"We feel the media doesn't give radical Islam the attention it deserves as a threat to our national security," Ross said.

Like many mainstream peace-loving Muslims, Choudhury worries the hour-long DVD is anti-Islamic propaganda designed to smear an entire faith by associating it with the terrorist acts of an extremist fringe.

Choudhury, who has worn the hijab head scarf since she was 13, is completing a degree in psychology at Black Hills State University this semester and plans to pursue graduate studies in psychology. She has lived in Rapid City since the age of 11, was chosen 2003 homecoming queen at Stevens High School and feels at home and welcomed in the community.

"Watching this DVD scared even me -- I don't want to meet the kind of people depicted in the film, let alone have them live in my community. It is terrifying to imagine," she said. "But the truth is this film was made not to inform but to persuade people by manipulating their fears. The producers know exactly what they are doing by taking a splice of individuals who are criminals to their own societies and extrapolating them to some terrifying international cult, further labeling them with names like 'radical Islamists' and 'Islamic fascists' and, of course, 'jihadists.'"

The DVD begins and ends with a disclaimer that most Muslims are peace-loving people, but Choudhury said the rest of the film leaves the deliberate impression that Islam is a fanatical, bloodthirsty religion whose adherents want to destroy America.

"To us, the opening disclaimer of this film -- that it was not to be perceived to portray the majority of peace-loving Muslims around the world -- was only a cute way of creating an obvious legal loophole," Choudhury said. "It is a slap in the face to all of us who have tried with deepest sincerity to foster dialogue and clarity within our communities."

The film's attempts to tie Islam to the actions of Nazi Germany also is particularly offensive to many Muslims.

"Tying the Third Reich and Hitler and the whole Nazi movement to Muslims just reinforces the idea of ... Muslims as the new Nazis," she said. "It sets up the pieces for the average American to put together and come to a very wrong conclusion."

Distribution of the DVD by newspapers drew criticism throughout the country as a thinly-veiled attempt to sway the 2008 presidential election in favor of Sen. John McCain. The mailer includes an invitation to raise activism and awareness through the Web site www.radicalislam.org.

Ross denies that.

"As a 501c3 organization, we're not allowed to meddle in politics," he said. "We cannot tell Americans who to vote for. We simply want to push the agenda of radical Islam farther up the totem pole of political discussion in this country."

Choudhury said nothing in the content of the film refers to Sen. Barack Obama or McCain, but she believes "the timing of the distribution of this is not an accident."

She said the DVD is "fear-mongering" before an election that threatens decades of co-existence and friendship for U.S. Muslims.

Contact Mary Garrigan at 394-8424 or mary.garrigan@rapidcityjournal.com