Post-Dispatch refuses to distribute DVD offensive to American Muslims
Despite the perilous state of American newspapers, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch advertising department took an ethical stand and refused to distribute the DVD of a film that for two years has troubled American Muslims.
The film, called “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West,” was distributed to an estimated 28 million people via 70 American newspapers, primarily in states crucial to the coming presidential election. The only other newspaper reported to have refused the DVD was the News & Record in Greensboro, NC.
The Miami Herald reported that its own decision to distribute the DVD angered the Muslim community there:
We feel that it’s going to incite more hate and bigotry against our community,” said Altaf Ali, Florida chapter director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. The DVD does not do enough to differentiate between terrorists and mainstream Muslims, he said.
The Herald’s description of the DVD says it includes…
…montages of terrorist training camps and suicide bombers paired with narration by commentators such as Daniel Pipes, founder of the conservative Middle East Forum think tank. Many of the film’s pundits are known for controversial views on Islam. In one part of the DVD, clips of Muslim children being recruited as suicide bombers are interspersed with images of Nazis.
Jen Wood, the Post-Dispatch’s vice president of advertising, said her department received the request to include the DVD as an insert at the beginning of the summer. She said the advertiser provided the newspaper only with a trailer, and refused when Wood asked to see a copy of the entire film - something she described as “not an unusual request.”"I didn’t have enough information to make a decision, so I said ‘no thank you,’” said Wood. “It wasn’t clear what exact message they were trying to send.”
The Herald reported that the nonprofit Clarion Fund, which promotes “national security through education,” sent the DVD to 28 million households, “many in election swing states such as Florida, Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania.”
In Florida, the DVD was distributed in the Herald, the Orlando Sentinel, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the St. Petersburg Times, the Florida Times-Union of Jacksonville and the News-Press of Fort Myers.
In October 2006 (another election year) I wrote a story about how besieged the St. Louis Muslim community was feeling- the worst, many told me, since just after Sept. 11, 2001. A St. Louis screening of the “Obesession” movie featured in that story:
At the end of August, a thousand people — about half of them Jewish and half Christian, according to organizers — attended a screening of the movie “Obsession: What the War on Terror is Really About” at the Frontenac Hilton Hotel. The group’s sponsors promoted the movie with a provocative billboard featuring a dark-skinned man whose head was wrapped in a kuffiyeh and the words, “Confessions of a Terrorist.”
The terrorist in question was Walid Shoebat, who said he was a former member of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Shoebat appeared in the hourlong movie and then spoke to the audience.
Muslims who were there said they were horrified by what they believed was the movie’s inference that Islam, terrorism and Nazism were one and the same, despite a disclaimer that ran at the beginning and end of the movie that said “most Muslims are peaceful and do not support terror.”
Far more upsetting, they said, was the reaction of the audience.
Writing in “The American Muslim” two weeks after the screening, [Sheila] Musaji said those Muslims who attended were “still experiencing physical and emotional distress primarily due to the positive reaction of the audience — including applause and standing ovations — and to some of the hateful comments we overheard from individuals sitting around us.”
Fatemeh Keshavarz, head of Washington University’s department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages, who was at the screening, said: “This was hate speech, pure and simple. … being in that room, I felt threatened.”
The movie was made by Honest Reporting, “a grass-roots movement dedicated to ensuring that Israel receives fair media coverage,” according to its website. Honest Reporting is an arm of Aish HaTorah, an orthodox Jewish education network based in Jerusalem.
Richard Senturia, executive director of Citizens for a Just and Lasting Peace in the Middle East, which co-sponsored the screening, said that the Muslims who attended “saw what they saw and heard what they heard. I’m not going to deny their feelings.”
Karen J. Aroesty, the Anti-Defamation League’s regional director for Missouri and Southern Illinois, was also in the “Obsession” audience and said she was disturbed by what she saw in the crowd’s reaction. She is now working with Muslims on an effort to re-screen “Obsession,” but this time to also provide a forum for people to discuss their feelings about the movie.
“Frankly, things are getting out of hand,” Aroesty said about the sequence of events that have frightened many St. Louis Muslims. “All these things happen, and they converge in different ways in a community like St. Louis.”
Wood said her department needs to have a full understanding of what is being advertised in the newspaper, otherwise, it “reserves the right” to decline an ad. “I exercised my right not to accept [the DVD],” she said.
Tim Townsend has been the religion reporter at the Post-Dispatch since June 2004. He previously covered personal finance and consumer news for The Wall Street Journal. He holds master's degrees from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and Yale Divinity School. In 2005 he won the Templeton Religion Reporter of the Year Award, given by the Religion Newswriters Association. 
The double standard is alive and well. When will people wake up and realize that Islamofascism is the greatest danger we face today. I know there are Moslems that don’t agree but they never speak out against the fanatics. Obsession is an important DVD for every American regardless of religious affiliation to see who our real enemy is. Avoiding it for fear of upsetting terrorist groups like CAIR only strengthen the Islamic fanatics.
Why doesn’t the post make the DVD available at their office for free for every reader that wants it?
— Paul
5:13 pm September 23rd, 2008
Paul, why don’t you make it available at your home for everyone who wants it?
Whatever happened to Freedom of Speech at the Post-Dispatch? Censorship lives, as many comments have been deleted that might “offend” Mohammedans. The Post-Dispatch is becoming like Islam - no Free Speech or Free Press in Islam, and apparently none anymore at the P-D.
“What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it doesn’t exist.” –Salman Rushdie
hs,
The issue that I see is not the fact that the voice of moderate islam is ignored, but that it is not spoken in any loud concise real sense. When you do hear it, you hear them trying to shut people up by classifying legitimate criticism as hate speach. I can’t speak to this film, but look up the UNHRC defamation of religion issue and you’ll see that they would like all non-positive speach regarding any religion (even the extremist brands) to be considered an internation human rights issue. This is outrageous - a muslim group in canada in fact has come out against their counterparts in the middle east and their support of such nonsense.
If you want to stop “hate” speach, come out against the bad parts of your religion. Christians should concisely say that the KKK, certain militant cults etc. are apostate to the religion and denounce their actions. The same should be true of Islam with radical terrorist branches.
Also, D. and others, be careful with this “hate speach” thing. It’s too often thrown around haphazardly where it’s not appropriate. It’s not hate speach to point out what radical Islam really is. I respect the desire to all get along, but there are bad people that need to be called out and have the truth about them brought to light (again, I haven’t seen the film, so I can’t really say whether it is or is not legit). Free speech is a good thing for moderate Islam, they should embrace it to their advantage.
By the way, the guy using the name Mike from yesterday was NOT me.
“To claim that this movie is “hate speech” against Muslims would be like claiming that a movie that presents Jewish gangsters Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel in a negative light is “hate speech” against Jews.” –sinz52
Really. Why don’t we just stop showing all documentary footage of Hitler, because that would be “hate speech” against Germans and Austrians (since Hitler was born in Austria). Ditto footage of Mussolini because that would be “hate speech” against Italians. And etc.
“Obsession” is a documentary showing actual footage of Jihadist/Terrorist Mohammedans. If some people want to bury their heads in the sand because they can’t face the reality of the Global Jihad threat in our time, that’s their business, but don’t stop the rest of us who CAN face reality from getting a copy of “Obsession.” I’d also like a copy of “Fitna,” please. And a copy of “Islam: What The West Needs To Know.” Actually, I’ve had my own copy of the latter for years now, and will also order “Obsession,” since the censorious “ethical” (since when did cowardice become a synonym for “ethical?”) Ad Dept of the Post has seen fit to bury it’s collective head in the sand and not face reality. “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” - The Ad Dept at the Post, that’s who. Cowards, quivering under a cloak of “ethics!” Yeah, right. Fear is more like it.
The Post Dispatch has shown great integrity in their decision not to accept the Obsession DVD insert. I have read many of the comments here with sadness as they show just how much animosity there is towards American Muslims. For a Muslim view of this film there is a series of articles available - An In-Depth Summary & Analysis of “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War on the West” http://www.theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/in_depth_summary_analysis_of_obsession_radical_islams_war_on_the_west/0016753 gives a point by point response to the films claims and gives references to other articles about the film including a background of the individuals and organizations behind the production and distribution of this film.
Mike, I agree with you. I would point out that mainstream Christianity in the US HAS consistently spoken out against the KKK, people like Matthew Hale, etc. Unfortunately, these groups have many supporters in American churches, some might even surprise you.
In the US, what could be called mainstream Islam has a real hard time getting heard publicly. The MSM ignores them, the right wing talking heads excoriate them and tells them they’re really a bunch of liars and the REAL Islam accurately represented by the radicals. The vocal Christian Right joins in the chorus, and the political extremists finish the job. From what I’ve seen, the moderates within Islam HAVE been reaching out for the last 7 years…and had every door they’ve knocked on slammed in their faces.
The only good thing about faceless, anonymous postings is that it really allows the the true nature of the persons trickle through (yes mien and yours).
Some posters just know for a ‘fact’ what Islam teaches. Really? Have you been to one of those ‘teaching’ sessions to learn first hand? No! You have just learned all of the truth about Islama and Moslems from your pastor or evangelical crusader or favorite radio jock!
Some posters have referred to the decision not to distribute a DVD as ‘censorship’ and ‘hidiing the truth’ and ‘attack on free speech’.
Unless some of you have some inside information, there is nothing particularly ‘true’ about the DVD, nor has it been censored since more than 28 million copies may have been distributed.
My conservative brethren ‘know for a fact’ that abortion is like taking a life, even if the birth takes the life of the mother OR that its OK to kill someone through the elctric chair.
Of course some of these things are justifiable at times, but I am not taking their word for it that this is the ‘true’ christianity.
And I dont take the radical Muslims’ description of Islam as the ‘true’ Islam.
This DVD is not a primer on Islam nor on terrorism. It’s an ugly, naked election year propaganda designed to prey upon the post-911 fears.
Don’t be lazy. Do the right thing. See this DVD AND see something else which may potentailly presnt you with a different view. Then make an informed judgement.
But you wont do that, will you. Becuase you already know all about the truth about the ideology of Islam and Muslims!
No you’d rather live with the mindset of the crusaders and further fan our fears of being eaten up by big, bad Muslims.
“…the St. Louis Post-Dispatch advertising department took an ethical stand and refused to distribute the DVD…”
Well, I’ve decided to take an ethical stand also - I am now an EX-SUBSCRIBER.
How shameful of an American newspaper to limit people’s understanding about the nature of the enemy during this current struggle that this world is facing.
visit:
http://actforamerica.com/
For years we in American have been told that the speech most in need of protection is speech that is offensive.So why is speech that offends Muslims suddenly off limits? You really don’t think anyone believes you would have rejected a DVD that offends Christians do you? I’m sure your paper would have proudly accepted the DVD and defended its distribution with high minded claims about the importance of freedom of speech and freedom of expression.Obsession is certainly not hate speech except for the hateful words spoken by the Muslims in the film. Obsession is a documentary that has been shown on FOX news and on various College campus by people concerned about the Jihad threat to America and to the West.The P-D and its subscribers should ask themselves this question. Why are Muslims and their apologists complaining about the distribution of the Obsession DVD and NOT complaining about the hateful views expressed by Muslims in the film?