OBSESSION

Mysterious Clarion Fund drops undisclosed amount of cash to insert hate/scare DVD in over 70 papers nationwide. Bloggers have been searching the net for info on the Clarion Fund, since they provide incredibly little on their website.

I finally got around to watching this feature-length film delivered with the GR Press last week. Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West pretends to be a balanced, educational look at terrorism throughout the world, voicing disclaimers that most Muslims are peaceful people and even including Islamic spokespeople in the video.

However, the voice-over does little to deter the psychological effect of the movie, which constantly juxtaposes images of ordinary Muslims at prayer with seething crowds of radical extremists burning American flags or blowing up buildings. (The majority of this footage, by the way, is dated after the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003).

Like all propaganda, Obsession encourages suspicion and fear. One "expert" in the movie warned that it is difficult to know exactly how many Muslims hold anti-American beliefs. With billions of Muslims worldwide, it is surely a dangerous number.

In a particularly revealing line in the movie, Itamar Marcus of the Palestinian Media Watch states, "[T]he purpose of the Islamists' propaganda is to make the people angry, fearful against the West, to be willing to fight them."

Obsession eerily mirrors this intention.