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Muslim Group Asks Election Commission to Investigate DVD Distribution

By Howard M. Friedman

Last Friday, the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) filed a formal complaint (full text) with the Federal Election Commission asking it to investigate whether the widespread distribution as a newspaper insert of the DVD "Obsession: Radical Islam?s War Against the West" violated federal election laws. (See prior posting.) CAIR alleged that the distribution may have violated prohibitions on federal political campaign contributions and expenditures by corporations (2 USC 441b) and on political contributions by foreign nationals. (2 USC 441e). CAIR's complaint claims that the DVD distribution was designed to benefit the presidential candidacy of Sen. John McCain.

The Clarion Fund that financed the DVD distribution is a non-profit corporation. The complaint also says that the founders and incorporators of Clarion are Israeli citizens connected with the Israeli educational group Aish HaTorah International. Yesterday, CAIR issued a press release discussing its complaint. The Guardian reported that a New York spokesman for Aish HaTorah said that Rabbi Raphael Shore, the producer of the video, was not acting for Aish HaTorah in his work on the DVD. Clarion says the DVD is issue-based, and not an attempt to promote any particular candidate.

Full post as published by Religion Clause on September 24, 2008 (boomark / email).