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Muslim Children Gassed At Ramadan Prayer in Ohio

By Alexa

Tuesday marks the final day of this year's Ramadan, the month-long observance by Muslims of fasting and prayer. The observance of Laylatul Qadr, the Night of Degrees or Night of Measures designates the Angel Jilal bringing the Book of Allah, the last book of the Qur'an to the world, and is always observed on the 27th day of Ramadan.

It was on this night of worship, Friday, September 26, 2008, when over 300 Muslims were subjected to a chemical irritant attack in Dayton, Ohio. The chemical was sprayed into was the room where babies and children were being kept while their mothers were in prayer.

I don't want to politicize this; it would be quite horrible enough to know some racist, xenophobic homegrown terrist with a mouthful of chaw and a third grade education was responsible. It's with a very heavy heart that I tell you that Chris Rodda, research director for Military Religious Freedom Foundation, has put the blame squarely where it lays, on John McCain's Clarion 527.

The presidential campaign edition of the Obsession DVD, currently being distributed by the Clarion Fund, carries the endorsement of the chair of the counter-terrorism department of the U.S. Naval War College, using the name and authority of an official U.S. military institution not only to validate an attack the religion of Islam, but to influence a political campaign. For these reasons, this endorsement has been included in MRFF's second lawsuit against the Department of Defense, which was filed on September 25 in the Federal District Court in Kansas.

Mi gente, 28 million copies of the DVD Obsession were dropped on swing states last week, including Ohio. And what is Obsession?

right-wing, terror propaganda

The clips come at the viewer rapidly and jump from one scene to another, a radical Arab preacher, ordinary people praying, an image of the star and crescent (popularly associated with Islam) with a machine gun, Hitler shouting in German, the World Trade Towers being attacked, goose stepping, guns, Ahmedinejad shouting and waving his arms, explosions, ordinary Muslims, swastikas, and "talking heads" or supposed experts who are the only ones speaking in gentle tones, all else is chaos and violence.  "Worse still, "experts" in the film make the fallacious claim that radical Islam is potentially more powerful than the Nazis (Wasn't Nazi Germany a large, cohesive military state that included millions of soldiers and cutting edge weapons technology, as opposed to small radical Islamic groups who are disparate, divided, and lack basic resources?)."

"Islam is not the religion of God -- Islam is the devil."

"vile propaganda"

After the commentary, is footage of the Madrid bombings, 7/7 in London, and other terrorist atrocities. Beslan is included, even though this was part of the Chechen war. Added to this sequence is Caroline Glick of the Center for Security Policy, saying that all the wars involving Muslims are seen as multiple fronts in the same battle for global dominance. Further, Glick leads her list of conflict zones with Palestine, even though international jihadists have played virtually no role in the Palestinian struggle and committed no major acts of violence in Israel or the occupied territories. A map later shows Israel to have been the target of numerous attacks of this kind, though none are specified. Already Obsession has folded the Palestinian, Chechen and other nationalist struggles in with the specter of international Muslim extremism. (MPAC)

"features scenes of Muslim children being encouraged to become suicide bombers, interspersed with those of Nazi rallies.

And who's responsible for dropping 28 million copies of this violent hate porn to swing state voters, including those in Dayton, Ohio? Exactly who or what is the Clarion Fund??

The Clarion Fund is a 501 c(3) non-profit organization that apparently supports Senator John McCain for president.

Why "apparently"? The Clarion Fund is responsible for paying newspapers around the United States to distribute an anti-Islam documentary as a supplement to their Sunday editions. The Huffington Post reports that the Clarion Fund has sent 28 million DVDs to at least 70 newspapers in swing states to place at the doorstep of newspaper subscribers. The Huffington Post also calls the Clarion Fund "shadowy," because the non-profit organization's financial backers are unknown.

The Clarion Fund per their website:

Clarion Fund, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) organization. We are independent and do not accept funding from the U.S. Government, political institutions, or foreign organizations.

Let me be very open and very honest about something here. Do I think that violence and war are unknowns to all Muslims? No. I do not. I know very well that a small number of individuals with extremist viewpoints happen to be Muslim. That said, I'd like to show you the handiwork of some of my own countrymen who understand and embraced the very same concepts. I don't know where these boys went to church, or whose God, if any, they chose to worship. Evidently, I missed the Clarion Fund's DVD on that.

Was Obsession shown at the RNC? This I don't know, although Clarion Fund was present. Infidel Bloggers Group and lower level acolytes were also in attendance. They've pulled their FAQ from the site, incidentally, but let's preserve a few of the comments before they 404 as well.

Anonymous said...
Gregory Ross, the Director of Communications for the Clarion Fund is interviewed at Frontpagemag.com.

Obsession is a valuable film but I have reservations with the Clarion Fund.

From the interview:
Ross: Well, Clarion Fund is a non-profit group that was created in November 2006. One of the many things we do is create and distribute documentaries, one of which is "Obsession".

This is a worthy endeavor and should be supported.

However, Ross reveals a troubling aspect later in the interview:

Ross: The people in our organization and our donors span a wide political spectrum and we work with moderate Muslims as well. We figure that by being evenhanded and just sticking to the facts that the only enemies we'll be making are those that mean to cause us harm, and quite honestly we're not too concerned about whether we 'insult' them or not.

In my own opinion, this organization can continue being even handed only as long as the "moderates" are apostates. The fallacy of "moderate muslim" and the related element of taqiyya undermines this organizations credibility.

Thursday, September 04, 2008 12:03:00 PM  
Always On Watch said...
Maybe the bit about "moderate Muslims" isn't quite honest. That is, maybe they meant to say, "We'd work with 'moderate Muslims' if we could find any."

Or it could also be a code phrase for 'Moslem apostates'.

I know of other organizations who play that word game.

Friday, September 05, 2008 4:22:00 AM  
Anonymous said...
Such word play jeopardizes their credibility. I have several copies of Obsession and have liberally distributed them to friends and family and my congregations media center.

Since this article came out and Ross associated the term "moderate muslim" with his organization, a caution sign is permanently up.

That's a shame . . .because the movie and effort is clearly first rate.

Perhaps Ross should consider not labelling his associates as either "moderate muslim" or "apostate" at all. Let his associates identify and speak for themselves.

Friday, September 05, 2008 11:27:00 AM

 

Quoting Chris Rodda's excellent essay at Daily Kos, this is from email included in the text:

"She told me that the gas was sprayed into the room where the babies and children were being kept while their mothers prayed together their Ramadan prayers. Panicked mothers ran for their babies, crying for their children so they could flee from the gas that was burning their eyes and throats and lungs. She grabbed her youngest in her arms and grabbed the hand of her other daughter, moving with the others to exit the building and the irritating substance there.

"The paramedic said the young one was in shock, and gave her oxygen to help her breathe. The child couldn't stop sobbing.

"This didn't happen in some far away place -- but right here in Dayton, and to my friends. Many of the Iraqi refugees were praying together at the Mosque Friday evening. People that I know and love.

"I am hurt and angry. I tell her this is NOT America. She tells me this is not Heaven or Hell -- there are good and bad people everywhere.

"She tells me that her daughters slept with her last night, the little one in her arms and sobbing throughout the night. She tells me she is afraid, and will never return to the mosque, and I wonder what kind of country is this where people have to fear attending their place of worship?

"The children come into the room, and tell me they want to leave America and return to Syria, where they had fled to from Iraq. They say they like me, ... , and other American friends -- but they are too afraid and want to leave. Should a 6 and 7 year old even have to contemplate the safety of their living situation?

"Did the anti-Muslim video circulating in the area have something to do with this incident, or is that just a bizarre coincidence? Who attacks women and children?

"What am I supposed to say to them? My words can't keep them safe from what is nothing less than terrorism, American style. Isn't losing loved ones, their homes, jobs, possessions and homeland enough? Is there no place where they can be safe?

"She didn't want me to leave her tonight, but it was after midnight, and I needed to get home and write this to my friends. Tell me -- tell me -- what am I supposed to say to them?"

Please read Chris Rodda's essay in its entirety here.

Full post as published by Never In Our Names on September 28, 2008 (boomark / email).