FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 28, 2008

Media Contacts:
Kayse Jama
Center for Intercultural Organizing
Phone: (503) 287-4117
Cell: (503) 449-3523

Chuck Cooper
Micah's Village (United Methodist Church)
(503) 348-7214
chuckandpatty@comcast.net

Call to Action: Communities of Faith and Human Rights Groups Protest the Oregonian’s Distribution of an Anti-Muslim Propaganda DVD

Press Conference and Demonstration
When: Monday September 29th, 2008 at 10:00AM
Where: In Front of the Oregonian’s Office
1320 SW Broadway (SW Jefferson and Broadway)

Portland, OR, September 28, 2008 –The Good Faith Coalition, Center for Intercultural Organizing and others plan a press conference and demonstration in response to the Oregonian’s decision to circulate a hate-mongering and Muslim bashing DVD on Sunday. The video, titled “Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West,” resembles an educational DVD, but is actually hate filled, racist and an anti-Muslim propaganda tool wielding fear and hatred, and its national release appears strategically timed to influence America’s vote. The Oregonian, Oregon's only major newspaper, refused to officially respond to a broad based community request to postpone distribution of the subject DVD.

This highly inaccurate DVD depicts Muslims as terrorists and as a rising threat. The Oregonian circulated the DVD this Sunday as a paid advertisement from a group called The Clarion Fund. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Greensboro News & Record, the Detroit Free Press and the Cincinnati Enquirer have already taken a moral stand by refusing to distribute this unbalanced, politically motivated DVD. Regrettably, the Oregonain did not make this decision.

“Obsession” will hit over 28 million homes this month in battleground states in the midst of an election already loaded with slurs, innuendos and backpedaling on human rights and civil liberties issues. In addition to inflaming passions in order to influence votes, the film’s release also crassly exploits the strong emotions associated with the seventh anniversary of September 11, 2001.

This film will not contribute anything to lives of Oregonians, in fact, it is contrary to Oregon values and to Portland’s ideals of “equity and accessibility” and “diversity and inclusion” as articulated by the 17,000 people who participated in the city’s visioning project, and which were later codified by the creation of an Office of Human Relations and a Human Rights Commission. Oregon’s Muslim community, religious leaders of many faiths, civic leaders and many peace-loving Oregonians are deeply offended the timing of the DVD’s release only a few days prior to Eid-ul-Fitr, the end of holy month of Ramadan, where Muslim Oregonians will gather in a public arena—and also within a few days of the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah.

The rally will take place Monday, September 29th, outside of the Oregonian’s Office at 1320 SW Broadway (SW Broadway and Jefferson) at 10:00 AM.

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