Nov. 3--CEDAR RAPIDS -- Imam Taha Tawil watched just a portion of a DVD he calls "hate material" before he had to turn it off.

"I couldn't watch it all. It just made me upset and sick to my stomach," said Tawil, imam of the Mother Mosque of North America, 1339 Ninth St. NW.

Tawil watched part of the DVD, "Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West," sent out to 28 million Americans by a group of clergy calling themselves the JudeoChristian View. In the DVD and its companion, a DVD on "same-sex unions and child sacrifice," the group links Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama, samesex marriage and abortion to militant Islam.

Tawil said the group is using voters' fears and uncertainty to sway votes for Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain using material that will damage the Muslim community at large.

"Generally speaking, this DVD could damage us because of the hate material that they are circulating," Tawil said. "Maybe people will not believe it, but it is still like a piece of mud. You take it off the wall, but the mark is still there." Tawil expressed his fears during the Inter-Religious Council of Linn County's meeting last week.

The Rev. Tom Capo, of Peoples Church Unitarian Universalist, 600 Third Ave. SE, said he received a copy of the DVD but planned to throw it away. After hearing Tawil's concerns, he volunteered to watch the DVD and report back to the council.

"I was watching it and I was thinking, 'OK, they're setting me up for something, like they're saying we're not bad people but here's some information,' " Capo said. "Then it just got progressively worse and worse, and I became more disturbed by the messages that were being given.

"They took a lot of images from the most aversive terrorists and splashed them through this," he said. "By the time I was finished with it, I was frightened to death. I had to come back to my rational mind and say, 'This is just propaganda.' "

-- Contact the writer: (319) 398-8288 or molly.rossiter@gazcomm.com

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