Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: J_F_Shepard who wrote (561539)	4/7/2004 9:32:40 PM
From: Emile Vidrine	Respond to of 769670

Arabs flock to Mel's Passion while Jews fume By Miral Fahmy Dubai, IOL, April 6, 2004 "Mel Gibson's The Passion Of The Christ is flouting Islamic taboos and making history in the Arab world, largely thanks to a Jewish uproar that heightened interest in the controversial movie. Film critics said the Jewish outcry at the film seems to have encouraged conservative Arab governments to break their strict censorship rules and allow The Passion to be aired uncut. The graphic film about Jesus Christ's crucifixion has been packing theatres since it was released last week in a region where Jews have become synonymous with Israel and anger at Israel's occupation of Arab land runs deep. "It is clearly a backlash to the claims by Jewish lobbies that this film is bad," said Alfred Mutua, a Dubai film director and university professor. "And anything Jews say is bad becomes interesting in this part of the world, it sells easily." Egyptian film critic Mahmoud Darwish agreed. "The censors think the film is anti-Semitic, that's why they're treating it differently," he said in remarks published in Arab newspapers. Large Christian minorities in Egypt and Lebanon have helped make the film a box-office smash but Muslims too are flocking to the cinema as Muslim clerics remain surprisingly uncritical. Islam prohibits the flesh-and-blood portrayal of holy figures - Muslims, Jewish or Christian - and says Jesus was not crucified nor is he the Son of God. The region's powerful Islamic clergy also make sure their governments ban books and art seen as blasphemous. Yet despite these restrictions, only a few countries such as Kuwait and Bahrain have banned The Passion. In Egypt, Qatar, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, the film has broken box office records, according to its distributor. Even in Saudi Arabia, where cinemas do not exist, Riyadh newspapers reported bootleg copies of The Passion were selling fast in the kingdom which practises an austere version of Islam. Egypt's Al Azhar, Sunni Islam's top religious institution, has not spoken out against the film even though it often makes authorities ban literature and films it deems unholy. "We don't agree with the film, but Al Azhar is not a censorship body," said Ali el-Samman, vice president of committee of dialogue with monotheistic religions. Palestinian priest Iyad Twal said the Jews' rejection of The Passion had made Palestinians want to see it. Palestinians are waging an uprising against Israeli occupation and their battle is a highly-emotive issue for Arabs. Jewish groups in the United States and Europe had tried to ban the film, charging that the graphic depiction of Jesus' suffering and death unjustly portrayed Jews as his killers and could whip up anti-Jewish hatred. But many Arabs said they did not think the film was anti-Semitic, but just an accurate portrayal of Jesus' death. In Kuwait, a top Shi'a Muslim cleric Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer al-Mohri, urged his government to lift the ban on the film saying it exposed the role of Jews in killing Jesus. And at a cinema in Jordan, which has a large Palestinian population, many viewers left the film angry and in tears. Government officials adamantly deny their decision to allow the screening of The Passion had anything to do with politics but analysts say it would probably not have been released if Arab-Israeli tensions were not running high. "The film contradicts Islam but if it had come at a different political climate, it would not have been showed," said analyst Moghazy al-Badrawy."