[lit-ideas] Passion and "the Arab world"
- From: JulieReneB@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 6 Apr 2004 15:11:21 EDT
Here's another disturbing phenomenon that hasn't been discussed much here. I
was kind of wondering when we would hear from this area of the world on the
subject.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=493&e=11&u=/ap/arabs_and__pass
ion
Gibson's 'The Passion' a Hit Among Arabs
Mon Apr 5, 1:35 AM ET
By NADIA ABOU EL-MAGD, Associated Press Writer
CAIRO, Egypt - Hanan Nsour, a veiled, 21-year-old Muslim in Jordan, came out
of "The Passion of the Christ" in tears and pronounced her verdict: Mel Gibson
(news)'s crucifixion epic "unmasked the Jews' lies and I hope that everybody,
everywhere, turns against the Jews."
The Quran, though, says Jesus's crucifixion never happened.
Such are the contradictions that are welling up as the Arab world deals with
"The Passion," even as the film draws large audiences in Jordan, Syria,
Lebanon and other Arab countries that have approved it for screening.
In the Arab world, openly voiced anti-Semitism â?? and by extension the warm
reception for "The Passion" â?? is bound up in the Arab conflict with Israel.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (news - web sites), after watching the film at
his compound in the West Bank, was quoted by an aide as likening Jesus'
suffering to the Palestinians'.
When the 1998 animated movie "Prince of Egypt" reached Cairo, censors banned
it. One reason given: Islam reveres Moses as a prophet, and many Muslims
recoil at seeing their prophets portrayed as flesh-and-blood characters.
Jesus is also a prophet to the Muslims, yet "The Passion" was OK'd by Egypt's
censors with no changes. They have not explained why "The Passion" was
allowed.
Governments and Islamic clerics are also sending mixed signals.
Kuwait bans any movies depicting any of the prophets recognized by Islam, but
one of its top Shiite clerics, Ayatollah Mohammed Baqer al-Mehri, has urged
an exception for "The Passion" because it "reveals crimes committed by Jews
against Christ." The government has not yet made a decision on his call.
The dean of Kuwait University's Islamic Law College, Mohammed al-Tabtabai,
has ordered Muslims to shun "The Passion" on the grounds that Jesus is a
prophet.
In Jordan, a leader of the hard-line Islamic Action Front says Muslims should
read the Quran or pray instead of watching movies, but he doesn't mind "The
Passion" being screened in his country.
"The Jews are the most upset with the movie because it reveals their crimes
against the prophets, the reformers and whoever contradicts their opinions,"
Hamza Mansoor said.
And in Egypt, the head of a department at Al-Azhar University that often
advises the censors on these matters also is taking a hands-off approach.
"My understanding is that it is about the last 12 hours in the life of the
Christ, which involve Christians and Jews. Muslims have nothing to do with
that," said Sheik Abdel Zaher Mohammed Abdel-Razeq.
The Quran, Islam's holy book, is unequivocal in sura (chapter) 4, verse 157:
"They said 'We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah' â??
but they killed him not, nor crucified him. But so it was made to appear to
them. And those who differ therein are full of doubts with no knowledge, but
only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they killed him not."
Muslims believe another man was crucified in Jesus's place.
Many in the West accuse director Gibson of reviving the Jews-killed-Christ
claim that has stoked anti-Semitism through the ages.
"The Passion" is also being welcomed by the Middle East's Christian
communities. Some Egyptian churches and Christian bookshops were selling
pirated
versions of "The Passion" for less than a dollar even before the film opened
here.
In the United Arab Emirates, a Gulf News editorial extolled the film for
being "so close to the human condition in its depiction of betrayal, greed,
falsehood, forgiveness and love. As Pope John Paul (news - web sites) II has
put it,
`It is as it was!'"
The Vatican (news - web sites) denies the pope ever endorsed the movie with
those words, and kept out of the controversy. But Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir,
head of the Maronite church in Lebanon, waded right in.
"It is not exaggerated and portrays reality as it is. It is a very sad film
and we did not feel there was any anti-Semitism there," Sfeir told reporters
after watching the film at a private screening.
Part of the film is spoken in Aramaic, an ancient language still spoken by a
small minority in Syria.
Salim Abraham, 37, a Christian journalist who speaks fluent Aramaic, said: "I
was so very happy to see my language, for the first time ever, being spoken
on the big screen and in such a powerful movie."
"I think there is nothing anti-Semitic in it," Abraham added. "It gives the
facts as they are, though they may be slightly exaggerated in some instances."
>>
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