BINGO!
Remember all shiite threw at him by the 'jewish community' before Passion Of The Christ was even released or a trailer shown (maybe even while still in production, can't recall that part.) That was outright religious BIGOTRY, PREJUDICE and HATE.
Unfortunately Christians (and Catholics) don't have any storm trooper org like the ADL scrounging around for every perceived slight and then to attack in high dudgeon with bullshit accusations on every news show they can get their puss on to play their role as perpetual victim. (run on sentence rant - off)
Why the quotes around "jewish community?"
I have said it before and I'll say it again. Mel is a master at ginning up interest in his projects, even it means cynically using the Jewish community. HE is the one who rolled his film out by showing it to Christian groups first. HE is the one who generated controversy around the film. By the time trailers were being shown in theaters many people had already seen the film in screenings. And some - Jewish and not Jewish - didn't like it. He is also the one by the way (or his people) who claimed the Vatican had put in it's blessing on the film, and that was a lie. Mel created pre-release hype and them whined about people judging the film before they saw it. Give me a break.
AND - he proved the critics of The Passion right, when he went on his tirade again Jews.
And I thought the film stunk, as did others. Just because Mel made a film about Christ does not inoculate him against critics. He (and some here) acts as if any bad review is an affront to his brand of Christianity, which by the way, is idiosyncratic and not fully mainstream.