Posted on 05/12/2005 8:01:08 AM PDT by jb6
Via LGF, we learn that the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has given its seal of approval to Ridley Scott's new Crusader epic, Kingdom of Heaven. Unindicted spokesman for CAIR: "Muslims are shown as dignified & proud people whose lives are based on ethics & morality." Who is CAIR?
Founded 1994 by former officials of Islamic Association for Palestine, Hamas front group. Exec. Director Nihad Awad declared himself Hamas supporter in 1994. Cofounder Omas Ahmad praised suicide bombers & said "Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faiths, but to become dominant."
CAIR advisory board member Siraj Wahhaj: named as coconspirator in plot to blow up NY landmarks. At large
CAIR fundraiser Radih Haddad: co-founder of Global Relief Foundation, shut down by US on terror charges. Deported
Community relations director Bassem Khafagi: pled guilty on immigration & bank-fraud charges. Deported.
Randall Todd Royer, communications specialist at CAIR HQ: pled guilty to belonging to terrorist group & illegally acquiring firearms & explosives for terrorist missions. Sentenced to 20 years
Ghassen Elashi, founding member of Texas chapter: convicted of conspiracy & money-laundering in connection with shipment of high-technology items to Syria & Libya; recently convicted of sending money to Hamas leader Mousa Harbook
Given its pedigree, it's ironic that CAIR pitched a fit over TV show 24's portrayal of actual Muslim terrorists in the US. But the PC police are very powerful in Hollywood. For the film version of Tom Clancy's Sum of All Fears, the villains were changed from Palestinian terrorists to neo-Nazis. For this year's The Interpreter, the villains' home was moved from the Middle East to Africa.
Barry Unsworth's novel Sacred Hunger included an English slave ship bartering for slaves with African slave merchants. This is historically accurate: when the Portuguese arrived in Africa, Arabs had been trading for African slaves for 1000 years. Yet Hollywood film backers said they would not fund the movie version if it showed black slave traders. Spielberg's Amistad omitted the fact that the slave Cinque returned to Africa & became a wealthy slaver himself.
Perhaps CAIR liked Kingdom of Heaven because the filmmakers already excised scenes of Muslim warriors spitting on the True Cross & other unacceptable material after a Muslim professor complained. (No doubt this editing was coincidental.)
Ghassan Massoud, who plays Saladin, said he wouldn't participate in any film (or scene - he demanded changes) that perpetuated negative stereotypes of Muslims, & wanted to show the 'facets' of Saladin: "Saladin fights battles, but he also enters into dialogue. We want to show that dialogue can be much better than war. Today, America has overwhelming force but it is as if they don't want to build a dialogue."
Writer Paul Williams notes that Saladin's facets included ordering mass beheadings of prisoners & selling others as slaves.
A NY Times piece on the film notes "Muslims are portrayed as bent on coexistence until Christian extremists ruin everything." Coexistence: the First Crusade was launched in 1096. Prior to that, Muslims conquered Syria (635), Palestine (638), Persia (642), Eqypt (642), North Africa (642-698), Kabul (711), the Indus region (712), Samarkand (712), Spain (712), Toulouse (721), Kyrgyzstan (751, Chinese army defeated), & Armenia (1071).
Muslim expansion into Europe was only stopped when the French defeated them at Tours (732). Someone should tell French actress Eva Green, who says, "It's not like a stupid Hollywood movie. It's a movie with substance. I hope it will wake up people in America ... to be more tolerant, more open toward the Arab people."
Ridley Scott: "I am trying to get across the fact that not everybody in the West is a good guy, & not all Muslims are bad."
Advance review: "It's as disposable as they come. It's led by an actor who has no business leading films like this, Orlando Bloom. When he shares the screen with such proven talents as Jeremy Irons, Brendan Gleeson & David Thewlis he's just unable to hold his own. It's just another failed attempt to add to the pile of instantly forgettable blockbusters."
UPDATE: Zombietime has good post on the politics surrounding the making of Kingdom of Heaven. Interestingly, he links news items noting bomb threats on the Moroccan set, because elsewhere Ridley Scott denies this: "I have been asked, Weren't you threatened? Absolutely not. That's the tabloid press in Europe spreading stories & they are the worst thing."
Anti-CAIR.org; Censorship Then & Now; Complete Idiot's Guide to Crusades; Eva Green: Frog of the Month
Posted by Jeff at April 28, 2005 12:26 PM
This movie is already forgotten.
Posted by: Confederate Yankee at April 28, 2005 02:54 PM
Man right on the head! Excellent!
It is true that after the Arab conquest of Jerusalem, the new rulers allowed the conquered people to practice their faith. However it is also true that a caliph built the Dome of the Rock over the remains of the old Jewish temple denying Jews access to that most holy site for them. The Crusades themselves did not appear in a vacuum. It was an Arab ruler in Jerusalem that decided to tear down Christian holy places and deny pilgrims access to them. Apologist for this ruler now always say that he was mad and his successor did away with his mad dictates, but that doesn’t change the fact that Pope Urban II in Rome (or France when he gave his speech) would not feel that these thing could be done again.
Posted by: John at April 28, 2005 04:19 PM
You have lost your American audience Scott thanks to your distortion and history rewrite. Mooslims will love it. "Two dollah matinee...Two dollah....Two dollah"!
Much thanks is owed to Charles Martel who prevented the Muslims from extending from Spain into France. If not for him, France and all of western Europe might be Islamic today.
Thats good, 'cause I refuse to be an audience for any PC fairy tales starring this anti American POS Ghassan Massoud.
The Hindu Kush or Hindukush (هندوکش in Persian) is a mountain range in Afghanistan as well as in the Northern Areas of Pakistan. It is the westernmost extension of the Pamir Mountains, the Karakoram Range, and the Himalaya. It was previously known as the Caucasus Indicus, a name given to it by the ancient Greeks, who ruled the Hindu Kush region for centuries (see Seleucid Empire and Greco-Bactrian.)
Nomenclature
The origin of the term Hindu Kush (and whether it translates as "Indian Killer") is a point of contention. Numerous possibilities have been put forward, and several are listed here:
* that the name is a corruption of "Caucasus Indicus."
* In modern Persian, the word "Kush" is derived from the verb Kushtan -- to defeat, kill, or subdue. This could be interpreted as a memorial to the Indian captives who perished in the mountains while being transported to Central Asian slave markets. Encyclopaedia Americana says of Hindu Kush: "The name means literally "Kills the Hindu," a reminder of the days when slaves from the Indian subcontinent died in harsh Afghan mountains while being transported to Muslim courts of Central Asia." (disputed — see talk page)
* that the name refers to the last great 'killer' mountains to cross when moving between the Afghan plateau and the Indian subcontinent, named after the toll it took on anyone crossing them;
* that the name is a corruption of Hindu Koh, from the (modern) Persian word Kuh, meaning mountain;
* that the name means Mountains of India or Mountains of the Indus in some of the Iranian languages that are still spoken in the region; that furthermore, many peaks, mountains, and related places in the region have "Kosh" or "Kush" in their names.
* that the name is a posited Avestan appellation meaning "water mountains."
The Hindu Sanskrit name of the Hindu Kush is Pāriyatra Parvat.
It should be noted that the word Hindu originally referred to any inhabitant of the Indian subcontinent, or Hind, not followers of the religion as it does now.
The mountain peaks in the eastern part of Afghanistan reach more than 7,000 metres. The highest, in Pakistan, is Tirich Mir at 7,705 m (cf. Mount Everest in Nepal which stands 8,850 m high). The Pamir mountains, which Afghans refer to as the "Roof of the World", extend into Tajikistan, China and Kashmir.
Posted by: Redwraith at May 6, 2005 07:20 AM
Almost as bad as that worthless King Author rewrite from last year. Only the battle scenes were good.
"Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faiths, but to become dominant."
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Islam just keeps getting uglier by the day. Somewhere, at some time, we are facing a major confrontation with their ideology, even worse than today.
Well damn, lets get this ball rolling already and get it over with. I'm tired of this: they hit us and we pretend not to care.
I wish you were right. I belong to a Lord of the Rings Trilogy fan group because I loved Tolkien's (a devout Christian) parables of good and evil. But you would not believe how many of our younger and less literary members are going to see Kindom of Heaven because of "Orli", who was one of, if not THE, least talented actors in the trilogy. And those that do see this movie will take it as historical fact. This also happened with the movie Troy, which butchered Homer. I am praying this propanda, which belongs up there with Farhenheit 911, will be quickly forgotten, but not before it will bring in good box office and misinform millions of young viewers. Shame on Ridley Scott.
whoa....didn't know that ..thanks
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