Posted on 06/08/2008 9:41:11 AM PDT by A_perfect_lady
Egyptian actor Omar Sharif — best known for his film roles in Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago — reportedly blasted U.S. policy in Iraq and said Americans are ignorant.
According to The Middle East Media Research Institute, Sharif said the "East" will never have a democracy because people like him "prefer to go to the neighborhood sheik." MEMRI —a Middle Eastern press monitoring organization — posted an interview of Sharif that aired on the Al-Hayat TV network.
"I lived in America for a long time. Only 10% of all Americans have a passport. In other words, 90% never left America," said Sharif. "They don't know anything."
Sharif said that he spoke with President Bush before the beginning of the Iraq War and told him that Arab nations are made up of sects resistant to becoming democratized.
"I said to Bush, even before he entered Iraq: Forget about all that. We, the Arabs... We are not like [regular countries]," said Sharif. "You will drown there.
After being asked what Bush's response was, the actor stated: "He didn't believe me."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
At any one time. That is not the same as only 10% have ever had a passport.
In the US, I've driven for hours at 70 and been in the same county. All day at 70 and still in the same state. Some exits out west are 50 miles apart. In Europe, you can drive a couple of hundred miles and have been in three or four nations. So, the increase in EU passport rates isn't so much a function of far flung travel, as much as tiny little countries.
Arabs produce not world class good or service.
The Arabs do not have one, single world class university.
600 million Arabs( Including Saudi Arabia, UAR, Bahrain,etc) have a combined GDP equal to Finland, or New York state.
So, factually, Arabs are lazy, unproductive, ignorant, poor and stupid.
Some Arabs become actors.
I agree as well. I think it is actually arrogant to think that we are going to force “democracy” everywhere in the world. It also ignores, as others have pointed out, that democracy is innate to a particular culture. We are not “Western” just as a result of living in the United States.
Omar is a racist. He should be caned by his local sheik.
How the hell did Sharif get an audience with President Bush?
Here we Americans are, our culture, our success, our mirculous relative harmony, and our parents and most of our values -- all of it the product of 4000 or so generations of societites living, at least striving toward abiding by Judeo-Christian foundations. Christianity exists for a reason. Ultimately it's got to come down to declaring a Judeo-Christian right to reject others who would impose their ethic against it. The cool thing about it is that you don't get your head chopped off if you don't believe in Christ, if you consider all religion a bunch of hokum. Fine if you want -- just abide by the ethic is all that's asked. Respect others as you would like to be respected yourself. We must be overtly Christian warriors to succeed. Yet American liberalism has villainized Judeo-Christian identity.
Nationalism is a 19th Century European invention, rooted in romanticism. Before then, we had multi-ethnic states ruled by monarchs who often spoke languages different from their subjects.
To paraphrase Laura I. -—”shut up and play bridge”.
Calling Omar Sharif an “acting great” is a large overstatement: he was in one great movie, DOCTOR ZHIVAGO, in a foolproof part, and was memorable in LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, playing a character who, as it now seems,reading this and seeing that he converted to Islam at 24, 10 years before L. of A., was pretty much himself. I can still see him screaming at T.E. Lawrence, (O’Toole)-—”ENGLISH BLASPHEMER!!!
After a while I think these actors start to forget the difference between pretending to be a character and actually being that character. Maybe this is why their self images are out of sync with reality and inclining toward delusion.
You are right. And this Republic made some success of nationalism because it was founded on and committed to such romantic things as "ideals and principles".
Having been an actor, I can tell you that actors have a notoriously troubling occupational hazard, a perpetually endangered “sense of self”, in the area of identity as it’s known and felt by non-actors-—their very success is determined by how well they can convey BEING SOMEONE ELSE, how far they’re willing to go into other identities, over and over and over, (assuming they get the golden opportunities to do it over and over and over).Knowing what kind of round-the-clock schedule is sometimes required for both movies and television, it’s a wonder they have much time to develop their own personalities.
Peter Sellers was a prime example of this: a genius performer, but failure as father and husband, out of touch with and bored with “himself”, that self having become like a character he didn’t get a chance to play.
The old actor has gone from marking the tress with his urine to marking the tops of his shoes with the same. The alpha male by the name of Omar Sharif is nothing more than a distant memory saved on celluloid.
good points!
re: Peter Sellers, he did get to sleep with Britt Eklund, inspiring envy in many men to this day (but he sure did not know how to be a good husband & father, did he?).
It is a VERY big world and many, many different places and things to see. It is extremely important to get a feel and understanding of other folks.
It’s true. It requires time for a culture to reach a point where they are psychologically prepared to run a democratic system. You need responsibility, ‘asabiyyah, experience - none of which Arabs have. That goes for Israel too.
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