Actor Omar Sharif: "The Middle east Will Never Be Democratized"

FOX News, MEMRI-TV ^ | 6/9/08 | FOX News

[hoagy62]

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.

[hoagy62]

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."

[politicalwit]

posted here http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2027918/posts

[prolifefirst]

“He knew that that well was mine.”

[whitedog57]

I love the media.

“Let’s ask a washed-up actor for his opinions on the future of the middle east!”

Even if he is correct, who cares what Omar has to say? Let’s ask Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon and the creep from Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

[saganite]

Hmm. He must have overlooked Israel!

[Rippin]

The credentials of this bridge player are primarily that He is not a Republican President.

[ClearCase_guy]

To accept this type of thinking is to buy into some genetically-based racist view of people from the Middle East. I don't buy it.

Everyone started out as a tribe of some kind. Look at the German barbarians, or the Celts of France and Britain. Naked tribesmen going off to war, coming back with severed heads. Later on, they produced Goethe, Beethoven and Shakepeare.

The Arabs have spent too long in the 8th century, but they are not condemned to be there forever. They just need to be shown the way forward.

[LibLieSlayer]

screw sharif and the camel he rode in on. Perhaps he is right... perhaps arabs are too stupid NOT to have someone controlling their every move.

LLS

[isrul]

The man has a point. Real secular democracy is anathema to mainstream Islam.

[Oldexpat]

Seems to me he has been proved dead wrong..since a vast majority of the people in Iraq and Afghanistan turned out for the elections. Higher than here. The insurgents and terrorists are still in the vast minority and dying fast.
There is no lack of interest in democracy in these places, but there sure is in Hollywood and DC.
So if you think democracy is a bad deal for you..I’ll give you a list of hell holes that operate by your rules.
Ingrate.

[GiovannaNicoletta]

What’s Omar trying to say? That the Arabs are too primitive and barbaric to live like civilized human beings?

[Resolute Conservative]

Let’s nuke from orbit, just to make sure...

[isrul]

"They just need to be shown the way forward. "

And that means what? Abandon the murderous, ideological cult they have embraced for centuries? Good luck with that.

[AlaskaErik]

I believe him and agree with him. There is something fundamentally wrong with muslims. They are not capable of living in an open and free society. Nor should they be forced to.

[isrul]

No. But mainstream Moslems are.

[wideawake]

Omar Sharif was born Michel Shalhoub in Alexandria, Egypt and raised a Roman Catholic by his wealthy parents who sent him to the elite Victoria College boarding school.

He converted to Islam when he was 23 and changed his name so that his Egyptian celebrity wife would not lose popularity.

He's spent most of his adult life in England and France. He now claims to be an atheist.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

The turnout in the Iraq elections should dispel this theory.

[BigCinBigD]

“Let’s nuke from orbit, just to make sure...”

That would be my first thought as well.

[Tailback]

Everyone started out as a tribe of some kind. Look at the German barbarians, or the Celts of France and Britain. Naked tribesmen going off to war, coming back with severed heads. Later on, they produced Goethe, Beethoven and Shakepeare.

Outstanding point! If you don't mind I'm going to save that paragraph and use it in the future. I would like to add the tribes of Israel.

So what was the force that changed this tribalism into something else? I would say it was Greek Philosophy and scientific method combined with Judeo/Christian values.

[FlipWilson]

No, he is trying to say that so long as one arab fights another, they will be a small people, greedy, barbarous and cruel. . . or something to that effect.