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  • arab reaction to Farenheit 9/11

    yahoo news











    'Fahrenheit 9/11' Provokes Arab Reactions

    1 hour, 55 minutes ago Add Top Stories - AP to My Yahoo!


    By DONNA ABU-NASR, Associated Press Writer

    BEIRUT, Lebanon - Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" is provoking strong Arab reaction. Kuwait banned it, Jordan tried to cut it, Syria has not decided, and Saudi commentators are denouncing it.



    Many Arab moviegoers say with a twinge of envy that they wish the region, where free speech is for the most part restricted, had its own Moore. Some say it reinforces their bad image of the United States and shows Americans what their own media does not.


    A few believe Moore is unfair to President Bush (news - web sites) and British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites).


    "When he condemned the war in Iraq (news - web sites) ... he pictured it this way: Baghdad was happy and safe until cowboys Bush and Blair came," Saudi columnist Reem al-Saleh wrote in Kuwait's Al-Siyassah daily.


    "He ignored 30 years of muscle-flexing invasions, villages massacred by chemical weapons ... millions of bodies, and mass graves. He has no right to hide the full truth."


    Saddam invaded Kuwait in 1990 and was driven out by the U.S.-led 1991 Gulf War (news - web sites). Many Kuwaitis are grateful to the United States and enduringly suspicious of Saddam.


    Gianluca Chacra, whose Dubai-based company released the film in the Middle East, said attendance is at blockbuster proportions.


    "We were quite scared that due to the Saudi content it might not pass," Chacra said.


    In the United Arab Emirates, the information minister, in an unusual step, asked to see it first, then approved it. In Jordan, the censors insisted the Saudi content be cut, Chacra said. They later took the film to "higher authorities," who OK'd it in full, he added.


    Kuwait banned the film on the spot, Chacra said. He did not bother showing it to the censors in Saudi Arabia, where there are no movie theaters, only videos.


    The movie is playing in the remaining four Gulf Cooperation Council countries. In Syria, Yousef Dakalbab, head of distribution at the government-run Public Cinema Organization, said the film "may be shown or may be banned."


    "Fahrenheit 9/11" is playing in Lebanon and Israel and will open in Egypt later this month.


    Emerging from a Beirut theater, 22-year-old student Shafiq Nassif said the film showed dead and mutilated Iraqis that Americans do not see much of on their TV screens.


    "It's good that Americans can get to see this," he said.


    For Radwan Rizk, a 47-year-old Lebanese gym owner, the message was double-edged: Moore's presentation shook his idea of American democracy, yet reinforced it, too.


    "I hope that we can come to a point where we can criticize our own governments the way he did — freely," Rizk said.


    Dalal el-Bizri, a Lebanese sociologist based in Cairo, Egypt, warned that the movie "should not be allowed to reinforce the hatred that people feel for America."





    "If you have a problem with the United States, hatred will not solve it," she said.

    In Cairo, 28-year-old Noha Sayed Al-Ahl, who runs an arts and culture advocacy group, did not find the film tendentious.

    Moore "used real footage and facts to support his point of view and used as much proof as possible to back up his claims. If he hadn't, somebody would have taken him to court," she said. "He really cares about America and the foreign policies of America and is brave enough to speak his mind and interpret events in an alternative way."

    In a Beirut gym, two women in their 40s discussed the movie as they worked out.

    "I loved the movie because it showed that Bush was a partner in terrorism through his dealings with the Saudis and (Osama) bin Laden's family," said Sana Rafeh, a preschool teacher.

    Housewife Rabab Itani said Moore's take on terrorism was too narrow.

    "There are Arabs and Muslims dying from America's policies every day and not only because of the Bush-Saudi connection," she said.

    Many said the funniest parts were those depicting Bush, but Jordanian Tareq Khalil said he still believes "America is the most powerful country in the world and Bush is the strongest man."

    Sulaiman al-Hattlan, a U.S.-educated Saudi columnist for the Al-Watan newspaper, said Moore lacked objectivity, and made too much of the U.S. Saudi relationship.

    "The movie is using the Saudis as scapegoats for domestic, political issues in the U.S.," he said.

    Still, al-Hattlan enjoyed "Fahrenheit 9/11."

    "In every Arab country we need one Michael Moore or more," he said.

    ___
    "I'm like Tupac: Who can stop me?"

  • #2
    Ignorance being shown to ignorance.

    It's going to be a major problem.
    Experienced Community organizer. Yeah, let's choose him to run the free world. It will be historic. What could possibly go wrong...

    "You're just a jaded cynical mother****er...." Jeffpeg

    (more comments in my User Profile)
    russbo.com


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    • #3
      I disagree totally. If it can spark a dialogue in the arab community it could be a big helping in fighting terrorism. There's more than one way to skin a cat. I thought it was a good movie. It showed america warts and all, okay just warts and magnified ten times. If an arab "michael moore" were to make a movie like this about Iran it would be a million times worse. Some of the arab countries won't even allow the movie to be shown. Do you think it's because they like Bush so much?? No, it's because it slanders the saudis (who obviously deserve it ) and becaue the whole idea of the film is extremely dangerous to them and their regimes. Even great men deserve to be "roasted" occasionally. and Bush is not a great man. He's pretty much a retarded man. As far as Moores defense of rachael Corrie, it'sa a legitamate political position. I don't think she had any business standing in fron of that bulldozer, but there wouldn't have been a bulldozer if Sharon and arafat weren't such crappy leaders.
      "I'm like Tupac: Who can stop me?"

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      • #4
        I think arafat is a worse leader than Sharon, that's for sure. But my point was that there are two sides to the story there and it's a shame that the girl died. Particularly if it's an american being killed by the authorities of another country.


        I haven't read rushdies book, but i have a little familiarity with the satanic verse themselves. http://muhammadanism.org/Quran/SatanicVerses.htm
        "I'm like Tupac: Who can stop me?"

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        • #5
          Re: Re: arab reaction to Farenheit 9/11

          Originally posted by dogchow108

          "In every Arab country we need one Michael Moore or more," he said.


          I wonder if this person realized what he's asking for.
          Probably not. But this is one of the things that makes a democracy noisy. Not only do you get to state your opinion, you get to listen to the opinions of those you DON'T agree with.

          Mark
          Karate/Jujutsu at Akron Shaw JCC

          Comment


          • #6
            Allegedly, plato asserted that predjudice was a direct result of people voicing differing opinions to each other. Maybe we should all just agree not to talk about religion with others........ maybe not.

            Frankly I think its interesting to see the middle eastern response to this film, and I'm glad people in the middle east are coming to realize that americans don't all fall into one extreme. No, we have at least two extremes and everything in between.
            Show me a man who has forgotten words, so that I can have a word with him.

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            • #7
              Some of them seem to have a similar opinion to conservitives here, like the line about how Moore depicts Iraq during saddam as a happy place. Personally, I thought that was one of the edgier parts of the film. I think when we think of "Iraq under Saddam" we get this image of literal hell. I'm sure at times it was, but it's not like they were being whipped walking around one of those big cranks and if they stopped they got thrown into some big hole. But we have nothing to hide as americans. Even if the stupidity of our president is blown out of porportion and focused on with a microscope, so anyone in a dictatorship can see any american movie they want. it can only help us in the end
              "I'm like Tupac: Who can stop me?"

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