I never seem to know where the line is about what is ok and what is not. Compare and contrast:
Not OK:
A "game [that] consists of cards that contain devilish phrases, sketches and shameful pictures". (I'm guessing that the game is Vampire: The Eternal Struggle, but only because Googling "Struggle Card" doesn't yield much else.)
OK:
The movie "Hell Boy", which I bought at Carrefour last year (one word review: meh). It is slap full of occult images and phrases. Also OK, "Ghost Rider", in which Nicholas Cage plays the devil's bounty hunter. This film was just being shown a few weeks ago in theaters here.
Not OK:
Any depiction of Muhammad.
OK:
Mogan Freeman, playing God on screen, in Evan Almighty (scheduled to open 2 August).
Not OK:
Michelle Malkin's blog, blocked by the UAE proxy server.
OK:
Little Green Footballs, a website that has been frequently been charged with being anti-Arab and anti-Muslim. It is not blocked by the proxy.
Leave aside any arguments for the rightness or wrongness of any of these decisions, because that is not my point. I'm only saying that it has to be hard for people like the owner of the shop in that first story to know absolutely if these cards are OK or not.
This blog began as a description of our life in Al Ain, UAE (United Arab Emirates). Brn worked at the UAE University Libraries Deanship for three years and Bss homeschooled our four children, D, B, P, and O. After returning to the the USA for five years, we are living in Abu Dhabi now.
4 comments:
In "Bruce Almighty" every single scene with Morgan Freeman was cut out when it was shown in UAE cinemas. I never saw it (can't bear Jim Carrey) so I have no clue if it still made sense or not.
It will be interesting to see if they do the same with "Evan Almighty".
Oh and re the fervour against the depiction of Mohammed: I have heard (devout) Muslims criticise this as idolatry. The same with the Qu'ran being revered as a physical object. Their point is that only God is divine and worthy of actual worship: one is supposed to respect Mohammed but not actually worship him.
The depiction of Mohammed in a negative way is obviously seen as deeply disrespectful, but is it haram? Only if the depiction of all human beings is haram, which some interpret that it is.
But the depiction of God by Morgan Freeman would obviously be haram and deeply offensive to many.
I didn't think Bruce Almighty made sense with those scenes, so it couldn't have been any worse. Actually, it probably would have been better if they had cut the Jim Carrey scenes and left the Morgan Freeman ones in.
I don't know if they will show those scenes either, but I have seen the trailer twice before other movies, and there Morgan is on screen, 10 meters tall, announcing "I am God".
Some of the statements and attitudes that I saw during the past unpleasantness seemed somewhat like idolatry to me, but then I think the same things about Catholics with their statues of the saints.
I don't know if you know the story about the movie "The Message" (aka "Mohammad, Messenger of God"). The director/producer Moustapha Akkad, never shows Muhammad or his companions, but still some Black Muslims in the US took hostages and demanded that the film not be shown. Akkad was killed in a terrorist bombing in Jordan two years ago.
I like Jim Carrey, not that I think he is a great actor, he is good at making silly noises & contorting his body for comic effect.
Anyway, it has been reported Evan Almighty has raised Islamic hackles though at the moment I can not recall exactly where.
As far as Catholics and our "worship" of the saints I can understand why people believe that, as many of my co-religionists (I am a practicing Catholic) do get carried away when it comes to images of saints. However, the Church instructs us to view the saints as close friends of God and we are asking God's close friends to talk to God on our behalf.
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