Belangwekkende informatie over Kingdom of Heaven, de nieuwe
film van Ridley Scott over de Kruistochten die aanstaande donderdag bij ons in
première gaat.
Sir Ridley Scott, the Oscar-nominated director, was savaged by senior
British academics last night over his forthcoming film which they say
“distorts” the history of the Crusades to portray Arabs in a favourable light.
The £75 million film, which stars Orlando Bloom, Jeremy Irons and Liam Neeson,
is described by the makers as being “historically accurate” and designed to be
“a fascinating history lesson". Academics, however - including Professor
Jonathan Riley-Smith, Britain’s leading authority on the Crusades - attacked
the plot of Kingdom of Heaven, describing it as “rubbish", “ridiculous",
“complete fiction” and “dangerous to Arab relations".
De Kruistochten worden door moslims en politiek correcte cultuurrelativisten
aangehaald als argument tegen Westers imperialisme, terwijl het feitelijk een
reactie was op honderden jaren van islamitische agressie en kolonialisme. Maar
terwijl ze elkaar in werkelijkheid de hersens insloegen, slaan moslims,
christenen en joden in Kingdom of Heaven gebroederlijk de handen
ineen.
The Knights Templar, the warrior monks, are portrayed as “the baddies”
while Saladin, the Muslim leader, is a “a hero of the piece", Sir Ridley’s
spokesman said. “At the end of our picture, our heroes defend the Muslims,
which was historically correct.” Prof Riley-Smith, who is Dixie Professor of
Ecclesiastical History at Cambridge University, said the plot was “complete
and utter nonsense". He said that it relied on the romanticised view of the
Crusades propagated by Sir Walter Scott in his book The Talisman, published in
1825 and now discredited by academics.
“It sounds absolute balls. It’s rubbish. It’s not historically accurate at
all. They refer to The Talisman, which depicts the Muslims as sophisticated
and civilised, and the Crusaders are all brutes and barbarians. It has nothing
to do with reality.” Prof Riley-Smith added: “…There was never a confraternity
of Muslims, Jews and Christians. That is utter nonsense.”
Tijdens het maken van de film werd een aantal prominente moslims en
christenen het script voorgelegd.
“My real concern would be just the concept of a movie about the Crusades,
and what that means in the American discourse today,” said Laila al-Qatami, a
spokeswoman for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in Washington.
She added: “I feel like there’s a lot of rhetoric, a lot of words flying
around, with prominent figures talking about Islam being incompatible with
Christianity and American values. This kind of movie might reinforce that
theme in the discourse.'’
Moslims waren in eerste instantie dus niet erg enthousiast over deze film, ze
waren bang dat een Westerse film over de Kruistochten moslims in een kwaad
daglicht zou stellen. In Marokko, waar de film werd opgenomen, dreigden moslims
met aanslagen. Iemand die betrokken was bij het maken van de film zei dat er
toen flink in de film is gesneden om moslims tegemoet te komen. De islamitische
lobbygroep CAIR kreeg een private screening aangeboden en was na afloop dan ook
dolenthousiast.
Our overall impression is that ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ is a balanced and
positive depiction of Islamic culture during the Crusades,” said CAIR-LA
Communications Director Sabiha Khan. “Muslims are shown as dignified and proud
people whose lives are based on ethics and morality.” Khan said one of the
film’s positive messages, that Muslims and Christians can live together in
peace, will provide an opportunity for increased interfaith dialogue. “It is
unfortunately a rare occasion when a Muslim filmgoer can leave the theater
feeling good about a movie’s portrayal of Islam,” said CAIR National
Communications Coordinator Rabiah Ahmed, who also attended the Los Angeles
screening.
Meer over CAIR lees je hier. Beslist geen ‘gematigde’ groep moslims maar dus
wel met behoorlijk wat invloed. De makers van de film waren er bewust op uit om
te nuanceren en te relativeren, met als gevolg dat christenen worden neergezet
als bloeddorstige wilden en de moslims als nobele helden. Die indruk krijg ik tenminste als ik de artikelen over de
film lees.
Well, the movie is not meant to show that Christians and Muslims have been
at one another’s throats for centuries. Rather, by dwelling on the extended,
turbulent holy war known as the Crusades, Sir Ridley said he hoped to
demonstrate that Christians, Muslims and Jews could live together in harmony -
if only fanaticism were kept at bay.
To that end, for all the furious battle scenes in “Kingdom of Heaven,”
which opens nationwide on May 6, Mr. Scott and his screenwriter, William
Monahan, have tried to be balanced. Muslims are portrayed as bent on
coexistence until Christian extremists ruin everything. And even when the
Christians are defeated, the Muslims give them safe conduct to return to
Europe.
Als tegenwicht aan de onzin die al over de Kruistochten is geschreven
verschijnt binnenkort een boek van Robert Spencer, getiteld The Politically
Incorrect Guide to Islam and the Crusades.
Update: lees ook The
Real History of the Crusades.
With enormous energy, the warriors of Islam struck out against the
Christians shortly after Mohammed’s death. They were extremely successful.
Palestine, Syria, and Egypt—once the most heavily Christian areas in the
world—quickly succumbed. By the eighth century, Muslim armies had conquered
all of Christian North Africa and Spain. In the eleventh century, the Seljuk
Turks conquered Asia Minor (modern Turkey), which had been Christian since the
time of St. Paul. The old Roman Empire, known to modern historians as the
Byzantine Empire, was reduced to little more than Greece. In desperation, the
emperor in Constantinople sent word to the Christians of western Europe asking
them to aid their brothers and sisters in the East.
That is what gave birth to the Crusades. They were not the brainchild of an
ambitious pope or rapacious knights but a response to more than four centuries
of conquests in which Muslims had already captured two-thirds of the old
Christian world. At some point, Christianity as a faith and a culture had to
defend itself or be subsumed by Islam. The Crusades were that
defense.
Zie ook Crusade Propaganda en de speech van Paus Urban II.