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October 13, 2006

Egypt: Omar Sharif Defends Muslim Brotherhood

The former heart-throb actor of the 1960s, Omar Sharif, was not always a Muslim. He was born in April, 1932 in Alexandria, Egypt. His family was Lebanese-Egyptian, and he started life as a Christian, called Michael Demitri Shalhoub. He was a math and physic major at Cairo's Victory College before he decided to take up acting. He converted to Islam in order to marry his sweetheart, Egyptian Muslim actress Faten Hamama. When the pair were married in 1955, he changed his name to Omar el-Sharif. The marriage ended in 1974.

Famous for his roles in David Lean's visually sumptuous productions Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and Dr Zhivago (1965), he is better known for his bridge-playing expertise nowadays than for his acting. He still acts, yet for some bizarre reason, Muslim extremists have attacked him for his screen roles.

In 1968, in Funny Girl, he gave an on-screen kiss to Barbra Streisand, a Jewish actress. As a result, his films were banned in Egypt. He angered Muslims again in 2004 when it was reported that he had two grandchildren - one Jewish and the other Muslim - and did not want to influence their choices in religion. Last year, according to JihadWatch and the Guardian, he received death threats from Islamists in response to his playing the role of a Christian saint, Peter in an Italian TV movie.

He had claimed that while filming the part, he "seemed to hear voices". He also said: "Playing Peter was so important for me that even now I can only speak about it with difficulty. It will be difficult for me to play other roles from now on."

On a web message board which had previously been used by al Qaeda, a Muslim called "bachirma1" wrote: "Omar Sharif has stated that he has embraced the crusader idolatry. He is a crusader who is offending Islam and Muslims and receiving applause from the Italian people. I give you this advice, brothers, you must kill him."

Now, according to AKI, Omar Sharif, while addressing the organisers of the Cairo Film Festival, has bizarrely said that the infamous Muslim Brotherhood is not a threat to freedom of expression.

Banned in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood (al-Ikhwanu I-Muslimin or Hizb al-Ikhwan Al-Muslimoon) is quietly tolerated. In the Egyptian parliament, 88 of the 454 seats are taken by Muslim Brotherhood MPs, who entered September's elections passing themselves off as "independents".

Omar Sharif said: "I have know them for a long time and I remember that some members of the organisations in the 1950s were like me passionate about the avant garde in cinema and theatre."

"The Muslim Brotherhood does not threaten artistic freedom and I don't think that in the areas of innovation and art there is anything to fear from their strong presence in parliament."

He also claimed that "their victory at the last parliamentary elections is not a negative thing."

Apart from the fact that the Muslim Brotherhood has killed its opponents, and its former spiritual leader, Sayyid Qutb, advocated killing as a political tool, the Muslim Brotherhood is Islamist in nature. Ayman al-Zawahiri was a member of the group before becoming a member of Egyptian Jihad and now al Qaeda.

The Muslim Brotherhood has given birth to many radical groups, including the terror group Hamas. The Brotherhood is also passionately anti-semitic and incites on its children's website hatred against Jews and Americans. It also indoctrinates the minds of its child surfers that it is a duty to wage armed jihad.

But if 74-year old Omar Sharif really believes that the Muslim Brotherhood supports creativity and freedom of speech, perhaps he is suffering senile deterioration. On January 30 this year, in response to the the Danish cartoons of Mohammed, the head of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mehdi Akef, advocated boycotting all Danish products.

On Friday February 10, again in response to the cartoons, several thousand people protested outside the Al Taha mosque in the northern Delta city of Mahalla Al Kubra. They had been urged to attend by the Muslim Brotherhood.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at October 13, 2006 5:19 PM

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