Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Anti-terror TV Show Angers Arabs
A new television series being broadcast around the Middle East tells the story of Arabs living in residential compounds in Saudi Arabia and the militant Islamists who want to blow them up so they can collect their rewards in heaven - 72 beautiful virgins.
The show's message: terrorism is giving Islam a bad name, and Muslims are suffering because of the actions of a few.
The programs, which began last Tuesday on the first day of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, have come under a blistering attack on the Internet in Arabic language chat rooms.
The critics are demanding the Saudi-owned and Dubai-based Middle East Broadcasting Corporation, a popular Arabic satellite television station that bought the show and broadcasts it across the region, cancel it.
Others lambasted its Syrian Muslim director and producer, Najdat Anzour, as an infidel for tarnishing the image of Islam. But still others have praised the groundbreaking series.
Perhaps the most controversial thing about the new program is its title: "Al-Hour Al-Ayn," Arabic for "Beautiful Maidens."
Islamic militants have taken a reference in one of the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad and made it their belief that martyrs who die defending God and their honor will meet more than 70 virgins in paradise. For militants throughout the Middle East, suicide bombers are martyrs.
The Quran, Islam's holy book, tells of beautiful maidens in paradise but does not mention any number. The Prophet's saying (or Hadith), adopted by militants, speaks of 72 virgins in heaven as a reward for virtuous men. But there is no mention of martyrs in the saying.
One of the show's writers, Abdullah Bjad, is a Saudi and self-described former militant who was consulted on religious aspects of the script. He said that just before one of the 2003 attacks on a residential compound in Saudi Arabia, an attacker who was in contact with his superiors was "heard on the mobile phone counting down the seconds to the 'beautiful maidens.' His last words were: 'One second to the 'beautiful maidens.' He then blew himself up."
No one can deny that one of the reasons that push terrorists to commit terrorism is a concept in terrorist literature: 'Blow yourself up so you can meet 'beautiful maidens,"' al-Mutairi said.
"Beautiful Maidens" is not the first Arab television show that has provoked controversy. In fact, almost every Ramadan, one show in the Middle East is singled out either because it is perceived as ridiculing Islam or because it deals with a controversial social issue, such as polygamy.
Last year, some television stations canceled "The Road to Kabul," which chronicled life under Afghanistan's former Taliban rulers, after Internet threats from Islamists against everyone from actors to television executives if the show portrayed the Taliban in a negative light.
A new television series being broadcast around the Middle East tells the story of Arabs living in residential compounds in Saudi Arabia and the militant Islamists who want to blow them up so they can collect their rewards in heaven - 72 beautiful virgins.
The show's message: terrorism is giving Islam a bad name, and Muslims are suffering because of the actions of a few.
The programs, which began last Tuesday on the first day of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, have come under a blistering attack on the Internet in Arabic language chat rooms.
The critics are demanding the Saudi-owned and Dubai-based Middle East Broadcasting Corporation, a popular Arabic satellite television station that bought the show and broadcasts it across the region, cancel it.
Others lambasted its Syrian Muslim director and producer, Najdat Anzour, as an infidel for tarnishing the image of Islam. But still others have praised the groundbreaking series.
Perhaps the most controversial thing about the new program is its title: "Al-Hour Al-Ayn," Arabic for "Beautiful Maidens."
Islamic militants have taken a reference in one of the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad and made it their belief that martyrs who die defending God and their honor will meet more than 70 virgins in paradise. For militants throughout the Middle East, suicide bombers are martyrs.
The Quran, Islam's holy book, tells of beautiful maidens in paradise but does not mention any number. The Prophet's saying (or Hadith), adopted by militants, speaks of 72 virgins in heaven as a reward for virtuous men. But there is no mention of martyrs in the saying.
One of the show's writers, Abdullah Bjad, is a Saudi and self-described former militant who was consulted on religious aspects of the script. He said that just before one of the 2003 attacks on a residential compound in Saudi Arabia, an attacker who was in contact with his superiors was "heard on the mobile phone counting down the seconds to the 'beautiful maidens.' His last words were: 'One second to the 'beautiful maidens.' He then blew himself up."
No one can deny that one of the reasons that push terrorists to commit terrorism is a concept in terrorist literature: 'Blow yourself up so you can meet 'beautiful maidens,"' al-Mutairi said.
"Beautiful Maidens" is not the first Arab television show that has provoked controversy. In fact, almost every Ramadan, one show in the Middle East is singled out either because it is perceived as ridiculing Islam or because it deals with a controversial social issue, such as polygamy.
Last year, some television stations canceled "The Road to Kabul," which chronicled life under Afghanistan's former Taliban rulers, after Internet threats from Islamists against everyone from actors to television executives if the show portrayed the Taliban in a negative light.
