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You are here: Home / Archive / ‘The Passion’ gains popularity among Middle East’s Muslims, Christians

‘The Passion’ gains popularity among Middle East’s Muslims, Christians

May 1, 2004 by Richard Cimino

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Although the plot runs counter to Islamic teachings, Mel Gibson’s film The Passion of the Christ has become a box-office hit in the Arab world, reports the Christian Science Monitor (April 9).

Islam forbids the depiction of a prophet and the Koran denies the crucifixion ever occurred. The Passion has been banned in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, yet since being released on March 18, the film is posting record sales in Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Qatar, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates.

While the film is particularly popular among the Maronite Christians in Lebanon, both Christians and Muslims in the Middle East see in the movie’s depiction of Jesus’ agony their own hardships. Christians marginal identity in such countries as Syria and Lebanon and Islamic hostility toward Israel are both validated by images of Jesus suffering under the Jews, with Muslims identifying Israel’s recent attacks on Palestinian leaders as an example of such suffering.

Such sentiments have alarmed Israeli and other Jewish leaders who accuse Gibson of fanning the flames of anti-Semitism.

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Filed Under: Archive

Also in this issue

  • On/File: May 2004
  • Findings & Footnotes: May 2004
  • Hindu activism challenges Western scholarship
  • Moderate Muslim thinkers take new approach to modernity, Koran
  • Converts to radical Islam a new concern in Europe
  • Current Research: May 2004
  • Unitarians in the vanguard of new polygamy?
  • Praise music moves out of the churches
  • Mormon origins face scientific challenge
  • Alternatives to institutional religion find favor

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