MUSLIM HATE OF FILMMAKERS
Muslim Countries Vary Greatly on Censorship of Hollywood Films
By Meaghan Murphy
Fox News
Published October 21, 2010
In a scene from “Sex and the City 2,” Carrie Bradshaw and her three BFFs glide through a Middle Eastern desert festooned in Arabian finery on the backs of two camels.
That colorful vignette was never viewed in a theater in the United Arab Emirates. In fact, the movie itself was banned, because, according to the country's National Media Council, “the theme of the film does not fit with our cultural values.”
The same went for Iran.
“Western films are shown in Iran if they have a philosophical message which is in tune with challenging … the culture of the West,” Milad Dokhanchi, an Iranian-Canadian independent documentary filmmaker who is currently living in Tehran, tells FOX411.com.
And films that do make the cut are still subject to heavy editing.
“The red lines for editing in Iran are sexuality, what would be called the display of obscenity—that would be edited out,” Dokhanci said. “For example, scenes of people making out would be cut. Harsh violence would be edited out. Those are the two main things.”
But how much of a U.S. film hits the cutting room floor in a Muslim-majority country, depends on the country.
Iran’s cultural adviser, Javad Shamaghdari, decides what will be shown in theaters there.
“His team is responsible for editing Hollywood films,” said Dokhanchi, who recently interviewed Shamaghdari. “He told me that his goal was to make Iranian cinema global. Off camera, he comes off very confident and very chill—very relaxed. He joked with me and was funny.”
Shamaghdari wasn’t in a laughing mood when members of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences paid a visit to Tehran in 2009 during an “educational and creative exchange.” Then, he demanded an apology from the delegation, which included AMPAS president Sid Ganis, former president Frank Pierson, actress Annette Bening and producer William Horburg, for the "30 years of insults and slanders" about Iranians portrayed in Hollywood films.
He did not receive one.
Despite state censorship current, uncut Hollywood films are available to anyone who wants them in Iran -- on bootleg DVDs.
“If people are interested, they can buy them for a buck or two,” says Dokhanchi. “Generally, people are not interested in going to Iranian cinema to watch Hollywood films, simply because they can get them for a very cheap price on the street. They are uncensored. I have networks of people—I give them a call, they drop off the film right at my door for a buck or two.”
Some of the DVDs currently available include “The Prince of Persia” and “The Reader.”
“There is no punishment for selling pirated DVDs, because there’s no copyright law in Iran,” Dokhanchi said.
A third outlet for viewing select Hollywood films in Iran is IRIB, the state controlled television channel. "'Slumdog Millionaire’ was on national TV recently," says Dokhanchi, “The dancing scenes were definitely edited out, but the violent scenes were left in.”
But while Iran and the more conservative Muslim-majority countries have strict rules on what stays and what goes, others are less restrictive.
“In Turkey, there would be less censorship in terms of the sexual scenes,” Ali Abootalebi, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire, tells FOX411.com. “They're not going all the way like in Hollywood, but they’re more open.”
Abootalebi said in Turkey’s versions of Hollywood films, “people can kiss, there’s limited bedroom scenes, and nudity.”
Why?
“[Turkey] wants to be a secular country, unlike Iran and Saudi Arabia, where there’s not even touching,” Abootalebi said. “In those conservative states, there’s no dancing, singing, swearing or depictions of homosexuality in films.”
Los Angeles-based writer and director Elie Karam was living in Lebanon when "Sex and the City 2" was released there.
“The film wasn’t censored at all—nothing was taken out. Lebanon is one of the most open countries in the Middle East, so there’s not as much censorship,” he said. “I don’t think that 'Sex and the City 2'’ deserved the ban [in the EAU and other Muslim countries] because it didn’t really portray the Arab countries in a bad way—the Arab people were portrayed as generous and nice. It wasn’t an attack.”
Suspect in Dutch filmmaker's murder makes dramatic court room confession
Tuesday July 12, 2005
The man accused of killing Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh confessed to a Dutch court that he acted out of his religious beliefs, saying he would do "exactly the same" if he were ever set free.
"I take complete responsibility for my actions. I acted purely in the name of my religion," 27-year-old Dutch-Moroccan national Mohammed Bouyeri told the court in Amsterdam on the final day of his trial.
Prosecutor Frits van Straelen demanded a life sentence for Bouyeri for killing Van Gogh on an Amsterdam street on November 2, 2004. He recalled the particular brutality of the murder in broad daylight saying Bouyeri not only shot Van Gogh 15 times but also stabbed him and finally slit his throat.
According to the prosecutor the murder of Van Gogh, an outspoken columnist who often criticised Islam and the multi-cultural society, deeply shocked Dutch society.
The killing -- which happened in plain view of more than 50 witnesses while the filmmaker was cycling to work -- stoked ethnic tensions and sparked a wave of reprisal attacks primarily directed at the Muslim community here.
In addition to a life sentence, the prosecution also demanded that Bouyeri be stripped of his right to vote or stand for election for the rest of his life, "to literally place him outside of our democracy".
After the prosecution's closing statement Bouyeri, who had refused to say anything about his motives during the trial, took the opportunity to make a final statement.
"I can assure you that one day, should I be set free, I would do exactly the same, exactly the same," he said, speaking slowly in sometimes halted Dutch.
He said he felt an obligation to Van Gogh's mother Anneke, present in court, to speak, but offered no sympathy.
"I have to admit I do not feel for you, I do not feel your pain, I cannot -- I don't know what it is like to lose a child," he said as Van Gogh's family and friends looked on.
"I cannot feel for you ... because I believe you are an infidel," he added.
"I acted out of conviction -- not because I hated your son."
Van Gogh's mother listened quietly as Bouyeri, wearing a Palestinian black and white headscarf, spoke with a hint of admiration for her son.
"I cannot accuse your son of hypocrisy because he was not a hypocrite. He said things out of conviction," Bouyeri said of Van Gogh.
Bouyeri told the prosecutor that he concurred with the charges against him and the demand for a life sentence -- a sentence which holds no possibility of parole in the Netherlands.
Several months before he was killed Van Gogh, a distant relative of 19th-century painter Vincent van Gogh, had directed a short film called "Submission", which linked abuse of women to Islam.
A letter was left on his body that included quotations from the Koran and threats to several Dutch politicians, including Somali-born lawmaker Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who wrote the script for "Submission".
Bouyeri was arrested after a shoot-out with the police as he attempted to flee the murder scene.
He is charged with the premeditated murder of Van Gogh, the attempted murder of several police officers and bystanders, illegal possession of firearms, obstructing the work of Hirsi Ali as a member of parliament and threatening her with a terrorist act.
Hirsi Ali spent two months in hiding after the murder and is now under 24-hour protection.
Even though prosecutors have said that Bouyeri was "a leading figure" in a terrorist organization known as the Hofstad group, he has not yet been charged in that connection because of lack of evidence, Van Straelen said.
The Amsterdam court will hand down a verdict in the case on July 26, the three-judge panel said after the trial ended here Tuesday.
Film panned for showing cleric in ‘woman’s domain’
Thursday, 4 May, 2006
KUALA LUMPUR:
A new film in conservative, mainly-Muslim Malaysia has been heavily criticised
for showing religious officials cooking and being friendly with prostitutes.
Critics say that Yasmin Ahmad’s Gubra, a sequel to an earlier film which dealt
with inter-racial romance, poses a threat to Malay Muslim culture and could
corrupt Muslim audiences.
Film producer Raja Azmi Raja Sulaiman said on a TV talkshow that the character
of a bilal, or muezzin who performs the call to prayer, should not have been
shown at work in the kitchen.
“A pious wife would not allow her husband to cook,” Raja Azmi was quoted as
saying by the Sun daily.
Raja Azmi, along with film critic Akmal Abdullah, also said that the bilal, who
together with his wife was friendly with sex workers in their neighbourhood, was
unfit to hold the role.
“He should have called the religious authorities to catch them. What kind of
bilal allows these activities to continue in his neighbourhood?” Akmal said.
Gubra is the follow-up to the critically-acclaimed Sepet, which also caused an
uproar and was released after several cuts.
Akmal said it was confusing for Malay Muslims to see Orked, the heroine in Sepet
who is depicted as a pious Muslim girl, fall in love with a Chinese kafir who
peddles pirated DVDs.
Yasmin defended the movies, but conceded she could have shot some scenes
differently including ones which showed men and women freely touching each
other, and one where an actor’s private parts were exposed.
“However, I would not change the other scenes or the storyline,” she was quoted
as saying by the Star daily yesterday.
Norhayati Kaprawi of the rights group Sisters in Islam said it was inaccurate to
say the religion only permitted women to do housework.
“It is not stated that it is only the wife’s duty,” she said.
Ahmad Shukri Yusoff, sharia head at a government agency said:
“Entering a kitchen doesn’t degrade a man. If anything, it shows how much he
loved his wife and it makes the husband-wife relationship more affectionate.”
Sepet from a Malay word referring to the shape of ethnic Chinese eyes, won the
Best Asian Film Award at the Tokyo International Film Festival last year.
The depiction of a love affair between a Malay girl and a Chinese boy amid social and racial pressures has won numerous Malaysian film awards, but caused an uproar with scenes like one showing the heroine in a restaurant that served food that is not allowed under Islam. Other scenes that did not make it to the big screen included one where a married Malay Muslim couple were dancing dressed only in their sarongs.–AFP