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FROM THE PHONE BOOTH: The Smallest Space in  Hollywood

	FINEFROCK

MSMMH & Diss-Spirit of ’76:
Muhammad The Movie
by Steve Finefrock - Hollywood Forum [scriptwriter] 7/30/08

At $17 million, the film had a major budget for 1976, cast with a major star, featuring a major religion, and it worked up a major reaction in that year AH 1397 on the Muslim calendar. A hint of things to come, thirty-two years later in this time of Dutch Cartoon Riots for offending Muslims. There is Nothing New Under The Sun – the film crew for “Mohammed, Messenger of God” was ousted from Morocco at the behest of Saudi Arabia. Finished in Libya by Syrian-born American producer-director Moustapha Akkad, after financial support was withdrawn by Kuwait [ah, such courageous ones, as we have seen often], MMOG triggered black Muslims to take 132 hostages in Washington, D.C., inside three buildings held in demand for the film to be withdrawn from U.S. exhibition.

Getting a tingly feeling up your leg, on hearing this, Chris Matthews? Karen Armstrong? Fareed Zakaria? Tom Friedman?  Others who tell us reassuring nostrums about Islam in America?

The film’s three-hours exhibition was cancelled in this nation, and in most of the world, though it got three years viewing in Europe [when they still had some brass stones left in what has become a stone-free zone]. And ultimately, according to “The Arabs” author David Lamb, “Saudi Arabia and most Arab countries, however, later decided that their judgment had been prematurely harsh, and Mohammed, Messenger of God is widely circulated in the Arab world today as an honest portrayal of Islam and is used in Arab schools as a teaching aid.”

Who knew!

“Islam, the protestors said, belonged in the hands of religious scholars, not those of moviemakers” notes Lamb in this useful 1987 treatment of his years covering the Mideast, once as a reporter for the LA Times. Ya knew Anthony Quinn played Zorba, but Hamza? One of Muhammad’s uncles?  The Prophet was never portrayed by any actor, not even in shadow cast or a voice heard of the key character in this “great” religion – yet such a storm. Not mentioned in any of the ‘history’ news treatments we’ve seen this past decade. I vaguely remember the siege story, but only on re-reading Lamb’s useful book did it come to my renewed awareness.

Threatened with knives on the streets of London, Akkad got a taste of later terror by Islamists.  Things are a bit tenser these days than when Lamb published his descriptions; MMOG may not be a teaching aid any more. Dutch cartoon riots teach us quite a bit more – and Quinn’s other Arab story, “Lawrence of Arabia” gives a hint of the fanaticism of an Islamic enthusiast, as T.E. Lawrence parallels in his parable, the mentality of Muhammad himself. That is one film still available, often shown on Turner Classics.

Lamb notes, “As for the thought of staging a musical called Mohammed Superstar, that would be nothing short of blasphemy. For the Arabs, religion is a serious business that has room for neither interpretation nor levity.” Lamb is an advocate for his subject, and it wins the heart of the gifter of the library copy I hold – it’s inscription to its original giftee reads: “To my Father-in-Law, I hope this book gives you a better understanding of the ARABS (and doesn’t make us look like “fools”). Merry Christmas, 1987, Mustapha D.”

In that year After Hegira 1397, we could see the coming Dutch cartoon riots. A mere 132 hostages in three buildings in our nation’s capitol seems to have gone down the Mainstream Media’s Memory Hole [MSMMH?]. We have ‘forgotten’ that event in AH 1397 because the media chooses not to remind us – though very good on every potential occasion of reminding Americans of every sin ever committed since 1776 on these shores and elsewhere by our society.

Again, THIS HAS HAPPENED BEFORE – as we have forgotten about Dawes Field in the Jordanian desert [four airliners hijacked, and blown up before cooperative news cameras], so we just let such things as MMOG go down the MSMMH. In that year of our bicentennial, the spirit of 1776 became one of diss-respecting, of dissing America, and though the Muslims were black, the thought was purely that of general Islam.

“Prematurely harsh” is Lamb’s description of Saudi reconsiderations. A bit of an understatement, like Jack the Ripper was a dissatisfied brothel patron. Never seen in Egypt or Syria [as of Lamb’s book publication], MMOG is still obscure, but proof that WE’VE SEEN THIS BEFORE.

But of course, what the apologists won’t note or ‘analyze’ is that WE WILL SEE A GREAT DEAL MORE OF IT AGAIN.

And Again.

AND AGAIN……. ExileStreet

copyright 2008 Steve Finefrock

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