Egypt’s top comedian, and other filmmakers, come under Islamist fire
Two court rulings three days apart have had Egypt all in an uproar since they were issued some two weeks ago.
Egypt’s top comedian, and other filmmakers, come under Islamist fire
Two court rulings three days apart have had Egypt all in an uproar since they were issued some two weeks ago.
The rulings, which were concerned with charges of “derision of Islam” against filmmakers, brought to the fore the divergent views of liberals and Islamists where creativity and freedom of expression are concerned. It also exposed fears that Islamist rule, which is today in no way a remote possibility, will severely curb freedom.
The Muslims are coming
On the talk show al-Haqiqa (The Truth) on Dream 2 satellite TV channel, Watani’s Georgette Sadeq heard the Islamist Sheikh Youssef al-Badri harshly criticise creative works. “You,” he told film director Magdy Ahmed Ali who was defending the liberal stance, “call things by names other than their real ones. You masquerade hypocrisy as policy, and prostitution as art. But the end is nigh. The Muslims are coming, and they will put an end to all that.” To which Ali retorted: “Mr Sheikh, you claim to have read no book other than the Qur’an for the past 25 years. This means you never saw or read any of the creative works you so harshly criticise. So how can you judge? You must read and see in order to judge correctly.”
Far, however, may have already gripped many. Stories circulated last week, according to Watani’s Hanan Fikry, to the effect that State TV was editing the films produced as far back as some 40 years ago to cut out all the ‘intimate’ scenes. The move may mean tampering with some of the greatest Egyptian classics.
Contradictory
On Tuesday 24 April a Cairo court sentenced Egypt’s top comedian, the 71-year-old but going strong Adel Imam, to three months in prison and a EGP1000 fine for deriding Islam. The ruling upheld a previous one issued last February against the comedian for a case that had been brought to court by an Islamist lawyer. Imam’s films and plays have always been famous for their liberal, anti-extremist outlook, and have been most popular with the public. The comedian frequently played roles that mocked fanatic narrow-mindedness.
Imam said the ruling was the beginning of curtailing the freedom of art and artists, and said he would contest it.
On Thursday, another court acquitted five prominent figures in the film industry who had been charged with deriding Islam. Waheed Hamed, Lenin al-Ramli, Adel Imam, Sherif Arafa, Nader Galal and Mohamed Fadel had all written, acted in, or directed films that criticised fanaticism or terrorism in the name of Islam.
The mere fact that the rulings were contradictory testifies to what many in Egypt see as the sway held by Islamists and Islamism. In both cases the charge was the same, but the difference was in what each judge saw as “derision of Islam”; an Islamist outlook obviously contradicted the liberal one.
Stark challenge
In the face of what they described as attempts to constrain creativity, three of the filmmakers charged with deriding Islam; Imam, Hamed, and Arafa, declared they would set to work on a sequel to one of their most famous anti-Islamist-terrorism films: Toyour al-Thalaam (Birds of the Dark) released some 19 years ago. The director Arafa said he was closely working with the writer, Hamed, on a script of which Imam will personify the main character.
But what is it about these filmmakers and their films, especially Imam, that has Islamists up in arms?
Imam has a history of challenging Islamists in the face.
In the early 1990s Egypt was engaged in a vicious battle against violent Islamist terrorist attacks. Terrorists dealt [the mostly non-Islamist] Egyptians and foreigners the same hand; as terrorists saw it, all were apostates. Hand in hand with the violence, Islamists waged a battle against art and freedom of expression. Predictably; artists, musicians, dancers, liberal writers, and actors were all targets of Islamist threats.
At the time Imam played the leading role in a Cairo play that was a huge box office success: al-Wad Sayed al-Shaghaal (The Boy Sayed the Servant). In stark challenge to the Islamist threats, Imam decided to take his performance to Assiut in Upper Egypt, the stronghold of the terrorist groups, to send over a clarion message that Egypt’s religious terrorism was not to be humoured.
Stereotypes
A few years earlier, Imam’s al-Irhab wal-Kabab (Terrorism and Kebab) had achieved the highest box office revenue, but won him the hostility of the Islamists. The film masterfully presented the sufferings incurred by mainstream Egyptians with bureaucracy, depicting how government red tape may turn a citizen into an unwitting terrorist.
Al-Irhab wal-Kabab, however, earned the wrath of Islamists, since the role featured by Imam was that of a bearded employee who would interrupt his work under the pretext of having to perform the noon and afternoon prayers stipulated by Islam. Islamists saw it as a mock of Islam, even though the employee Imam played was typical. Islamists overlooked the fact that the film exposed other crooked figures, such as the corrupt police officer and the weak, selfish Interior Minister.
The terrorist
The many threats against Imam did not stop him from acting al-Irhabi (The Terrorist) in 1994. This was the boldest film in Egyptian cinema so far that candidly and realistically tackled terrorism in the name of Islam. At a time when many actors and actresses opted for staying away from the silver screen for fear for their lives, Imam boldly exposed how terrorist groups brainwashed Egyptian youth and transformed them into human bombs.
Al-Irhabi, tells the story of Ali, played by Imam, who comes from an underprivileged social class, which makes joining a radical Islamist group an attractive option. He joins in attacks against what Islamists see as sources of social evil in Egypt, such as video shops or tourist sites. He cold-bloodedly sees innocent victims killed in the name of Islam. The film depicts the terrorists, among whom was Ali, as gloomy, non-smiling people wearing white jilbabs and living in depressive ghettos that reek of evil. The members of the group are remote-controlled through the emir, their leader, whom they must blindly obey.
Following the accomplishment of a terrorist operation, and while fleeing, Ali is hit by a car. The driver, the young woman Sawsan, who is terrified at the accident, insists on taking Ali home to her surgeon father to treat his injuries. When they are told he is a stranger, Sawsan’s family takes Ali in until he mends. The film shows how Ali’s interaction with this mainstream ‘non-Islamist’ family whom he would have seen as ‘evil’ only a few days earlier, changes his perceptions and thoughts. He realises that the radical Islamist groups to which he belonged use religion to justify their crimes. When he decides not to go back, they kill him.
Birds of the dark
In Toyour al-Thalam (Birds of the Dark), written by Wahid Hamed and directed by Sherif Arafa, Imam plays the lawyer Fathy who realises that integrity can get him nowhere, so turns into an opportunist and succeeds in getting a post as a minister’s office manager. His newly found power and milieu harshly exposes the corruption and political wheeling and dealing between the Islamists and the powers that be.
This film in particular had its fair share of Islamist criticism since it was so realistic that word got round that the film was a direct take on specific characters that held prominent positions among the Islamist groups.
WATANI International
6 May 2012