“My personal and artistic history stands witness that I am against all forms of discrimination,” Gibson

By Magda Hebtah, IOL Washington Correspondent

WASHINGTON, August 7 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Joining forces with extremist Jews, U.S. Republicans started a campaign against Megastar Mel Gibson who insists on producing and starring in a movie tackling the relationship between George Bush Senior and father of al-Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden.

The campaign comes in the wake of the Jewish and Catholic-led campaigns against Gibson for the production of a movie called ‘The Passion”, on the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and the Jewish role in the event.

Gibson stars in a new movie entitled “911 Fahrenheit”, written by the well-known political writer and director Michael Moore. The movie handles the relationship between Bush Senior and Bin Laden’s father and how the current U.S. administration of Bush Junior made use of September 11 attacks to give momentum to their programs.

Moore, Oscar winner of the best documentary during the previous season and writer of the U.S. and Britain best-seller “Stupid White Men”, has said recently on his website, that he started preparations for his movie in March 2003, pointing out that shooting would start by the end of the year.

 “The Passion” Under Attack

The Republican attacks coincide with the anti-Gibson campaign led by the U.S. Jews and Catholics due to producing “The Passion” or “Christ’s Pains” movie. Gibson still looks for cinemas to present his movie, as ICON Company, owned by Gibson, has not found a distribution company so far.

This has led ICON’s marketing official to say that Gibson might distribute the movie himself, as the deadline for presentation is made for the spring of 2004.

The movie deals with the last 12 hours in the Christ’s life. James Kafizel plays the role of Christ, Maya Ginstern stars as Mariam the Magdolian and Monica Bellouchi plays the role of Virgin Marry.

IslamOnline.net reported on June 17 that Gibson had been accused by U.S. newspapers of being “anti-Semitic” because of “The Passion”, under the pretext that “it is based on the propaganda for anti-Jews notion and that he had depicted the cruelty of Christ’s crucifixion”.

Not Anti-Jews

Replying to such accusations, Gibson recently underlined in a statement made to Daily Variety magazine that the movie is historically accurate, denying that it is an anti-Jews or anti-Catholics.

“The movie is based on four new testament bibles and does not do injustice to anybody. It is an objective movie. My insistence on presenting it stems from a basic goal, that is to urge the audience of whatever religion to think seriously,” he said.

“My personal and artistic history stands witness that I am against all forms of discrimination. The best proof of this is that I did not persecute any person for reasons related to his nationality or religion for my 25-year-old career,” he added.

“Religious institutions have made their judgment on the movie even before watching it through a copy of the original script that was illegally obtained. Such a perspective is incomplete and needs some amendments.”

In front of such a horrible campaign, Gibson had nothing but to defend his movie through presenting it before a number of conservative Anglican and Catholic audience and rightist intellectuals. Yet, he refused to present it before Jewish organizations and specialized academics as he does not care about their opinion.

Emotional Stress

The conservative Catholic Crisis magazine noted that the movie has filled a number of audiences with fanatic enthusiasm in a special presentation in Colorado Springs in Colorado, the Protestant capital of the U.S.

The audience wept during such presentations and some came under great emotional stress.

Crisis pointed out that “The Passion” has won the admiration of a number of critics and journalists, the Congress Republican Conference and the Bureau of Initiatives based on faith and society.

“This movie will be one of the great classics. It will attract Christians of different denominations, as it is the best movie produced about the pains suffered by the Christ,” Del Hudson, a journalist of the Crisis, said.

“The Passion” follows “Marks” in which Gibson achieved the greatest revenues achieved along his artistic career amounting to 195 million U.S. dollars in 32 days.