c. 1998 Religion News Service

LOS ANGELES _ American Muslims and Arabs are angry about an upcoming film they say dangerously stereotypes their communities as terrorist threats at a time when real terrorism already has them on the defensive.

In”The Siege,”a 20th Century Fox film starring Bruce Willis and Denzel Washington and set for release Nov. 9, the United States responds to Middle East terrorism in New York by declaring martial law and forcing American Muslims and Arab Americans into detention camps.

A promotional trailer for”The Siege”shown in theaters this summer has particularly outraged the film’s critics because it juxtaposes scenes of Muslims praying in a mosque with scenes of terrorist violence.

Nihad Awad, executive director of the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the trailer appears to equate Islam with terrorism.”This is very deeply offensive, to associate our faith, our prayers, things that we do five times a day, with acts of violence,”Awad said.”Not all people who see the trailer are going to see the movie, so what impression do we leave people with?” At a Wednesday (Aug. 26) news conference held across the street from 20th Century Fox studios here, Awad said the film’s release in the aftermath of the bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa and the retaliatory U.S. air attacks in Sudan and Afghanistan will only heighten already widespread suspicions about the loyalties of American Muslims and Arab Americans.

Salam Al-Marayati, director of the Los Angeles-based Muslim Public Affairs Council, said”The Siege”will”lead to people questioning our patriotism and commitment to the United States. Simple-minded people will take the message of the movie to be that Muslim is a code word for terrorism. This just adds to the hysteria.” Ironically, the filmmakers say their intent is to dispell stereotypes and underscore how quickly some Americans rush to judgment in condemning entire ethnic groups for the acts of individuals.”Within the framework of an action adventure, the film does deal seriously and sensitively with extremely important themes such as prejudice and persecution, the price of our personal freedom and the protection of these freedoms for all Americans,”a Fox spokeswoman said.

For months, Awad and other Muslim and Arab American activists have been talking to”The Siege”producer Lynda Obst and director Ed Zwick, hoping to get them to alter the film to their liking.

Zwick also has directed”Glory,”a film about black soldiers in the Civil War, and the popular TV series”thirtysomething.” Awad and the others presented the filmmakers with a list of what they say are distortions, stereotyping and other problems with the script. In all, about 60 such problems were outlined.

In some instances, the filmmakers agreed to changes.

For example, a scene in which an Arab-American cab driver in New York deliberately avoids picking up an African-American man hailing the cab was cut from the film.

At the same time, Obst and Zwick declined to change the film’s basic storyline. The critics suggested changing the script so that Middle Easterners are first blamed for terrorist attacks that ultimately turn out to be the work of an American militia group _ a scenario similar to the Oklahoma City federal building bombing.

In rejecting such wholesale changes, Fox noted that filming for”The Siege”was completed last spring. At the same time, the filmmakers sought to assure the Muslim and Arab critics of their positive intentions.”We cannot undo years of American thinking about the Middle East in one movie,”Obst and Zwick wrote in an April letter to Awad.”But we can and will resist stereotypes wherever possible. In service to our mutually stated desires to mitigate any negative characterizations, we will endeavor to make as many nonsystematic changes as are practical given the process and our stage in it.” Obst and Zwick also rejected as”preposterous”charges made by the Council on American-Islamic Relations that”The Siege”has a pro-Israel slant.”We are deeply saddened that the very essence of our story in which the conflict in the Middle East war reaches our shores, has ideological baggage for you,”the filmmakers said. At least some of what the council interpreted as being pro-Israel, said Obst and Zwick, were”a generally held American point of view.” Al-Marayati acknowledged some extremist Arabs and Muslims engage in terrorism, but characterized them as”fringe extremists”whose methods are rejected by the overwhelming majority of their communities.”Arabs and Muslims have a lot of legitimate grievances concerning Israel and the Western domination of Middle East oil and Arab dictatorial governments that allow no say,”he said.”But there is a distinction made between legitimate grievances and extremism. The community does not support the killing of innocent people and rejects terrorism categorically.” Al-Marayati said that because Arabs and Muslims are so often stereotyped as terrorists, it is virtually impossible to make a film today about Middle East terrorists that would satisfy Arab and Muslim concerns about how they are portrayed cinematically.”Once blacks were also only portrayed in films in a negative light,”he said.”That’s now changed and there is some balance in how blacks are portrayed, both good and bad. That has yet to happen with Arabs and Muslims. There is no balance as far as we are concerned. We are not part of the club yet.” Radio personality Casey Kasem, a non-Muslim Lebanese-American, also criticized”The Siege.””Despite the fact that (the filmmakers) tried to be honorable and change some of the script, it still will leave the audience with the idea that Arabs and Muslims are terrorists and the enemies of the United States,”he said in an interview.”Through the years I’ve had to see pictures and television shows that have vilified Arabs and Muslims. And it just keeps going on.”

DEA END FINNIGAN