No Islamic Landmarks Were Harmed in the Making of ‘2012’ (via Unreligious Right):
The trailer for 2012 plays like a highlight reel of civilization falling apart all over the world, but it’s religion that gets the brunt of Emmerich’s digital pounding: A Buddhist temple gets hit by a tidal wave. The Sistine Chapel crumbles to pieces as a split tears right down the middle of Michelangeo’s painting of God touching Adam’s finger. St. Peter’s Basilica rolls over onto a crowd of devoted worshipers. Rio de Janeiro’s iconic Christ the Reedemer statue falls to earth as its wracked by shockwaves. The White House is even crushed by, of all things, an aircraft carrier. But eagle eyed fans of watching organized religion get its disaster porn comeuppance will have noticed that there are no Islamic landmarks on the CGI chopping block.
That wasn’t always the plan, however. Emmerich explained to SCI FI Wire that he had originally hoped the Kaaba, one of the holiest sites in the Islamic religion, would join the visual wrath of 2012, but that his co-screenwriter Harald Kloser talked him out of it:
“Well, I wanted to do that, I have to admit … but my co-writer Harald said I will not have a fatwa on my head because of a movie. And he was right. … We have to all … in the Western world … think about this. You can actually … let … Christian symbols fall apart, but if you would do this with [an] Arab symbol, you would have … a fatwa, and that sounds a little bit like what the state of this world is. So it’s just something which I kind of didn’t [think] was [an] important element anyway in the film, so I kind of left it out.”
Some of this is probably corporate concerns for distribution. Controversy and blasphemy of Christianity can result in more publicity and sales in Western countries. But in much of the world forbidden content might result in the banning of a film. Roland Emmerich does make really bad films, so I oppose censorship in this case out of principle and not pragmatism.
In other news, Arabs think the Arab world sucks* (Turks and Persians think their nations are crappy too):
Interestingly, Middle Eastern countries aren’t that bad on the Human Development Index. Compare & contrast with Africa & South Asia for example. I wonder if the Asian satisfaction with where their live has to do with the perception that the 21st century is going to be the “Asian century.”
* Though if you click through, you will note that many Muslims (and presumably Asians) would like to move to Saudi Arabia.
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