‘ETHNIC AND RELIGIOUS SLURS’ : ARAB COMMUNITY CRITICIZES ‘ISHTAR’

Spokesmen for the Arab-American community, criticizing the new movie “Ishtar” for “ethnic and religious slurs,” Friday demanded an apology from Columbia Pictures, urged people not to patronize the film and asked Moslem nations to bar its distribution in their countries.

“To produce a movie such as this, which trivializes the religion and Moslem culture, is only to reinforce the wrong-headed ideas many Americans have (about Arabs),” Abdeen Jabara, president of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, told a news conference in Washington. “We want Hollywood to know they can’t get away with this. There is only one message they understand--the bottom line. The message we’re sending is, if you want to make films with all these racist stereotypes, they may have a problem attracting an audience.”

The $40-million movie, starring Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman, is billed as a comedy about a pair of inept songwriters set in Ishtar, a mythical kingdom in Morocco. The ADC particularly objected to the closing song in the movie entitled “I Look to Mecca,” in which Beatty and Hoffman sing about meeting a girl under a tree in Mecca.

“Mecca is the most sacred city in Islam,” said Faris Bouhafa, the ADC’s director of public relations. “This trivialization was totally inappropriate and in poor taste at the least.”

In letters sent to ambassadors from Moslem countries to the United States, including Morocco, where the movie was filmed, Bouhafa said the song was an affront to every Muslim and that the release of the film during the holy month of Ramadan “simply added to the insult.”

The ADC, which sent letters to 158 media film critics denouncing the movie, also objected to references calling the Arab world “ancient and devious” and to people “acting like an Arab.”

Jabara said he hoped Moslem countries would refuse to show the film until objectionable portions are deleted. “These nations are a huge market for these movies. They should send a message to Hollywood that they don’t want these movies. I think the public can demonstrate their feeling about these films that have no possible social content, no redeeming social value. It’s not like they (Hollywood) have to do this to be entertaining. They don’t have to resort to defamation and stereotyping.”

Bouhafa criticized the film makers for not consulting the Arab community before the film was finished. “We contacted them last December to let them know we were concerned in a constructive way,” he said. “They did not show us the film until 10 days ago, at which time our input was pretty much irrelevant. “

“Ishtar” was put into production by then-studio head Guy McElwaine before he abruptly left Columbia in April, 1986. Current Columbia chief executive David Puttnam inherited the project when he joined the studio several months later, but--by mutual agreement with “Ishtar” principals May, Beatty and Hoffman--had nothing to do with production on the film. Puttnam was in England, his office said Friday; David Picker, Columbia’s chief operating officer, said there would be no comment from the studio.