Muslims Protest Studio’s New Film

Muslim leaders protested Monday that Warner Bros. is crudely inflaming anti-Muslim sentiment by depicting terrorists who use Islam’s holy book, the Koran, to justify their violent acts in the studio’s upcoming action film, “Executive Decision.”

After a screening of the movie in the Burbank studios and a discussion with five Warner Bros. executives, the Islamic leaders said the studio heads told them it was too late to edit offending parts from the film, which starts appearing in theaters Friday.

The executives could not be reached for comment but a statement issued by the studio defended the film as portraying “a make-believe situation involving a renegade terrorist who has betrayed his own organization, his faith and his people.”

The movie depicts Chechen terrorists of Islamic heritage hijacking an airliner bound for Washington, D.C., with a cargo of lethal nerve gas.

The studio suggested that audiences would realize that “the criminal mastermind intensified his own wrongdoing by wrapping it in a distorted version of his faith, contrary to the admonitions of even his own cohorts.”

That audience reaction was termed unlikely by Nihad Awad, executive director of the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations.

“There is no positive Muslim character who speaks against the whole concept of violence being linked with Islam,” Awad said. “The norm in the movie is for a Muslim to be a terrorist.”

Muslim leaders said that they sent letters and faxes of protest to Warner Bros. starting March 1, but received an invitation to see and discuss the movie only after they called a news conference for Monday morning outside studio gates.

Among what they called stereotypical and gratuitous scenes in the movie, the Muslims objected to terrorists defending violence by referring to the Koran, holding a Koran while committing a violent act, chanting Islamic slogans or referring to themselves as blessed by Allah.

By connecting terrorism to Muslim religious themes, the filmmakers committed “intellectual terrorism,” contended Saadiq Saafir, an African American imam, or religious leader, of a mosque in Los Angeles.

The religious elements “did not advance the plot line in any way, and seemed to be used solely to push anti-Muslim ‘hot buttons,’ ” said the Muslims’ joint statement, read by Shakeel Syed, director of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California, which has more than 75 affiliated mosques and centers.

“If not for any other reason, Warner Bros. should be concerned about the economic impact of Muslims objecting to the film,” said Syed. No organized boycott is planned, Awad said, but added: “We will ask people of good conscience not to see this movie.”

Saying he enjoyed the film except for the Muslim-terrorist links, Awad said he hopes that studio executives will consider editing versions of the movie that are distributed overseas and are made into videos--”and even put a disclaimer at the start of the film.”

Two Muslim students from UCLA, Mohamed Marei and Shahab Razfar, said that the overt links between terrorism and Islam in “Executive Decision” make that film much different from the portrayal of other Islamic-nation villains in movies such as “Not Without My Daughter,” “Delta Force” and “True Lies.”

In those three movies, the Koran is never quoted and the film heroes battle a vague mixture of cultural, political and religious forces, not specifically religious Muslims, Razfar said.

They said that while every religion has its extremist fringe groups, no filmmaker today would portray Christian or Jewish radicals the same way.

“You’d never see a movie showing a rabbi slapping [a woman character] and then quoting the Bible,” said Marei.

In the studio’s view, the movie, starring Kurt Russell, features “an imaginary villain who is vanquished by imaginary heroes through imaginary means.” The studio representatives said they hope to establish open communication with Arab and Islamic representatives for “increased understanding and sensitivity.”