A recommendation Mr. Gibson probably wasn't seeking

It's kind of like getting Norman Bates to publicly endorse your new collection of cutlery.

' course Arafat would, if he has any regrets, they would be that the crucifixion was not reversed

I hear it is really popular in Syria and other places in the middle east to. It is to be expected that vicious anti-semites will abuse the film for their own ends. Unfortunately, this will give ammunition to those who oppose the movie because it stays true to the gospels, which such people consider to be anti-semitic.

As if the Left wing PC establishment would so much blink at a movie about a murderous cardinal, let alone call it anti-Catholic. No. Cardinals plotting murders and other acts of evil is realistic and should be shown, but 1st century Jewish religious leaders were enlightened and peaceful and would never have so much as uttered a curse at someone claiming to be their God when they believed He wasn't. So say otherwise makes you a vicious anti-semitic bigot. At least in PC bizarro-world.

I wonder if they were rooting against Oskar Schindler....

It's worth pointing out that Orthodox Jews are fair game for ridicule, mockery, and belittlement of their beliefs, because they think the covenant with Abraham actually meant something, and that it didn't terminate with the Enlightenment.

+J.M.J+

Has it been released in Syria yet? Will it ever be released in that Muslim-dominated country? Islam teaches that Jesus was not arrested or crucified at all, so TPOTC actually contradicts Islam (which makes Arafat's statement all the more bizarre).

I doubt it will be released in most countries with a Muslim government. Though Syria would be an ideal place to release a movie done mostly in Aramaic, since it is one of the few places on earth where Aramaic is still spoken (in a few parts of the country, at least). It would only need subtitles for the Latin parts, I guess.

In Jesu et Maria,

Rosemarie,

Here's a news story about TPOTC in Damascus and elsewhere in the Muslim world.

If the link above doesn't work, here's a SnipUrl for the story:

http://snipurl.com/5d4y

In other news, yet more evidence has surfaced that the Passion will cause another Holocaust in which the streets will run red with the blood of Jews: a Norwegian Neo-Nazi has been moved to confess his crimes to the police.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/040329/325/eprjw.html