美国国家公共电台 NPR 40 Years On, A Controversial Film On Islam's Origins Is Now A Classic

40 Years On, A Controversial Film On Islam's Origins Is Now A Classic

RAY SUAREZ, HOST:

We're going to switch gears now and look at an unusual movie with a long history. Depictions of the Prophet Muhammad have led to violence, most recently last year when Islamic radicals² killed 12 people in attacks on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. So imagine trying to make a movie on the life of Muhammad. Yet, it was done. "Muhammad: Messenger Of God" was released 40 years ago in both English and Arabic versions. It was condemned³ at the time, but is now considered a classic. And the filmmaker's son is restoring it for a new release. Reporter R. H. Greene tells us the story of how it got made.

R H GREENE, BYLINE⁴: In 1962, Moustapha Akkad saw "Lawrence Of Arabia." He was riveted⁵.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

MOUSTAPHA AKKAD: To me, the scene that I admire most of my life is David Lean's scene when Omar Sharif was introduced.

GREENE: Omar Sharif emerged from swirling⁶ sands like a wraith⁷ on horseback, an Arab-screen hero.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

MOUSTAPHA AKKAD: I was so moved by that scene, and I tried to really kind of do similar.

GREENE: Akkad was a Syrian-born, Hollywood-based filmmaker. He began a quest to create a truly Arab-screen epic¹. "Muhammad: Messenger Of God," a spectacle about the life of the Prophet Muhammad and the birth of Islam. In a 1976 interview, Akkad explained his motive⁸.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

MOUSTAPHA AKKAD: Being a Muslim myself who lived in the West, I felt that it's my obligation, my duty to tell the truth about Islam.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "MUHAMMAD: THE MESSENGER OF GOD")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character, speaking Arabic).

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

MOUSTAPHA AKKAD: I thought I should tell the story that will bring this bridge.

GREENE: With money raised from Middle Eastern sources, Akkad set to work on a Quranic film on the scale of Bible spectacles like "The Ten Commandments" and "Ben-Hur." Filming began in late 1974 to make "Muhammad: Messenger Of God" accessible to both the Islamic world and the West. The movie was shot simultaneously⁹ in two versions. The Arabic version featured some of the biggest stars of Muslim cinema.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "MUHAMMAD: THE MESSENGER OF GOD")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character, speaking Arabic).

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character, speaking Arabic).

GREENE: The English version starred Irene Papas and Anthony Quinn.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE MESSAGE")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #4: (As character) Muhammad is a fraud.

ANTHONY QUINN: (As Hamza) I am for my nephew's religion, and I say what he says.

GREENE: In accordance with Muslim custom, Muhammad was not shown. Actors spoke¹⁰ to the camera directly as if to a vision of revelation.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE MESSAGE")

QUINN: (As Hamza) Muhammad, when I hunt the desert at night, I know God is not kept in the house.

GREENE: Akkad's close friend, Islamic scholar Khaled Abou El Fadl.

KHALED ABOU EL FADL: To figure out a way to have the prophet to come in person without even showing him - it was brilliant. It's genius. He wanted people to feel the prophet as a human being, but respect the fact that most Muslims don't want the prophet to be personified by an actor or another.

GREENE: London-based actor Garrick Hagon played Ammar, a revered¹¹ figure in the Islamic faith.

GARRICK HAGON: At that time, we didn't know much about Islam. Muhammad was a name, and that was about all. So it was all pretty much of a revelation.

GREENE: Moustapha Akkad's vision is of Islam as a great world religion in harmony with other spiritual traditions.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE MESSAGE")

NEVILLE JASON: (As Jaafar) God has spoken to us before through Abraham, Noah, Moses and through Jesus Christ.

GREENE: In a key scene, Muhammad's followers¹² are interrogated¹³ by the Christian¹⁴ king of Abyssinia and must justify¹⁵ their beliefs under pain of death.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE MESSAGE")

JASON: (As Jaafar) Muhammad teaches us to worship one God, to speak truth, to love our neighbors as ourselves.

GREENE: Moustapha Akkad's son, Malek Akkad.

MALEK AKKAD: That was definitely the scene that he would point to most often as his favorite scene.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE MESSAGE")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #5: (As King Negus) What Christ says and what your Muhammad says is like two rays from the same lamp.

MALEK AKKAD: What he was trying to achieve in that film is that we're really not far apart in these beliefs.

GREENE: But Akkad knew he faced critics. The script was vetted¹⁶ by Cairo's Council for Islamic Research. The word Muhammad was eventually removed from the title, but the Saudi government turned against "The Message," as "Muhammad: Messenger Of God" came to be called. Saudi political pressure cost Akkad his expensive Moroccan sets and locations. He resumed filming with the controversial support of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya.

MALEK AKKAD: My father was of one mind that he was going to finish this film. And so where he could get assistance from, he did.

GREENE: The controversy¹⁷ mounted. The Cairo scholars who had approved the shooting script withdrew their support, calling the completed film an insult to Islam. More backlash followed. Khaled Abou El Fadl.

ABOU EL FADL: He was confounded by the controversy that exploded right about the movie. It was banned all over - banned in Saudi Arabia, in Kuwait, banned in Egypt.

GREENE: In America, things turned tragic¹⁸. Members of the Hanafi movement, a militant¹⁹ black nationalist Muslim group stormed several buildings in Washington, D.C., taking a hundred hostages and killing²⁰ two. Their demands included banning the message on grounds it was sacrilegious.

ABOU EL FADL: I'm sure they have not seen the film. As Moustapha described it, it's a sign of the tragedy of our cultural weakness.

GREENE: Tragedy found Akkad again in 2005. Akkad and his daughter Rima were injured at a wedding in Jordan during a wave of al-Qaida bombings.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

STEVE INSKEEP, BYLINE: The suicide bombers²² who killed dozens in Jordan this week also injured Moustapha Akkad, and today he died of his wounds. The attacks also killed Akkad's American-born daughter.

GREENE: A surviving bomber²¹ had no idea who Moustapha Akkad was.

ABOU EL FADL: It's as if some demonic power was mocking all our dreams because Moustapha represented a hope.

GREENE: In the West, Akkad isn't remembered for "The Message." He's known as the executive producer of the "Halloween" slasher films, a mantle²³ his son Malek has now assumed. But 40 years on, "The Message" is now a touchstone in the Arab world, where it has circulated widely in pirate editions.

ABOU EL FADL: I think Moustapha is going to enter the history books as a hero and a pioneer. If we could fast forward a hundred years from now, we would be amazed.

GREENE: "The Message" is currently being restored by Moustapha Akkad's son for a high definition re-release. For NPR, I'm R. H. Greene.

1 epic   

n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的

参考例句：

• I gave up my epic and wrote this little tale instead.我放弃了写叙事诗，而写了这个小故事。
• They held a banquet of epic proportions.他们举行了盛大的宴会。

2 radicals   

n.激进分子( radical的名词复数 )；根基；基本原理；[数学]根数

参考例句：

• Some militant leaders want to merge with white radicals. 一些好斗的领导人要和白人中的激进派联合。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The worry is that the radicals will grow more intransigent. 现在人们担忧激进分子会变得更加不妥协。 来自辞典例句

3 condemned   

adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He condemned the hypocrisy of those politicians who do one thing and say another. 他谴责了那些说一套做一套的政客的虚伪。
• The policy has been condemned as a regressive step. 这项政策被认为是一种倒退而受到谴责。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 riveted   

铆接( rivet的过去式和过去分词 )； 把…固定住； 吸引； 引起某人的注意

参考例句：

• I was absolutely riveted by her story. 我完全被她的故事吸引住了。
• My attention was riveted by a slight movement in the bushes. 我的注意力被灌木丛中的轻微晃动吸引住了。

6 swirling   

v.旋转，打旋( swirl的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Snowflakes were swirling in the air. 天空飘洒着雪花。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• She smiled, swirling the wine in her glass. 她微笑着，旋动着杯子里的葡萄酒。 来自辞典例句

7 wraith   

n.幽灵；骨瘦如柴的人

参考例句：

• My only question right now involves the wraith.我唯一的问题是关于幽灵的。
• So,what you're saying is the Ancients actually created the Wraith?照你这么说，实际上是古人创造了幽灵？

8 motive   

n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的

参考例句：

• The police could not find a motive for the murder.警察不能找到谋杀的动机。
• He had some motive in telling this fable.他讲这寓言故事是有用意的。

9 simultaneously   

adv.同时发生地，同时进行地

参考例句：

• The radar beam can track a number of targets almost simultaneously.雷达波几乎可以同时追着多个目标。
• The Windows allow a computer user to execute multiple programs simultaneously.Windows允许计算机用户同时运行多个程序。

10 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

11 revered   

v.崇敬，尊崇，敬畏( revere的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• A number of institutions revered and respected in earlier times have become Aunt Sally for the present generation. 一些早年受到尊崇的惯例，现在已经成了这代人嘲弄的对象了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Chinese revered corn as a gift from heaven. 中国人将谷物奉为上天的恩赐。 来自辞典例句

12 followers   

追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件

参考例句：

• the followers of Mahatma Gandhi 圣雄甘地的拥护者
• The reformer soon gathered a band of followers round him. 改革者很快就获得一群追随者支持他。

13 interrogated   

v.询问( interrogate的过去式和过去分词 )；审问；（在计算机或其他机器上）查询

参考例句：

• He was interrogated by the police for over 12 hours. 他被警察审问了12个多小时。
• Two suspects are now being interrogated in connection with the killing. 与杀人案有关的两名嫌疑犯正在接受审讯。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

15 justify   

vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护

参考例句：

• He tried to justify his absence with lame excuses.他想用站不住脚的借口为自己的缺席辩解。
• Can you justify your rude behavior to me?你能向我证明你的粗野行为是有道理的吗？

16 vetted   

v.审查（某人过去的记录、资格等）( vet的过去式和过去分词 )；调查；检查；诊疗

参考例句：

• The recruits were thoroughly vetted before they were allowed into the secret service. 情报机关招募的新成员要经过严格的审查。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• All staff are vetted for links with extremist groups before being employed. 所有职员录用前均须审查是否与极端分子团体有关。 来自辞典例句

17 controversy   

n.争论，辩论，争吵

参考例句：

• That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
• We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。

18 tragic   

adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的

参考例句：

• The effect of the pollution on the beaches is absolutely tragic.污染海滩后果可悲。
• Charles was a man doomed to tragic issues.查理是个注定不得善终的人。

19 militant   

adj.激进的，好斗的；n.激进分子，斗士

参考例句：

• Some militant leaders want to merge with white radicals.一些好斗的领导人要和白人中的激进派联合。
• He is a militant in the movement.他在那次运动中是个激进人物。

20 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

21 bomber   

n.轰炸机，投弹手，投掷炸弹者

参考例句：

• He flew a bomber during the war.他在战时驾驶轰炸机。
• Detectives hunting the London bombers will be keen to interview him.追查伦敦爆炸案凶犯的侦探们急于对他进行讯问。

22 bombers   

n.轰炸机( bomber的名词复数 )；投弹手；安非他明胶囊；大麻叶香烟

参考例句：

• Enemy bombers carried out a blitz on the city. 敌军轰炸机对这座城市进行了突袭。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Royal Airforce sill remained dangerously short of bombers. 英国皇家空军仍未脱离极为缺乏轰炸机的危境。 来自《简明英汉词典》

23 mantle   

n.斗篷，覆罩之物，罩子；v.罩住，覆盖，脸红

参考例句：

• The earth had donned her mantle of brightest green.大地披上了苍翠欲滴的绿色斗篷。
• The mountain was covered with a mantle of snow.山上覆盖着一层雪。