Fisk and the “Muslims of Beirut” go to the movies
June 7, 2005
Has anyone noticed that Robert Fisk is writing stranger and stranger things every day? After a number of questionable recent pieces on Lebanon, he seems to tread on thin ice with his account of the movie Kingdom of Heaven, which he watched with "the Muslims of Beirut."
Fisk describes the reactions to the scene where Salaheddin Al Ayoubi (I just hate the "Saladin" version of the name) enters Jerusalem and picks up a crucifix from the floor to place it on an altar. Relating how people in the theater rose to their feet and clapped, he writes: "They wanted Islam to be merciful as well as strong."
I thought Islam was merciful regardless of whether they wanted it to be or not. But I digress.
As I read the article and the repeated references to the "Muslims" (and not the Lebanese, or the Beirutis), I wondered where he could have possibly seen the movie. It wasn't until the last paragraph that Fisk obliges, mentioning Dunes. If it's the Dunes in Verdun, the only Dunes I know in Beirut, I have to wonder how he reached the conclusion that the audience was entirely Muslim. And even if it wasn't the Dunes I know, it's a strange and rather confident assertion. Did Fisk ask every single person in the audience his or her religion? Did they show ostentatious signs (to borrow from the French) of their religiosity? Were all the girls wearing head scarves? Or did they all just "look" Muslim? Or is it possible that Christians in Beirut might have also clapped at scenes of magnanimity from a great commander, and at signs of respect for their religion?
