Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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BY BRIAN MURPHY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS An Islamic leader says it reveals Jewish “crimes.” European Jewish leaders are troubled by it. Israeli theaters don’t plan to show it. “The Passion of the Christ,” Mel Gibson’s crucifixion epic, is moving into cinemas around the world and into the international tempests whipped up by terror ism, war and clashing religions. “It’s not going to help quiet things down,” said Giorgos Moustakis, who teaches theology and Christian ethics at the American College of Greece. “There are fundamentalists in ev ery religion — Christians, Muslims and Jews. Films like this get extremist feelings going. That cannot be good.” “The Passion” has gone global as Christians prepare to celebrate Easter week. But the coming week is also the Jewish holiday of Passover, which could sharpen the focus on what some perceive as the movie’s anti-Semitism. For many around the world, as in the United States, the core is sues of the film are the blood soaked depiction of Christ’s last hours, and the emphasis on Jews clamoring for the Romans to cru cify him. Many in the Arab world wel come the film, seeing it as an anti Jewish message gaining world wide currency at a time of esca lating Palestinian-Israel clashes. The film has opened to packed houses in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat watched the film at his West Bank compound with a group of local Muslim clerics and Christians from the United States, Canada and Britain. “The Palestinians are still daily being exposed to the kind of pain Jesus was exposed to during his crucifixion,” a top Arafat aide, Aub Rdeneh, said. Muslims revere Jesus as a prophet, not as the messiah, and some Arab countries have banned the film because a strict interpre tation of Islam frowns on por traying its prophets as flesh-and blood characters. But pirated DVD versions are circulating widely. Moreover, the Quran insists that, regardless of what the New Testament says, Jesus did not die on the cross and thus did not save humanity. The film will not be seen in Israel, either. Shapira Films, which has the Israeli distribution rights, “decided this was not the appropriate time to screen it,” spokeswoman Orly Ben Eliyahu said. But that does not mean it is be ing ignored in the Jewish state. “Given the damage he’s done to Christian-Jewish relations, I wouldn’t want to be Mel Gibson on Judgment Day,” wrote Yossi Klein Halevi in the Jerusalem Post I In France, the film’s opening coincided with a European Union report which showed that among member nations experiencing anti-Semitic acts and threats, France had the sharpest increase — a six-fold jump from 2002 to 2003. France’s Liberation newspaper warned that the film could “exac erbate anti-Semitism.” French Roman Catholic bishops worried it “could be used to comfort anti Semitic opinions.” The film, showing in more than 500 theaters across France, can not be shown to children under 12. In Britain, the age limit is 18. Italian theaters will screen the film April 7. But Pope John Paul II saw it at a private screening in December and later blessed Jesus’ portrayer, actor Jim Caviezel, a 1 devout Roman Catholic. Roman Catholic archbishop of Paris, Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger described the film as “ridiculous” for its graphic atten tion to the beatings and abuses suffered by Jesus. But that is just what some ad vocates say is needed to draw at tention to Christianity’s core be liefs. Some European churches, like American ones, have encouraged the public to see the film, hoping it will reverse declining religious faith. Oysters CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Cole said he likes the variety of ways oysters can be prepared, such as raw, steamed or Rockefeller. He said Lowcountry connoisseurs tend to think they make the best oysters but that the process is actually easy for anyone to master. “They do have good recipes there,” Cole said. “But as far as steamed oysters go, this is it. This is what you do to make them: Just cook them until they open up.” As for the most com mon way of eating them, he said: “With hot sauce on a cracker, that’s your staple.” Third-year advertising stu dent Traci Hunter said while shucking oysters Saturday that eating oysters regularly with friends is a part of Lowcountry culture. Having lived in both Charleston and Greenville, she said of the latter: “Oyster roasts just aren’t big up there. We just have more in Charleston.” Hunter said she thinks Charleston’s restaurants and lo cal residents tend to make the most flavorful oysters and that oyster roasts are seen as a com munity experience there. “I don’t really like oysters that much. It’s just the atmosphere,” Hunter said of Saturday’s gath ering. She was there with her boyfriend, whom she first met at an oyster roast. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocknews@gwm.sc.edu Ducks Unlimited / /■ la use Chapter / Annual Spring Event Thursday April 8, 2004 University House @6pm Ti * www.dailygamecock.com Read it five days a week. -warnk.-,***uauBFzl-_— - • is your |j time: we’ll pay you $50 to travel abroad!* nTRAVEL CUTS '^e as $75 a day! See the world your way .receive $50 cash back when you book by March 31! 800-592-CUTS (2887) - a www.travelcuts.com _ r . MMillMiHif r gig1i