RIYADH ( News Agencies) - Cinema has made a low-key return to Saudi Arabia after a three decade absence but a sharp reaction by the religious police chief shows efforts to relax Saudi's strict Islamic laws face tough opposition.
A locally produced comedy, Menahi, premiered in two cultural centers in Jeddah and Taif this month before mixed-gender audiences, a taboo in Saudi Arabia whose strict Islamic rules ban unrelated men and women from mixing.
Menahi stars new comedy sensation Fayez al-Maliki as a naive Bedouin entangled in a get-rich-quickly scheme in Dubai, the region's tourism and trade hub where lifestyle is far less restricted.
Turnout for the movie, produced by billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal's media company Rotana, was so big the film had to be played eight times a day over a 10-day period, the organizers said.
It had to be stopped in Taif due to overcrowding in the hall, Rotana spokesman Ibrahim Badi said, Reuters reported on Saturday.
Royal Blessing
Showing the film was the latest attempt to introduce reforms by King Abdullah, who has said the world's largest oil exporter cannot stand still while the world changes around it.
Political analysts say Alwaleed could not have gone ahead without the blessing of royals with key decision-making roles.
"We have obtained permission from the Information Ministry and from the governorate of Mecca to show the movie in Jeddah and Taif," Badi said. The province of Mecca is governed by Prince Khaled al-Faisal, a pro-reform son of late King Faisal.
Badi could not immediately say if Rotana intended to show the movie in other provinces of the kingdom.
Rising Anger
While the kingdom's Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul-Aziz Al al-Shaikh has not commented on the issue, the head of Saudi Arabia's religious police condemned cinemas as a pernicious influence.
Sheikh Ibrahim al-Gaith, head of the feared Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice says that "movie could possibly be acceptable if it serves good and is suitable under Islam," Sheikh Gaith said.
Gaith pulled back from comments he made two days earlier branding movies "an absolute evil" in the wake of screenings in the Red Sea port city.
"I did not say that we reject all cinema, but I said that we were not consulted during the organisation of these movie showings," he explained, AFP reported on Sunday.
Before the first projection of the film, local religious police inspected the facility, a 1,200 seat conference hall, to make sure that men and women would remain separated, adhering to the country's strict laws on separation of unrelated members of the opposite sexes.
For the three showings daily, women sat in the balcony of the hall while men and boys were on the ground floor.
Saudi Arabia had some movie theatres in the 1970s but the conservative clerical establishment managed to snuff out the industry. Saudi film buffs had to travel to neighbours like Bahrain to see movies in cinemas but a new generation of young Saudis has begun making films in recent years.
sourse : islamonline.net
what i dont get is why they don't take measures to educate their youth and overhaul society's thinking under true principles of Islam
Showing the film was the latest attempt to introduce reforms by King Abdullah, who has said the world's largest oil exporter cannot stand still while the world changes around it.
this man makes me sick
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My tears testify that i have a heart
yet i feel me and shaytan never part
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i heard abt it too. its so sad now they're opening a cinema over dere.
Allah made everyone different thats what makes them special,so no matter what ppl say just remember you're SPECIAL!! "You are with the one you love"
Nem0
Where in Islam does it say you can’t watch a movie?
It's better if Saudi Arabia and other Muslim nations started making their own movies, which promote Islamic values and beliefs, and attributes, then maybe young Muslims won’t have to watch movies that are created for Western audience.
People really need to stop over-exaggerating staff and take advantage of the technology around you.
70:28 Lo! the doom of their Lord is that before which none can feel secure
Destroyed? Aren't we already a destroyed Ummah? But anyways, we are not becoming like the "West" for merely watching a movie.
Easy there.
sis remember that to create a huge fire you need small pieces of deviation.
stuff like cinemas contribute
the atmosphere etc should be enough to show you it aint right. music which cant be turned off, kissing scenes which cant be forwarded.
sure you can say depends on what you watch but the fact that those things are in the majority and prime should PUT you off and make you HATE it for the sake of Allaah
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My tears testify that i have a heart
yet i feel me and shaytan never part
-
^ the day we become like the west is the day we become destroyed
These dichotomies between "the West" and "the Muslim world" are only useful as generalities and vague references. When you treat them as though they have some sort of ontological stability or real existence you miss how intertwined the two are. The Western "enlightenment" was in many ways a harvesting of the fruits planted my Muslim philosophers. While secularism is not firmly imbedded in "the west" this is not the totality of western culture. Like it or not "western" and "Islamic" cultures are inexorably intertwined and we must learn to live together. I don't understand what's unIslamic about movies in themselves. Rather than rejecting them out of hand why not adapt? Learn from the American success of exporting cultural values and norms from through cinema and adapt it to Islam.
^ the typical picture painted by the west is children who treat parents as holidays to be seen and dealt with rarely, mannerisms are completely different and unacceptable to most muslims in many ways (such as freemixing ie handshaking of opposite genders).
Honestly the music/fun live life for the thrill of it culture certainly is NOT entertwined at all with islam.
and that is what i see in the west - people living life to fulfil their desires.... getting eaten by them...
pubs every night, getting drunk for fun etc.. its sickening !
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My tears testify that i have a heart
yet i feel me and shaytan never part
-
These dichotomies between "the West" and "the Muslim world" are only useful as generalities and vague references. When you treat them as though they have some sort of ontological stability or real existence you miss how intertwined the two are. The Western "enlightenment" was in many ways a harvesting of the fruits planted my Muslim philosophers. While secularism is not firmly imbedded in "the west" this is not the totality of western culture. Like it or not "western" and "Islamic" cultures are inexorably intertwined and we must learn to live together. I don't understand what's unIslamic about movies in themselves. Rather than rejecting them out of hand why not adapt? Learn from the American success of exporting cultural values and norms from through cinema and adapt it to Islam.
Good idea, but you could imagine movies about islam difficult to produce. 'The message' is a good example, it would be difficult not depicting certain people and some movies might have issues over accuratly portraying certain events - due to lack of information. Also how long would it be until the whole islamic history is covered? lol
He it is Who sends blessings on you, as do His angels, that He may bring you out from the depths of Darkness into Light: and He is Full of Mercy to the Believers. [Quran {33:43}] www.QuranicAudio.com www.Quran.com
sis remember that to create a huge fire you need small pieces of deviation.
stuff like cinemas contribute
the atmosphere etc should be enough to show you it aint right. music which cant be turned off, kissing scenes which cant be forwarded.
sure you can say depends on what you watch but the fact that those things are in the majority and prime should PUT you off and make you HATE it for the sake of Allaah
We have a fire that is blazing and it isn't about cinemas, it is the State the Muslim nations are in. The killing, injustice, and the disunity that is taking place in the Muslim world should receive more attention than this. We as Muslims should be able to create an environment that is clean, friendly and Islamic. Our Cinemas should not be like their cinemas, our movies should not be like their movies, our dramas should not be like their dramas, so on and so forth. If the movies are Islamic then there shouldn't be any kissing or music, or anything that is obscene. .
As i said before if Muslims created their own movies and documentaries which promoted Islamic values, and taught Muslims about Islam, then young Muslims won't have to watch movies that are created for "Western Audience".
I don't watch movies any more, I might watch few documentaries and chef shows, i don't know if you will consider that haram or not. But it would really be nice if there was a Islamic Corporation that carters to the Muslim Youth. We could express ourselves in a halaal manner.
70:28 Lo! the doom of their Lord is that before which none can feel secure
Good idea, but you could imagine movies about islam difficult to produce. 'The message' is a good example, it would be difficult not depicting certain people and some movies might have issues over accuratly portraying certain events - due to lack of information. Also how long would it be until the whole islamic history is covered? lol
Not necessarily historical narratives, but just ordinary movies of acceptable morality, but one that placed Islam in a positive light rather than the "OMG! Da Moluems is gonna blow me up!!!" that one usually sees in so many movies.
I understand how difficult it would be to compete with Hollywood though. Much of Islam's glory days were marked by an amazing ability to adapt to and improve external traditions in so far as they were compatible with Islam. Look at Al-Ghazali. Rather than reflexively rejecting Greek Philosophy as "UnIslamic" like some scholars he carefully studied it, discovered 20 doctrines that were incompatible with Islam, and adapted the rest to further Islam.
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