Middle
East Uproar Over Fahrenheit 9/11
08-01-04
.
(antiTainment) Saudi Arabian and Kuwait have
both come out against Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11. Kuwait has banned
the film in their country because they feel it is insulting to the Saudi
royal family and critical of the war with Iraq. Kuwait cites a law
that prohibits insulting friendly nations.
The Kuwaiti government sees Moore’s criticism
of the invasion of Iraq as a criticism of their efforts in the liberation
of their neighboring country. They also find a problem with the portrayal
of pre-invasion of Iraq. "The movie made Iraq look like a paradise whose
problems started with the American invasion," said Abdul-Aziz Bou Dastour,
the cinema and production supervisor at the Kuwaiti Information Ministry.
"It would have angered Kuwaitis."
The Saudi royal family has also denounced
the film as inaccurate, especially an accusation that high-ranking Saudi
nationals were allowed to flee the United States immediately following
the 9/11 attacks, despite a ban on all air traffic. A claim that was refuted
by the 9/11 commission.
Prince Turki al-Faisal, the Saudi ambassador
to England, said that Moore did not properly research the information for
his film. In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Prince Turki, who
was in charge of Saudi intelligence in 2001 when the attacks occurred,
said that Moore’s film was “grossly unfair” to Saudi Arabia. He also said
that Moore was given a visa to visit Saudi Arabia but the director never
used it.
The Saudi and Kuwaiti’s are not the only
ones to recently take issue with accuracy of the film. Last week an Illinois
newspaper sent a letter to Moore and the film’s distributor Lions Gate
Entertainment Corp., seeking an apology for Moore’s use of a “doctored”
front page in the film.
The film includes a shot of the front page
of Bloomington based The Pantagraph newspaper front page containing the
headline "Latest Florida recount shows Gore won election." The film has
the dateline for the story as Dec. 19, 2001.
The newspaper says that the headline in
the film never appeared on that day and was not featured on the front page
on the day that it did run, Dec. 5, 2001. The newspaper says that the headline
was much smaller and was used above a letter to the editor and was used
to reflect 'only the opinions of the letter writer'.
"If (Moore) wants to 'edit' The Pantagraph,
he should apply for a copy-editing job," the newspaper said. They are seeking
$1 in damages.
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