IN the preface for her scholarly book "Seeing and Believing: Religious Values in Movies", Margaret R. Miles writes that, "The field of religion and film has been burdened by several less than fruitful approaches. Many reviewers for religious media have assumed that unless a film's primary content was extremely religious, it did not fall within the purview of religion and film." Religion is a touchy subject, even when discussed in small groups, even with people who think they share similar views. Since religion is such a huge part of many people's lives, even if a person is not religious or doesn't believe in anything, they will often end up defending their ideas and beliefs of why they don't believe in anything. In America, a country that likes to believe that religion doesn't or shouldn't occupy a major part of their stories …quot; since it's a country with many belief systems …quot; it still does regardless. You see characters turning to God in an hour of need; the same thing which happens in films which are produced from a country where religion is a higher priority, like Egypt. However, where there are films whose main plots revolve around religion, they tend to be more of a history lesson in film form; for example The Passion of the Christ (2004), which is most successful religious film ever made, and one of the most profitable films ever made in general. Most of these films are about a specific religion and its followers; there is really no sense of unity between other religions. This makes it really interesting to examine such films produced during these uncertain times. After the horrific events on New Year's Day, where a suicide bomber allegedly blew himself up in front of a church as people were walking out after the religious service, 23 people died, and more than 80 people have been injured. The media blasted a campaign of unity with songs and advertisements both in print and television; high-profile celebrities and politicians were telling everyone that this was not an attack on Christians, but was an attack on Egyptians in general which is true; this is an attack on a whole country because whoever did the disgusting deed didn't want to just hurt the Christian community, but divide a country that needs to survive by being united. Let's look back at films that have expressed unity. These films may not be that many, but the most recent one that comes to mind is the illreviewed Film Hindi starring Ahmed Adam and Salah Abdullah. The story of the movie revolves around this idea. Two friends, Atef and Sayed, personify the true meaning of friendship and what it stands for. Even though both have different religious convictions, somehow their friendship prevails over everything. The film's idea is true in many ways, whether or not the film was made poorly or not, this is not the point here, but the idea itself is true and evident in this country¸ but it may not happen as much as perhaps one should think. Does that mean all films that discuss religious differences should speak about loyalty and unity? That wouldn't be realistic, because films would and should do whatever they feel anyway. Despite the film's message, it comes with a bit of sarcasm though. The title Film Hindi is an expression that always indicates something unrealistic and not believable, in reference to the overblown nature of many Bollywood films. Another recent example come from Hassan wa Morcus (2008). When the lives of Mahmoud, a Muslim Sheikh (Omar Sherif) and Boulos (Adel Imam), Christian theologian are threatened by religious extremists on both sides, the Egyptian government inducts them into the witness protection programme that requires them to disguise themselves as the Christian "Morcus" and a Muslim Sheikh, "Hassan el-Attar", respectively. When, unwittingly, they move into the same building, a friendship blossoms that must, along with a romance between the protagonists' children, withstand the difficulties of prejudice and social persecution. Hassan wa Morcus doesn't attempt to name the reasons for the tension between Christians and Muslims. But according to the political writer and Coptic Christian Sameh Fawzi, the conflicts have nothing to do with religion. So what does it have to do with? It mainly has to do with fear, fear of the "Other", and fear is very powerful motive. In the US in the 1940s and 1950's, and of course prior to that, people were extremely fearful of black people; that's why they kept pushing them down and out. Meanwhile, black people were fearful of what white people could do to them. This is not to say that Muslims necessarily are "fearful" of Christians and vice versa, but rather it is the ideas that we have of each other which are distorted, and no-one really wants to take a time to understand the other. This media campaign of unity that is going on right now, as great as it is, it will fade eventually. We shouldn't need a unity campaign or a movie to teach us how to be closer to each other, or to love one another, or whatever after-school special message they try to pass on. These things should be self-evident and imprinted in us as part of being human and living in a world filled with diversity. Films can express hatred for something we care about, but that shouldn't affect enough to actually act on that hatred. This is the point of these terrorist acts. They are not to just murder people; this is just a small part of the bigger plan of terror, which is really to implant hatred, discord and fear.
