These people are nuts. Kill, kill, kill. When will our trolls appear with their excuses?

Posted by: Carolyn2 at October 31, 2005 12:10 PM

He should seek safe haven in Great Britain.

There is a battalion of women from the "blue rinse" generation who would protect his life to the death.

If Jihadists think that the SAS & the 101st Airborne are tough cookies, wait till they get aload of our Womens Institute types.

Posted by: albion at October 31, 2005 12:10 PM

I always thought Omar Sharif was a Copt so I was mystified when I read this a few days ago. Apparently he is of Catholic Lebanonese descent and converted to Islam in 1955 to marry an Eqyptian actress.

Posted by: Silvester at October 31, 2005 12:13 PM

Speaking of death threats, Hans Peter Raddatz, German author of, among other books on Islam, 'From God to Allah', is also taking internet death threats seriously and has engaged bodyguards. Plus ca change!

http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,380523,00.html

Posted by: Silvester at October 31, 2005 12:23 PM

From what I could remember, Omar Shariff was never a Muslim. He was born a Christian to Egyptian Christian parents in 1932. His birth name was Michael Shalhoub. He changed his name to Omar Shariff when he was a 'star' in Egypt before he rose to international stardom after the film Lawrence of Arabia. He was married in Egypt to a Muslim woman actress Faten Hamma in 1954 , he divorced in 1974. He was never a Muslim & to my knowledge neave became one.
What is wrong with Muslims; if he does portray a Christian he was always a Christian.

Posted by: faqi at October 31, 2005 12:30 PM

Yes, Silvester, I have read that Omar, who in a former life went by the first name of Michael, was once an altar boy in church. Evidently, his conversion of fifty years ago helped his career. This is not the first time that he has been in hot water with his fellow believers. There was quite a bit of criticism when he kissed Barabra Stresidand in the "Hello Dolly" movie years ago Of course, since that movie, things have moved along quite a bit in the Muslim world and Islamic feelings are more easily bruised than ever. Omar, a.k.a. Michael, better do something very Islamic quickly, like donate lots of cash in a public way to Hamas, or invite the president of Iran for a friendly game of bridge, which is Omar's real passion in life.

Posted by: maryrose at October 31, 2005 12:30 PM

faqi
I took this info from Daniel Pipes

http://www.danielpipes.org/comments/1951

Posted by: Silvester at October 31, 2005 12:34 PM

Hell, what if they ever found out that Omar also teamed up with Babs Streisand back in the 1960s and played the part of a Jewish gambler in Funny Girl.

Posted by: waterdragon52 at October 31, 2005 1:05 PM

what, another muslim refugee, albion? youre getting soft in your old age

Posted by: freddiefreeloader at October 31, 2005 1:33 PM

Surely it's not that easy to offend Islam!

Posted by: 1630r at October 31, 2005 1:40 PM

If he's playing St. Peter, then he's playing a Christian anda Jew.

Posted by: CGW at October 31, 2005 2:10 PM

It's a shame their prophet "The beast mohammed"
isn't alive maybe we could prosecute him for being a fraud.

I think I will kill a pint of Kronnenburg now

Posted by: apostate_islam at October 31, 2005 2:38 PM

I saw a television interview in which he said that he had converted to Islam long ago, but now no longer believes in it.

I thought "you're in trouble".

He opposed the ban on the hijab for French schoolgirls. But now, I think that now that he's on the recieving end, he'll finally understand how evil this religion is.

Posted by: Voltaire at October 31, 2005 3:17 PM

He caused a stir a few years ago because one of his grandkids is a kaffir -- either a Christian or a Jew, can't remember which.

Posted by: Suzan at October 31, 2005 3:33 PM

Before we pass judgment on this death threat, has anyone seen his performance? I didn't like him in Dr. Zhivago AT ALL, I thought he completely ruined the role, but death seems a little extreme...

BTW, Lawrence of Arabia was absolutely my favorite film -- until 9/11 ripped away the veil about Arab culture, and the hatreds of Islam... I now think of it as part of the malignant chimera of dreamers and fantasists regarding Muslims that began after Islam collapsed at Vienna's door, and which continues to this day in academia, in the media, and in the imaginations of mesmerized Westerners... The movie represents everything that is wrong... I can't bear to watch it any more...

And that's another caveat for Hugh's beloved notion of fomenting violence and imbalance through exploiting Muslim rifts... You never know what nightmares will ensue when Islam is perturbed...

Such things seem to lead to extremely unexpected consequences... Who in the early 20th century would have dreamed that placing a tribe of hate filled Arab rubes in charge of Arabia and the "Holy Islamic Shrines" of Makkah and Medina, would translate into the Wahhabi nightmare confronting us today? Who would have believed that this backward, ignorant, filthy desert wreckage would eventually have trillions of dollars at their disposal (also developed by us) to wage a successful campaign of Islamic Jihad against us??? Who would have dreamt that teasing the balance of power from a collapsing regime to such an unlikely recipient would translate into an existential battle for the survival of humanity and civilization as we know it?

Allah works in mysterious ways ! Seen in this regard -- is it any wonder that Muslims believe in the ordained inevitability of their conquest of Planet Earth ?

Posted by: jsla at October 31, 2005 3:41 PM

I hope he comes back to catholicism, he is a wonderful actor, in Doctor Zhivago and Lawrence of Arabia are magnific.

Posted by: Franze at October 31, 2005 3:43 PM

I heard it straight from the horse's (or camel's) mouth: Omar Sharif himself, while being interviewed about two years ago on the American late night talk show with (the now retired) Craig Kilborn, explained that he converted long ago to Islam because his fiancee whom he eventually married was Muslim.

These death threats do show that there is an obvious oscillation in Islamic extremism -- Omar Sharif has in the last 45+ years since his conversion to Islam played roles that would conceivably offend certain Muslims, and never had any fallout before.

Similarly, in the 50s clear through the late 80s, there were a few Muslim intellectuals and novelists, including in Egypt, who plied their trade without this much extremism & death threats frothing up to the surface.

We are clearly in a high-oscillation period now, and it appears to be getting more intense with each new day.

Posted by: Dr. Pepper at October 31, 2005 4:11 PM

This is from DW in January about Omar Sharifs grandchildren of different religions.

http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/000574.php

His son, who Sharif brought up himself away from Egypt, has been married three times. The eldest grandson, an adult, son of a Polish Jewish woman, is like his mother Jewish. He didn't have children with his Roman Catholic wife. His youngest grandson who I think must be about 7 is the son of his Moslem wife. He feels that his son married so often to make up for the absence of his mother. http://www.despardes.com/people/Omar-Sharif-dec8.html

Posted by: Granny Weatherwax at October 31, 2005 4:42 PM

"Hugh's beloved notion of fomenting violence..."
-- from a posting above

I have never suggested that the American or any other government "foment violence." Nor need it send soldiers, and spend many billions, to prevent "violence" between Sunnis and Shi'a. Let them act wtihout the American presence. And I urge the Americans not to leave any of their equipment behind, which might make any subsequent violence more deadly. The one exception: equipment for the Kurdish pesh merga that might, in the difficult circumstances, surrounded by those who do not wish them well (the Shi'a may be willing to wish them goodbye, but can hardly wish them well), require an extra something.

Posted by: Hugh at October 31, 2005 6:10 PM

I really liked him in Top Secret with Val Kilmer. Muslims must have gotten really upset when he picked up that "phoney" dog poo.

Posted by: Tomilio at October 31, 2005 6:48 PM

I have to admit, he was quite the handsome charmer in his day. I believe he had an affair with Babs Streisand in the '70s as a matter of fact.

Granny, thanks for the link on Omar's grandkids. I hope his Muslim grandkid doesn't declare jihad on his Jewish grandkid.

Posted by: Suzan at October 31, 2005 7:04 PM

In "Behold a Pale Horse" Sharif played a priest. I loved him in that role and also in Dr. Zhivago. Jsla, I know, I know, you read the book before you saw the movie. Am I right?

Posted by: Rebecca JW at October 31, 2005 7:29 PM

Rebecca - - Of course I read it first -- I didn't see it until about 10 years ago -- Music was grand -- and Mr. Lean's cinematography -- well -- about the best in the world --

Posted by: jsla at October 31, 2005 7:49 PM

Omar: I know that he is from Lebanese descent and he was born in Egypt, educated at a prestigious catholic academy in Alexandria, later converted to build a career as a leading man in Arab movies. His Muslim wife saved him from the hands of Nasser regime by helping smuggle him out of Egypt. He came back to Egypt in the 80’s after running out of money to make guest appearances in Egyptian movies for some extra cash.

He is throwback to an era, even before the Nasser regime, at the time of King Faraok and the liberal age under the British before pan-Arabism and Islamism utterly destroyed Egypt.

Posted by: have_mercy at October 31, 2005 9:27 PM

What an impression Omar Sharif apparently made, in his filmic glory. Schoolgirls liked to play their favorite record --- the "Lara Theme" -- endlessly, and imagine her,-- that is to say their -- Slavic (Egyptian) lover, the quietly passionate Dr. Zhivago, as played by Omar Sharif. Schoolboys, on the toher hand dreamed of the cheekbones of La Skulastaya, Julie Christie. Adults who already knew that the Slavic Soul was something special, so unlike that of shallow Westerners, could now become acquainted, and fall in love, with the Russian countryside, those special Russian snows, that endless Russian plain through which a choo-choo or kukushka would chug, taking Dr. Zhivago somewhere, somewhere....Unfortunately, that endless Russian plain, and those Russian snows, were filmed not outside Moscow, perhaps on the field of Borodino, but rather an hour or so outside Madrid, in the Sierra Nevada. It wouldn't surprise me to find out that even the indoor scenes, those palaces and apartments all lit by flickering romantic candles or half-light, and the mock-Smolniy, or the mock-Winter Palace (I don't even remember if I saw the movie and certainly can't remember the details), may have been filmed in Rome, at Cinecitta.

Deceptive, those film-makers, aren't they --pulling that wool over our eyes by giving us Phalangist instead of Bolshevik snow to swoon over, and Roman rather than Russian interiors.

What was it that Yeats wrote for that special Dr. Zhivago edition of "Variety"? Yes, I remember:

"How can I, that girl standing there/My attention fix/On Roman or on Spanish/or on bogus Russian pix?"

There are the mislineations of memory. And I may also have transposed a few words. It's been known to happen.

Posted by: Hugh at October 31, 2005 10:22 PM

I must confess that my main interest in Dr Zhivago was Tom Courtney as the sweet idealistic Pasha Antipov, Lara's fiance, metamorphosing into the brutal revolutionary Strelnikov.

Michael Caine and Omar Sharif became friends on one film set (it may have been Ashanti, about the North African slave trade, my husband happened upon some elderly relatives watching this one day, and knowing that the little arab boy was going to be sodomised in the next scene tryed to pour tea and change the subject quick!) and nick-named Sharif "Cairo Fred". Since when I have never been able to take the sultry eyes image seriously.

Posted by: Granny Weatherwax at November 1, 2005 2:46 AM

Peter O'Toole said in an interview that he and Omar Sharif while filming Lawrence of Arabia would drink into the wee hours, then in order to be presentable for their camel-riding scenes the next day, they'd drink a mixture of rum and milk. This was in the early 60s, years after Omar had become a Muslim. Did any Muslims back then blink an eye?

Posted by: Dr. Pepper at November 1, 2005 2:58 AM

Freeloader

We haven't seen much of you round here since you shamefully leapt into bed with KT & cuddled up real close to the now proven western hating liberal troll in a very poor attempt to score a couple of cheap points from me.

Socialists eh! Are there no depths they cannot sink to?

Best regards
Albion

Posted by: albion at November 1, 2005 5:08 AM

granny's link to the Jan. 2004 item reminded me of the stinker Omar made back around then, a remake of a much earlier play/movie about an impoverished and wayward Jewish youth, abandoned by his mother and psychologically abused by his mentally unstable father, and his relationship with a Muslim shopkeeper. The father commits suicide and when the mother comes to reclaim the son, the son has already adopted an Islamic alter-ego. Had the premise been reversed, with a Muslim boy finding a surrogate parent in a Jew and adopting Judaism, could you imagine the hew and cry that would have gone up.

Posted by: waterdragon52 at November 1, 2005 10:38 AM

"Omar Sharif has in the last 45+ years since his conversion to Islam played roles that would conceivably offend certain Muslims, and never had any fallout before."
-- posted by Dr. Pepper

Don't forget, Doc, that would-be Caliph Osama bin Laden called a jihad in his fatwah published Al-Quds al-'Arabi on Febuary 23, 1998.

Don't you EVER forget this again. Caliph bin Laden is not pleased with your lack of fidelity; nor are the hundreds of millions of young moderate Moslem men who would murder you -- or the fallen Sunni Omar Sharif, for that matter -- at the drop of a hat (or shumagh, whichever you please).

Posted by: Chaz MarteL 732 at November 1, 2005 10:39 AM

Is this really what it has come to? People just casually tossing out death threats and calls for others to kill? Sharif is an actor for shiites sake and now he has to be killed?

These people are bordering on extinction and they dont even know it.

Posted by: Dead Infidel Walking at November 1, 2005 9:00 PM

I don't know. Sharif is exhibiting more and more signs of being a practicing Jihadist every day.

Posted by: Shy Guy at November 6, 2005 3:59 AM