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Hugh Fitzgerald: Sunday Night at the Oscars (Part Two)

Feb 26, 2019 1:00 pm By Hugh Fitzgerald

Other Arab websites never mention Malek being a Copt. Arab News, for example, has this:

Born to immigrant parents, the Egyptian American is poised to make history as the first actor of Arab descent to clinch the top acting prize at the Oscars, seen as one of the highest recognitions in the field. In 2016, he scored an Emmy for his performance in the hit TV show “Mr. Robot.”

Al-Arabiya was equally cryptic about his identity: “Rami Malek, whose parents immigrated from Egypt to the United States, took home the best actor prize for his turn as Freddie Mercury in “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

Neither the New York Times, nor The Washington Post, nor NPR or  CNN or the BBC, mentioned that Rami Malek is a Coptic Christian. Most media outlets stuck to describing him as “Egyptian.” Some Arab outlets described Malek as an “Arab-American.” Arab News, for example, carried the headline: “Arab glory as Rami Malek wins an Oscar.’’ Many — possibly most — Copts, deny that they are Arabs; they see themselves as descending from the original Egyptians, present for millennia before the Muslim Arab invaders arrived.

As for Freddie Mercury being a Parsee, descended from the Zoroastrians in Iran who had escaped religious persecution by fleeing to Gujarat in India, that has not been mentioned in any of the stories about the Oscars among the the major media.

A well-prepared reporter, with a sense of history, might have used the awarding of the Oscar for Best Actor as a teaching moment. In the midst of all the Hollywood hoopla, it might have been noted that just as Freddie Mercury was Zoroastrian, and thus a descendant of those who were driven out of Iran by Muslim Arab invaders in the 7th century, so the actor who played him, Rami Malek, is a Coptic Christian whose people have endured persecution, and worse, since Muslim Arabs arrived in Egypt in the 7th century. Well-prepared, and intrepid.

The Copt, Rami Malek, and the Zoroastrian, Freddie Mercury, had much in common as the descendants of non-Muslims in islamized lands.

There is one more piquant detail pertaining to the “Muslim” winner of this year’s Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, Mahershala Ali. The Arab media have been hailing Ali as the Muslim winner of an Oscar. But Ali, a convert, belongs to the Ahmadi sect. That means most of the world’s Muslims do not regard him as a genuine Muslim. He is not allowed to identify himself as a Muslim in Pakistan, according to the Second Amendment to the Constitution. And there have been repeated pogroms against Ahmadis, with many victims, in Lahore, in 1953, 1974, and 2010. In Saudi Arabia, too, Ahmadis are not considered to be Muslims, and are officially banned by the Saudis from entering their country, which means Mahershala Ali cannot make the hajj. Ahmadis have faced strong resistance in many other Muslim-majority nations, where they have been considered heretics and non-Muslim, and subjected to persecution and systematic, sometimes state-sanctioned, oppression.

In Afghanistan, any affiliation with the Ahmadiyya movement is a capital offense. In Algeria in 2016, a planned Ahmadi mosque was raided and shut down in Larbraa. Since March 2016, more than 280 Ahmadis were arrested and  prosecuted. Algerian officials have publicly called Ahmadis heretics and a threat to Algeria. in Bangladesh, large, violent marches against the Ahmadis have taken place; some Ahmadis have been placed under “house arrest”; all Ahmadi publications have been banned; mainstream Muslims have demanded that the Ahmadis be declared to be “kaffirs.” In Egypt Ahmadis have been harassed and detained by the police.

In India, Muslims have exhumed and desecrated the bodies of Ahmadis; Muslims have demanded Ahmadis cease to proselytize for Islam. In Indonesia, Ahmadi mosques have been attacked and Ahmadis killed. Many Indonesians believe that the Ahmadiyya movement should be banned outright as a heretical and deviant sect that is not listed as an officially recognised religion in Indonesia. In Malaysia, Ahmadis have been banned from offering Friday Prayers in their central mosque. In Israel, the leader of the Ahmadi community has complained  that the Palestinian Authority is “encouraging the cold-blooded murder of Ahmadis” by “failing to take concrete action to protect the community.” In the U.K., an Ahmadi shopkeeper was stabbed to death by a Muslim for “religious” reasons. In April 2016, leaflets were distributed across London’s universities, mosques and shopping centers, calling for the killing of Ahmadis.

So for now the Muslim Arabs can proudly claim Mahershala Ali as their “Muslim Oscar winner,” while carefully refraining from mentioning that he is an Ahmadi. And someone better warn Ali, if he doesn’t know already — to  steer clear of most of the Islamic world. It could be bad for his health.

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Filed Under: Featured, Hugh Fitzgerald, journalistic bias Tagged With: Mahershala Ali, Rami Malek


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Comments

  1. mortimer says

    Feb 26, 2019 at 1:29 pm

    Coptic Christians are the indigenous people of Egypt.

  2. lebel says

    Feb 26, 2019 at 2:28 pm

    “So for now the Muslim Arabs can proudly claim Mahershala Ali as their “Muslim Oscar winner,” while carefully refraining from mentioning that he is an Ahmadi.”

    Maybe because the people who are proud of him are not the same people who persecute Ahmadis? just a guess

    • gravenimage says

      Feb 26, 2019 at 10:56 pm

      Actually, orthodox Muslims have done this before–claiming Ahmadis as Muslim when it makes Islam look good–here, or in the case of the Ahmadi Nobel Prize winner; but continuing to savagely persecute them over not adhering to mainstream Islam otherwise.

      • Guido says

        Feb 27, 2019 at 11:40 am

        I am not quite sure that Muslims claim the Ahmadi Nobel Prize winner as one of their religion. The Nobel laureate is Abdus Salam, who was a very prominent theoretical physicist. When he was bestowed the award, he toured both Pakistan and India. In India he was acclaimed as a hero-he was born in a village in India when the country was one under the British rule, while now the village is in Pakistan. In Pakistan students did not allow him to publicly give talks.
        When he died, he was buried in the village where he was born; on his tomb it was engraved “the first Muslim Nobel Laureate” (perhaps “for Physics” was added but I am not sure). The Pakistani authorities had the word “Muslim” erased, so that now the engraving reads “the first Nobel Laureate”.

    • AleX says

      Feb 27, 2019 at 1:09 pm

      @lebel

      lebel says:
      ‘Maybe because the people who are proud of him are not the same people who persecute Ahmadis? just a guess’

      All true, provided you impersonated a mohamedan mind and know well the mohamedan view on the Ahmadis. You seem to align with the ‘vast majority’ of ‘moderates’, somehow you are so culturally close to the mainstream Islamic view on the Ahmadi issue, so much so that you can opine differently on the subject of the article.
      Disregard the persecution, just assume the persecutors are a ‘tiny minority’ and the problem is non existent. Dismiss what is critical to islam and continue to rely on assumptions. Voilà.

  3. eduardo odraude says

    Feb 26, 2019 at 3:11 pm

    Muhammad rejects religious pluralism

    For example, in Sahih Muslim, a canonical hadith collection:
    Book 19.4366
    https://muflihun.com/muslim/19/4366

    It has been narrated by ‘Umar b. al-Khattib that he heard the Messenger of Allah [Muhammad] (may peace be upon him) say:”I will expel the Jews and Christians from the Arabian Peninsula and will not leave any but Muslim.”

  4. Rufolino says

    Feb 27, 2019 at 3:51 am

    Like so many other Oscar-winning films in the past, “Bohemian Rhapsody” will quickly fade from memory

    • gravenimage says

      Feb 27, 2019 at 4:20 am

      Probably so, Rufolino–although that is not the main point here.

      And there *have* been a few great films recognized by the Academy over the years–Casablanca immediately comes to mind. All Quiet on the Western Front, Mrs. Miniver, The Best Years of Our Lives, Gentleman’s Agreement, From Here to Eternity, On The Waterfront, A Man For All Seasons, Schindler’s List, The King’s Speech, 12 Years a Slave, and Argo are also all very good.

      This last is as close as we have to an Anti-Jihad film–I would recommend it.

      But yes–many have been quite forgettable–especially, it seems, of late as things get more and more political at the Oscars.

  5. Ronyvo says

    Feb 27, 2019 at 6:38 am

    I have written the following essay in 2002:
    THE COPTS
    A brief history
    The word Copt (Gypt or quipt) and Egyptian are identical, and both are derivatives from the Greek word “Aigyptos”. The Copts have been described as the direct descendents of the ancient Egyptians and are considered by Anthoropologists as one of the purist races.

    The Coptic language is the last development of the ancient Egyptian language “Hieoglyphic” which was written in pictographic form. The Coptic language, namely, the pharaonic speech written in the Greek alphabets with the addition of 7 letters for sounds which do not exist in Greek, but existed in the Egyptian, was the official used by the Egyptians even during the Greco-Roman period. But when the Ptolenaic Dynasty started to rule Egypt after the invasion of Alexander the Great in 332 B.C., Greek was used as the official language. Until the invasion of the Arabs in the 7th century A.D. (642 A.D.). About the 17 century A.D. the Coptic language was discontinued, even as the spoken language of Egypt.
    One of the Khalifas (Muslim rulers) issued a law to cut the tongue of any Christian who speaks Coptic. Muslims used the word Coptic for the Orthodox Christians of Egypt.
    The Coptic language is still used in the Churches in Egypt and all over the World and among many Copts.

    The Coptic Church was established in Alexandria between 55 and 68 A.D. by St. Mark, one of the 4 Gospel writers, and one of the 70 Apostles of Jesus Christ. The present Coptic Pope Tawadros is the 118th.

    Christianity started in the first century A.D. and until the middle of the fifth century A.D. there was a strong unity among the traditional Churches.
    The first ecumenical council of Nicea took place in June 325 A.D., because the Libyan priest Arius denied the divinity of Christ. This heresy was rejected by the council. The second council of Constantinople, was held in 381 A.D. to discuss the heresy of Bishop Macedonius who did not believe in the “divinity of the Holy Spirit”. He was excommunicated. In 431 A.D., the members of the 3rd ecumenical council gathered in Ephesus and excommunicated Nestorius who believed that Christ was 2 distinct person.
    Another council was held in 448 in Ephesus because Eutyohes rejected the humanity of Christ. In 451 A.D. another council took place in Chaleedon, because of the false accusations that Pope Diseerus of the see of Alexandria was Eutychin, although he was not. During the meeting of this council, a strong conflict appeared among the different churches because of their creeds. Before and after this council, major gaps opened among these churches.
    The first church to be alienated was that of Egypt, then those of Antioch, Armenia, Ethiopia and India.
    The classical and modern historians tell us that many of the Christians of Egypt, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, the United States, central and south America, Canada, Australia and Asia are following the same Creed of the Coptic Church.
    Christians of the Nile Valley-History of the Coptic Orthodox Church(Part 1 of 2)
    We are not from the Semitic branch but rather from the Hamitic branch.  The Book of Genesis identifies us being from Misriam the Son of Ham.

    • gravenimage says

      Feb 27, 2019 at 11:53 pm

      +1

  6. Ronyvo says

    Feb 27, 2019 at 6:42 am

    The Copts have nothing to do what so ever with the Arabs. Period.

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