As I explained in an article when this controversy began, “Jihad Rehab” endeavors to show how poor jihad terrorists imprisoned at Guantánamo are the good guys, and the U.S. government is the real terrorist entity. But even though it reflected reliably Leftist views, “Jihad Rehab” has been deep-sixed by the Sundance Film Festival. As I have pointed out many, many times over the years, any negative presentation about jihad violence or Sharia oppression, or even one like “Jihad Rehab” that some might perceive as negative if they tilt their head sideways and squint really hard, will be condemned as “Islamophobic.” The only narrative allowed in mainstream American culture today is that jihad violence has nothing whatsoever to do with Islam, and that any opposition to it is “racist” and “Islamophobic” and must be condemned, and that Muslims are innocent victims of American oppression, always and in every case, without exception or any kind of shading.
“Sundance Addresses ‘Jihad Rehab’ Controversy: ‘The Showing of This Film Hurt Members of Our Community,’” by Christian Zilko, IndieWire, February 19, 2022:
After weeks of turmoil that culminated in the resignations of two staff members, the Sundance Film Festival has spoken publicly about the controversy caused by the film “Jihad Rehab.” Meg Smaker’s documentary about former Guantanamo Bay prisoners being held in a Saudi Arabian rehab facility has attracted controversy from the moment it was selected for Sundance. Criticisms of the film ranged from accusations that it did little to help offensive stereotypes about Muslim men to more serious charges that the documentary placed its subjects in danger.
IndieWire’s Eric Kohn summarized the film community’s grievances with the movie, writing “among the many problems with director Meg Smaker’s look at a Saudi Arabian institution designed to help former Guantanamo Bay prisoners reintegrate into society: There’s the title, which reinforces the most negative connotations of the term ‘jihad’; the positioning of the subjects as ominous Muslim stereotypes; and an ethically dubious approach to labeling men as ‘terrorists’ who haven’t been accused of actual crimes.”
In a new statement, Sundance Institute CEO Joana Vicente and Festival Director Tabitha Jackson apologized for any upset that the screening of the film caused and stressed the organization’s commitment to diversity. “We have been listening to, and reflecting on, the many perspectives shared around the inclusion of Meg Smaker’s documentary film ‘Jihad Rehab’ at our Festival in January,” the statement reads. “As with every film we show, we hope to stimulate conversation and debate that adds value to our civic society. In this case it is clear that the showing of this film hurt members of our community — in particular, individuals from Muslim and MENASA communities — and for that we are deeply sorry.”…
mortimer says
Yes! How DARE THEY suggest that TERRORIST-JIHADISTS NEED to be REHABILITATED! How Islamophobic can you get?
What do they think is wrong with being a member of a supremacist, terroristic DEATH CULT?
Nothing to see here, WOKE PEOPLE … move along!
BELIEVE WHAT WE TELL YOU ! NOT YOUR LYING EYES!
(sarc/off)
Keith O says
Mortimer, That wold be hilarious if it wasn’t the truth of the matter.
gravenimage says
Actually, “JIhad Rehab” is *not* supportive of “rehabilitating” Jihadists (whether this is possible is a separtate issue)–it is instead entirely sympathetic to the Jihadists. But even this is not enough.
spiro says
Stop apologizing for everything. And telling the truth
We don’t seem to have the backbone to stand up for anything
What a pitiful society
mortimer says
Truth is irrelevant to WOKIST people in the movies industry. They are ‘into’ neo-Marxist and globalist narratives, and to factual ‘truth’, they prefer TRUTHINESS.
Truthiness is a quality characterizing a “truth” that a person making an argument or assertion claims to know intuitively “from the gut” or because it “feels right” without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination, or facts.
-Truthiness is something you FEEL is true, even if it isn’t supported by fact.
Wokist former comic Stephen Colbert said that ‘Truthiness comes from the gut, because brains are overrated. You know who had a brain? Adolf Hitler, so naturally, brains aren’t good.’
-‘The fact that they looked (something) up in a book just shows that they don’t get the idea of truthiness at all,’ said Colbert. ‘You don’t look up truthiness in a book, you look it up in your gut.’
– Colbert explained the origin of his word: “Truthiness is a word I pulled right out of my keister”.
-“We’re not talking about truth, we’re talking about something that seems like truth – the truth we want to exist”,
-“I don’t trust books. They’re all fact, no heart.”
– Michael Adams, a professor at North Carolina State University who specializes in lexicology, said “truthiness” means “truthy, not facty”.
So much for facts … Sundance.
mortimer says
See no jihad. Hear no jihad. Say no jihad.
Or else.
-by order of the SUPREME LEADERS of the Wokist Red-Green Axis of Evil.
(BIg Brother is watching you. 2 + 2 = 5)
somehistory says
Yes, they “listened” and they talked around the table and said things to themselves about not wishing to be blown to smithereens, don’t want a Charlie Hebdo happening to them, rather not be like the teacher, Mr. Paty, and decided to make a big apology….which won’t save their necks in the long-run. Next time they step on toes…
Of course if the toes they step on are truly peaceful, they can show whatever “film” they care to show. Just don’t step on those who engage in the kind of “peaceful” things the Gitmo group did and does. That “inner struggle” might kill them.
mortimer says
That’s it: the managers of the Sundance Film Festival prefer to have NO visits from the jihadists in the film.
Kenneth J Johnson says
Why apologize?? KEN
mortimer says
Because a comforting, whitewashing FALSEHOOD about Islam is better than a challenging TRUTH about Islam . Muslims are demanding that kafirs make FALSE STATEMENTS that polishe the PRESTIGE and IMAGE of Islam.
Pray Hard says
Gutless.
mortimer says
The film makers showed the jihadists in a good light, but they showed Islam’s jihaad teaching in a poor light. So it was ‘Islamophobic’, because anything which casts Islam in a poor light or diminishes the ‘IMAGE’ or ‘HONOR’ of Islam is ‘Islamophobic’.
Truth is not an important criterion for an ‘HONOR/SHAME’ culture such as Islam.
gravenimage says
Actually, the film from what I have read *doesn’t* present Jihd in a poor light, Instead it presents the Jihadists as victims. But Muslims are attacking the filmmaker for just using the term “JIhad” in this context at all.
gravenimage says
Sundance Film Festival apologizes for showing documentary about rehabilitation of jihadis
As I explained in an article when this controversy began, “Jihad Rehab” endeavors to show how poor jihad terrorists imprisoned at Guantánamo are the good guys, and the U.S. government is the real terrorist entity. But even though it reflected reliably Leftist views, “Jihad Rehab” has been deep-sixed by the Sundance Film Festival.
…………………
Yes–no degree of appeasement of Islam is *ever* enough.
Wellington says
The Sundance Film Festival has been a joke for years, rather like the UN. Thank Robert Redford first and foremost for this rubbish, yet another used-up old Leftie who will go to his grave never really figuring out how the world works.
James Lincoln says
Wellington,
You’re right about Robert Redford:
An incredibly talented actor / director, now 85 years old, will go to his grave clinging to Leftist views.
Nothing will change his mind. Nothing.
Very common with the Hollywood crowd.
Wellington says
Same for Robert De Niro, James. Great actor but in real life vicious and ignorant. And, as you said, this is very common with the Hollywood crowd which is why I and so many others call it Hollyweird.
OLD GUY says
Islamophobia would not exist if Islam wasn’t so hateful, violent and murderous against women, children and all non-islamic followers. Islam promotes aggressive attacks and invasion of other countries and communities. The forced following of islamic rule is not religious, but rather a power grab by the islamic dictators. May ISLAMOPHOBIA stand tall and strong until their leaders get the message that we the non-muslim population of the world are not going to accept their islamic dictatorship of the world.
Stand up for your FREEDOM not islam.