The film was “freaking brilliant” until Muslim critics started to call it “Islamophobic.” Then everyone backed away and turned on filmmaker Meg Smaker, including Abigail Disney, the film’s producer.
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” is still not acceptable to the victimhood propaganda industry.
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.
“Abigail Disney disavowed her own film about terrorism under pressure from Muslim critics: report,” by Ariel Zilber, New York Post, September 26, 2022:
Abigail Disney disavowed an acclaimed documentary about terrorism that she produced after Muslim critics accused its director of promoting harmful stereotypes about Islam.
Disney, the grandniece of Walt Disney and granddaughter of his brother and Disney co-founder Roy Disney, is listed as the executive producer of “Jihad Rehab,” a 110-minute-long film that was directed by Meg Smaker….
After learning to speak fluent Arabic, she began making a film about a Saudi facility where captured jihadists undergo a rehabilitation in order to wean themselves off extremist ideology….
Initially, Disney was thrilled with Smaker’s work, calling it “freaking brilliant” in an email to the filmmaker, according to the New York Times. The film also premiered to widespread acclaim at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival.
But Disney disavowed the project after Arab and Muslim critics took issue with Smaker’s race, arguing that a white woman from California could not tackle the subject of Islamic extremism in a sensitive, unbiased way.
Smaker was accused of peddling Islamophobia and American propaganda. The criticism prompted Sundance Film Festival, one of the most prestigious forums in cinema, to issue a public apology for screening the movie….
Jude Chehab, a Lebanese American filmmaker, wrote a review in TRTWorld in which she declared: “When I, a practicing Muslim woman, say that this film is problematic, my voice should be stronger than a white woman saying that it isn’t. Point blank.”
In an open letter, Disney wrote that the film “landed like a truckload of hate.”
“I failed, failed and absolutely failed to understand just how exhausted by and disgusted with the perpetual representation of Muslim men and women as terrorists or former terrorists or potential terrorists the Muslim people are,” Disney wrote.
“I may not be in total agreement with every criticism of the film but that does not obviate my responsibility to earnestly own the damage I had a hand in.”…
Disney’s letter and the decision by Sundance to apologize prompted other film festivals to cancel the screening of the documentary, according to the Times.
Smaker was disinvited to the Austin-based South by Southwest festival as well as the San Francisco Film Festival….
CogitoErgoSum says
A white woman cannot understand Islam? This is absolute racism and demeaning to women also. I haven’t seen this movie but, even according to Muhammad, all one has to do to understand Islam is to read the Koran. Everything a person needs to know is there – according to Muhammad himself. If Muslims don’t like the image that I have of them, which is according to the Koran, then the problem is the Koran and their own dislike for what it says. Disney needs to stand up for herself, for women, for white people … and for the TRUTH.
gravenimage says
True, CogitoErgoSum, Funny how white women like “Jihad Jane” Colleen LaRose seemed to have no problem understanding Islam.
Check Burry says
They say that till the return to UK, USA etc, then it changes to Miss understoord
somehistory says
I was told…to my face, in my hearing (which is excellent)…that all one has to do to be a mozlum is to say that phrase that little kids are being taught in school, made to write as assignments, etc.”
He told me to my face…he a teacher in a madrassa…that if someone says that phrase, that one is then a mozlum.
The disney woman speaks the language of mozlums…color shouldn’t matter. She could easily say that phrase and then she would be equal….in stupidity….to the proud mozlum woman with a Jew’s …who became Christian… name. Then she could stay honest in her assessment of the film and not pull the dirty carpet from under the director.
This is all about a bunch of terrorists, would-be terrorists, wannabees, and those who fund, encourage, preach, teach, and applaud what mozlums to do the rest of us.
I can’t feel any empathy for disney or any of the others involved.
Daniel Bielak says
Whether or not a film about Islamic Jihad is “problematic” cannot be judged more accurately by “a practicing Muslim” than by a “a white woman,” because a white (ethnically European) woman can be a practicing Muslim.
“The Muslim people?” Islam is not a race nor an ethnicity nor a nationality.
Islam is a religious and political ideology and system of government; an unwholesome one (to put it mildly). The degree to which an adherent of Islam follows its official precepts determines the degree to which that person’s thoughts, speech, and actions, are unwholesome. Many people who consider themselves to be Muslim do not follow Islam’s official precepts fidelously, and are therein only “culturally Muslim.” Unless a Muslim is waging Jihad against non-Muslims overtly or by stealth, as long as there exist non-Muslims, that Muslim is not “a practicing Muslim.”
Daniel Bielak says
According to the official religious documents of Islam, the supposed founder of Islam, Mohammed, mass-murdered, enslaved, pillaged, promoted deceit, raped, engaged in pedophilia, and urged his followers to do the same, and is held up as the “perfect man” to be emulated. That should tell one all there is to know about Islam.
gravenimage says
Abigail Disney disavowed her own film about jihad terrorism under pressure from Muslim critics
…………………………………..
Just appalling–now you are supposed to whitewash not just Islam, but actual Jihad terror.
And this film *is* sympathetic to Jihad terrorists who spent time in Gitmo–apparently just not quite sympathetic *enough*, since it acknowledged that Jihad terror exists, and didn’t depict it as a positive thing.
More:
“I failed, failed and absolutely failed to understand just how exhausted by and disgusted with the perpetual representation of Muslim men and women as terrorists or former terrorists or potential terrorists the Muslim people are,” Disney wrote.
…………………………………..
Not as disgusted and exhausted as good people are by seeing more and more Islamic terrorism.
Daniel Bielak says
Gravenimage,
I feel uneasy about posting the comments I’ve been posting on this site because the comments I’ve posted are harsh (by Buddhist, and therein my, standards). Many people do unwholesome things, and it’s frustrating. But all one can really do that is wholesome is do good, avoid doing evil, and purify one’s own mind.
But it’s comforting to know that others recognize that what is unwholesome is unwholesome.
gravenimage says
Daniel, the posts I have read of yours I have not considered to be harsh. I think it is important to be kind–but not to extend kindness to actual evil.
I do have a certain amount of sympathy for someone like Abigail Disney, who was trying to produce a sensitive documentary and got unexpected flak. But I have little sympathy for those committing or whitewashing Jihad terror itself.
And as I noted on another thread, i am glad to see you posting here again.
medaber_emet says
the fucking world is insane
when will people will grow a brain
Check Burry says
As Jerry Lee & Hank said, You win again. ie the mussos
Scotsman48 says
Coming soon.. A film about Christian Fundamentalists made by a muslim….
Imagine the outrage…