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'Islamophobia Awards' Betray IHRC's Remarkable Ignorance of the Arts

Artemisia (Eva Green): Not a Muslim
January 27, 2015

The Islamic Human Rights Commission—a U.K.-based human rights group whose "inspiration derives from the Qur'anic injunctions that command believers to rise up in defence of the oppressed"—last week announced the nominees for its "Islamophobia Awards 2015." The point of this gala is to "subvert Islamophobia through comedy and revue."

At first, I wondered how many cartoonists would be in attendance; there's a real deficit of them at the moment in France, for some reason. But then I started looking at the list of films nominated for their terrible, no-good, very-bad oppression of Muslims. And it contained a couple of notable titles. Notable and bizarre. So bizarre, in fact, that one can't help but wonder if the people nominating these pictures had actually, you know, seen the works in question.

Now, I know the hip thing to do these days is ignorantly judge movies you haven't seen, so maybe the IHRC is just working in the proud tradition of Dennis C. Jett. But even still, a few of these choices are still pretty weird.

Consider, for instance, the inclusion of 300: Rise of an Empire. It's worth noting that this film is set in 480 BC, roughly one millennium before Islam was founded. It's a movie about ridiculously attractive, washboard-abbed Greeks fighting off the Persian empire's navy which is, by the way, being led by another ridiculously attractive female Greek. Nary an adherent of Islam to be found!

Then there's Exodus: Gods and Kings. This movie is set even earlier than 300: Rise of an Empire, so there is, once again, nary an adherent of Islam to be found. There are, however, lots of Jews. Lots and lots of Jews. Jews behaving heroically in defense of themselves. And creating a new homeland. A new homeland that would, some time later, infuriate adherents of Islam. As a result, I can't help but wonder if the IHRC chose Exodus: Gods and Kings not because it is anti-Islam—again, there's not a Muslim anywhere in the film—but because it is pro-Jew. That strikes me as terribly, what's the word, ah yes: problematic.

Finally, there's Robocop. The crappy one released last year, not Paul Verhoeven's classic. On the one hand, I must give credit to the IHRC for, you know, picking a movie that actually had some Muslims in it. Kudos to you guys! On the other, I have to wonder, again, if anyone actually saw the movie before deciding to include it on the list. Because the Muslims portrayed in this movie are put-upon minorities being attacked by a corporate-funded war machine who are simply killing people to make a buck. The whole first portion of the film is a rather explicit denunciation of the war on terror, of the idea that we should use drones to kill people in foreign countries.

Maybe the IHRC should bring a film critic aboard next year in order to help them avoid embarrassing themselves.