It's a nice effort. I'm not sure how effective, but nice:
A new television series being broadcast around the Middle East tells the story of Arabs living in residential compounds in Saudi Arabia and the militant Islamists who want to blow them up so they [the militants) can collect their rewards in heaven -- 72 beautiful virgins.
The show's message: terrorism is giving Islam a bad name, and Muslims are suffering because of the actions of a few.
The programs, which began last Tuesday on the first day of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, have come under a blistering attack on the Internet in Arabic language chat rooms.
The critics are demanding the Saudi-owned and Dubai-based Middle East Broadcasting Corporation, a popular Arabic satellite television station that bought the show and broadcasts it across the region, cancel it. . .
One of the show's writers, Abdullah Bjad, is a Saudi and self-described former militant who was consulted on religious aspects of the script. He said that just before one of the 2003 attacks on a residential compound in Saudi Arabia, an attacker who was in contact with his superiors was "heard on the mobile phone counting down the seconds to the 'beautiful maidens.' His last words were: 'One second to the 'beautiful maidens.' He then blew himself up."
The show's director Anzour said his work is based on that string of bombings against residential compounds in Saudi Arabia that began in May 2003.
"The series is aimed at those who have not made up their minds about terrorism yet," he said, puffing on a cigarette in his studio in Damascus.
"We want to tell them that Islam is a religion of tolerance, peace and dialogue," he added. "It's not a religion of violence."
Link.
