Moustapha Akkad Quotes
If there ever was a religious war full of terror, it was the crusades. But you can't blame Christianity because a few adventurers did this. That's my message.
Akkad, Moustapha. Interview. The Middle East, IC Publications, 2004.
Christians of 1 thousand years ago were barbarous and immoral compared to Christians of today, even though their Bible is the same. He argued that Islam may well also reform. In looking at Islam compared with Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism, it is useful to remember that these are much older religions than Islam. They have had more time to reform and develop. Compare Christians 700 years ago to Christians today. They were pretty barbaric in comparison. They burned heretics at the stake and "witches" also. But Islam is 700 years younger than Christianity and thousands of years younger than the other 3 religions mentioned. It may well need more time to develop and reform.
Different Christian European powers moved in and out of alliances with each other and with the Islamic Ottoman Empire. So Christians were not unified and whenever a Christian country was at war with the Muslims some Christians perceived it as an assault on Christianity—except that there were Christian allies of the Muslims. Later many Muslims would see any conflict with a Christian country as an attack in Islam even when Muslim nations were allied with the Christians as was Turkey at the end of the 20th century. Turkey was a member of NATO and was therefore seen as traitors to Islam by some Muslims. There has always been this tendency to see conflict in terms of religious or ethnic hostility where convenient.
When the Turks defeated the Christians, the only explanation many Christians could conceive of was that God was on the side of the Turks.
The implication of a double moral standard for adherents of the faith and for others has been characteristics of many religions.
This is the “logic” by which Islamic terrorists have justified murder of civilians. Just as all Muslim men are fighters for Allah, all infidels are fighters against Allah and thus should die.
Moustapha Al Akkad was a Syrian–American film producer and director, best known for producing the original series of Halloween films and directing The Message and Lion of the Desert. He was killed along with his daughter Rima Al Akkad Monla in the 2005 Amman bombings.
