Film traces historical coexistence of faiths

From: www.gulfnews.com

By Barbara Bibbo', Correspondent

Published: August 25, 2007, 00:24


Doha: A new American documentary film challenging the theory of the clash of civilisations and promoting Muslim-Jewish dialogue will be shown in the region soon.
Co-financed by religious and interfaith foundations from the United States to Saudi Arabia, Out of Cordoba brings to light the reach of exchange that took place between Judaism, Christianity and Islam in the Middle Ages by exploring the lives and works of Muslim philosopher Ibn Rush, best known in the West as Averroes, and his Jewish counterpart Moses Maymonides.
Averroes and Maymonides, two of the greatest thinkers of the 12th century, were both born in Spain and focused their work on harmonising science with the religions. Both were condemned by the fundamentalists within their own communities.

Jacob Bender, a New York-based media producer and director of Out of Cordoba, spoke of his project on the sidelines of the Fifth Interfaith Conference recently held in Doha.
Myth and reality
"After 9/11 I felt an urge to respond to the attacks as well as to the growing evidence of Islamophobia and attacks upon Muslims with a film that would talk about the coexistence between Judaism, Christianity and Islam," Bender told Gulf News.
"Now that in the West some people talk of the clash of civilisations and argue that the London, Madrid and New York attacks were the manifestations of a millennium-long conflict between the West and Islam, I believe there is a need for a different voice that would show that this idea has no basis in the actual history that was lived by Muslims, Christians and Jews for hundreds of years."
Bender, a Jewish interfaith activist, highlights in his documentary how the three religions at the time of Averroes and Maymonides shared medical knowledge, astronomy, mathematics, history and most of all of religion.
"Maymonides said we should accept the truth from whatever source we can find it. When we read his and Averroes' works today we can conclude that truth does not reside only in one people or in one tradition. They teach us that to be in touch with the divine we need to be open to modern knowledge as well as to our and others' religions."
The documentary has attracted interest of many foundations and from Christian, Muslims and Jewish organisations across the world. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Spain is among the major founders, but financial support has recently arrived from the Kingdom Foundation of Prince Al Walid Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud in Saudi Arabia.
Bender is currently completing the filming and the documentary is likely to be distributed in the Gulf region in 2008.
Bender said it took five years to see the project come to life.
"Some people did not believe in it, they said looking at two philosophers, who lived 800 years ago, was too intellectual an operation for a general consumption. But others saw the need for a film that would talk about the historical sharing between the three different traditions."
Asked how he judged the way a section of US movie industry has portrayed Arabs and Muslims over the years, he said negative stereotypes about the Muslim in some US movies are the result of ignorance.
"American society has always been quite isolated, not wanting to know about the rest of the world. Secondly, American popular cultures always needed ... an enemy to confront with.
"First it was the Native Americans, [then] Germans in World War I, and later on the communists. In recent years people in the United States looked to justify the huge ... military budget by finding a new enemy in the Arab and Muslim world. The 9/11 and Al Qaida presented them with an opportunity to say that Islam is an enemy of the West."