Anti-terrorism TV show assailed by some Arabs

DAMASCUS, Syria — A new television series being broadcast around the Middle East tells the story of Arabs living in residential compounds in Saudi Arabia and the Islamic extremists who want to blow them up so they can collect their rewards in heaven — 70 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 series, which began Oct. 4 on the first day of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, has come under a blistering attack on the Internet in Arabic language chat rooms.

Critics are demanding the Saudi-owned and Dubai-based Middle East Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), a popular Arabic satellite television station that bought the show and broadcasts it across the region, cancel it.

Others lambasted its Syrian Muslim director and producer, Najdat Anzour, as an infidel for tarnishing the image of Islam. But still others have praised the groundbreaking series.

Perhaps the most controversial thing about the new program is its title: "Al-Hour Al-Ayn," Arabic for "Beautiful Maidens."

Islamic militants have taken a reference in one of the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad and made it their belief that martyrs who die defending God and their honor will meet more than 70 virgins in paradise. For militants throughout the Middle East, suicide bombers are martyrs.

The Quran, Islam's holy book, tells of beautiful maidens in paradise, but it doesn't mention any number. The Prophet's saying (or Hadith), adopted by militants, speaks of 72 virgins in heaven as a reward for virtuous men. But there is no mention of martyrs in the saying.

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 in Damascus. "We want to tell them that Islam is a religion of tolerance, peace and dialogue. "It's not a religion of violence."

An advertisement for the show, aired on different Middle East television stations before it debuted, made clear its anti-terrorist theme.

It said the show was dedicated to "all innocent victims of terrorism."

MBC said the show's critics had complained the actors were not qualified to tackle such an issue and that the title and the entire series denigrated Islam. The outburst of anger on the Internet led MBC to issue a response. It urged viewers to watch all 30 episodes before passing judgment.

The station denied the show mocks Islam and said it was using art as a medium to confront terrorism.

The show is also being broadcast in Syria and Lebanon.

Anzour said he wanted to focus on the victims of such bombings through the story of five families from Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco and Jordan who, like tens of thousands of Arabs, went to oil-rich Saudi Arabia to make a living.

Anzour also focused on the influence of underground clergymen who lure young men from the more moderate message of other clerics and persuade them to be suicide bombers.

Bjad, the former militant, said the show's "provocative" title was just one reason it has come under attack.

He said it has incensed militants because it touches on the violent actions of al-Qaida in Saudi Arabia and on Islamists whose radical mind-set offers justification for those who want to commit terrorism.