JEDDAH, 20 October 2005 — Saudi actors who have appeared in a popular and controversial TV series dealing with terrorism reportedly received death threats on their cell phones following the program’s broadcast on Syrian TV.
One of the Saudi actors appearing in “Al-Hoor Al-Ain,” Mishael Al-Mutairi, said that phone calls and SMS messages were received before Ramadan and had increased after the series was broadcast on MBC.
“The messages annoyed me but I try to ignore them. I expected to be criticized when I agreed to play a young Saudi who has been driven to do things by suspected terrorists,” Al-Mutairi said.
In the 30-episode series, a group of Jordanian, Lebanese, Moroccan, Egyptian and Syrian families living in a residential complex in Saudi Arabia see their lives turned upside down by a terrorist attack.
According to the Syrian director of the series, “it is a work about society and the innocent victims of terrorism.” He said it was also about terrorism in thought and intolerance of others.
The series has given rise to many opinions among both supporters and detractors in the Kingdom and has been hotly debated in newspapers, on the Internet and on television.
Ahmad, a government employee, said that he fully supported the series because it confronted and fought terrorism in the Arab world. “The series focuses on what happened in Al-Muhiya Compound and gives a fair idea of how the lives of innocent people were changed after they had been living peacefully in Riyadh.”
Khalid, a university student, sees things differently. “The series unfortunately shows our society as the source of terrorism while many other countries have also been affected. Why has the director focused on Saudi Arabia? It is a bad series and we do not agree with many things it presents.”
Saad, an employee in a private company, criticized the programs and said that it distorted the picture of religious people and showed them in a bad light. “I agree that there is a group of people who want to destabilize the country through irresponsible acts but not every religious man is a terrorist. But this is exectly what the director seems to be telling us and this makes us condemn the series.”
