Actors - is there anything they don't know?
Posted on 06/08/2008 9:41:11 AM PDT by A_perfect_lady
Egyptian actor Omar Sharif — best known for his film roles in Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago — reportedly blasted U.S. policy in Iraq and said Americans are ignorant.
According to The Middle East Media Research Institute, Sharif said the "East" will never have a democracy because people like him "prefer to go to the neighborhood sheik." MEMRI —a Middle Eastern press monitoring organization — posted an interview of Sharif that aired on the Al-Hayat TV network.
"I lived in America for a long time. Only 10% of all Americans have a passport. In other words, 90% never left America," said Sharif. "They don't know anything."
Sharif said that he spoke with President Bush before the beginning of the Iraq War and told him that Arab nations are made up of sects resistant to becoming democratized.
"I said to Bush, even before he entered Iraq: Forget about all that. We, the Arabs... We are not like [regular countries]," said Sharif. "You will drown there.
After being asked what Bush's response was, the actor stated: "He didn't believe me."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
I thought he was dead.
He has a passport. I guess that makes him smart.
Another great thinker from Hollywood speaks his mind... Are the writers on strike again or just shirking their duty?
Well, Bush was right.
And what exactly, Uh..Omar, are your credentials....oh, you are an....actor? Strp aside, partner, back of the line.
Actors - is there anything they don't know?
Well, he's right on that account.
They're insane.
We Americans may be crazy, but we're not insane.
maybe this bozo and Carter can do a world tour together
I’m sure Sharif could have had the same acting fame and fortune if he’d just stayed in the Arab world. /s
And what a nice way to say “Thank You” to all the Americans who paid to see his movies over the past 40 years! Double /s
Wonder who sharif’s neighborhood sheik is? Hollywood entertainment at its best! THE kalifornia message continues to be “depopulate while you still can!”
That's why we went ahead and invented the Internet. We're cool like that :-)
Burnt out compulsive gambler, forever in debt.
I have a passport.
I noticed a lot of Iraqi’s eagerly went to vote in their new democracy. But I am not an actor, what do I know?
actually I agree with Omar here.
some cultures are either not ready or don’t want democracy
it’s not by accident it’s a form of government rarely practiced like our’s
many democracies and republics today are anything but
it worked here for a while but will ultimately fail due to it’s own largess
you give those who don’t contribute the same power as those that do and it can’t last
toss in deconstruction of the very culture that made the nation great to begin with and you can turn off the lights
which will happen here baring a cataclysm
Before making his English-language film debut with "Lawrence of Arabia", for which he earned him a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination and international fame, Sharif became a star in Egyptian cinema. His first movie was the Egyptian film Siraa Fil-Wadi (1954) ("The Blazing Sun") in 1953, opposite the renowned Egyptian actress 'Faten Hamamain'whom he married in 1955. He converted to Islam to marry Hamamain and took the name Omar al-Sharif. The couple had one child (Tarek Sharif, who was born in 1957 and portrayed the young Zhivago in the eponymous picture) and divorced in 1974. Sharif never remarried.
Beginning in the 1960s, Sharif earned a reputation as one of the world's best known contract bridge players. . . .
Trivia
5 August 2003 - Received a one-month suspended sentence and a $1700 fine for head-butting a police officer in a French casino in July.
He is both author and co-author of several books on Bridge and has licensed his name to a Bridge computer game. . .
Ordered by a US court in Beverly Hills, California to take an anger management course for punching a parking attendant who refused to accept his European currency on 11 June 2005. Sharif was not present for the hearing. (13 February 2007).
As long as they are kept under chain and lock along with their minds; they won’t.
I wonder what those percentages are in Egypt, the land of enlightenment?
It sounds as though he may be.
bttt
Omar kicks those that made him rich and famous enough think his personal opinion is valued or considered expert advise........guess he doesn’t realize his best work was as a professional story teller and liar..........
Funny part about these hyphenated fence sitting dual citizens is that they run back here when their own banana republic fails them again and again.
Doom on the idgits !
What Omar Sharif doesn’t know nor understand is that every American serviceman or woman that has been sent overseas since the creation of this nation has never needed a passport to see the world as it is.
And now, tell us how "people like him" prefer to treat women.
Sharif was born Michel Demitri Chalhoub in Egypt1932, and was raised Catholic and converted to Islam1955.
Speaking from inside the culture, Omar Sharif may have a perspective that escapes most “reformers” that want to impose democracy on the Islamic states.
Islam, as it is now constituted, is one of the most anti-democratic, authoritarian cultural constructs on the planet, rivaling that of a pride of lions. At the center is the alpha male, surrounded and supported by a coterie of females, to whom the chores of procuring food and raising the young is delegated. The male has the singular duty of keeping the other males of his species away from his females, and for the most part, the young. Young males are much more aggressive than would be the case, and take great risks, partly to display their potential fitness to take over an existing harem, should one of the older alpha males fail to maintain his authority over the pride, and partly because they have an excess of testosterone and no place to discharge it otherwise. Think strapping on a bomb vest and walking into a herd of water buffalo.
The preachings of The Prophet are the ravings of a totally self-absorbed madman. There is no empathy, and no directive remotely like the Ten Commandments or the Golden Rule.
Those are the things that make the consideration of something like “democracy” possible. Without empathy and a code of law that recognizes the rights of other, there is no dialogue.
What percentage of Egyptians have a passport Omar?
"Sherif Ali! So long as the Arabs fight tribe against tribe, so long will they be a little people, a silly people - greedy, barbarous, and cruel, as you are."
The one “democracy” among Islamic countries that everyone holds up as a model is, of course, Turkey. But Turkey is not an actual “democracy”. It is the military that wields the true power in that country, and that is by design.
I do too. Sharif is right. Democracy is the exception and there must be certain social/cultural antecedents for it to take root.
Yes, Iraq has had succesful elections. But, will they have them after we leave?
Winning the battle for Iraq is one thing.
Bringing democracy to the Islamic world is a fallacy.
Only 10% of all Americans have a passport. In other words, 90% never left America,”
*****
Last time I checked, a diploma signifies intelligence rather than a passport.
No wonder these “arabs” are still living in the 7th century.
I’m sure many felt the same way about the Japanese after World War II.
‘...Americans don’t NEED a passport — they’re already at the finest destination on the planet.’
AMEN!!! and, I do have a passport and have been to several other countries but, each day, I thank GOD for allowing me to be born an American and live in this great country!!
Yo Omar, there is one point I do disagree with Bush about;
I don’t agree that you folks are worth saving.
No matter what we do to you or for you, at the end of the day, we are still the infidel.
Ironically, our own CIA overthrew the first democracy in the region, in Iran.
Your tagline. It might be a move in the right direction.
"Listen, strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government!"
Actor Omar Sharif Pleads No Contest to Misdemeanor Battery Charge
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Omar Sharif pleaded no contest Tuesday to misdemeanor battery and was ordered to take an anger management course for punching a parking valet who refused to accept his European currency.
I didn't realize our service members didn't require passports. When they are TDY, say in Singapore, do they use their military identification at customs/immigration?
Iraq might at best be a constitutional republic/autocracy
nation building only appears to work in choesive nationalistic cultures that have been brought to their knees or if they truly want it and are willing to fight for it
Iraqis are not fighting for democracy, they are fighting for power.
Yes, A military ID is as good as a Passport.
I used mine many times.
I traveled around the world with out a passport. Courtesy of Uncle Sam. And Omar bids 2 clubs. He should stick to what hes good at.
Omar, the U.S. is there to prevent the 70% of the World's known oil reserves that are in the Persian Gulf region from falling under the military control of a nuclear armed hostile Baathist Iraq or a nulclear armed radical Islamist Iran.
The "Democracy" experiment is strictly optional.
If, in the end, it takes a pro-U.S. strongman that rules with an iron fist, then that is what will be done.
Put in your application and you might be considered for the job.
Back in my out of the country days, you go do all of Central America and the Caribbean w/o a passport.
But I can’t say I disagree with him when he says Arabs don’t want democracy and that the average American is not a world traveler.
I think both are true.
Now aside from that he is without a doubt a son of Satan.
;>)
I wonder what those percentages are in Egypt, the land of enlightenment?
There are approximately 6 billion people on this planet. I'd wager considerably less than 10% of the world's population has passports.
The historic events are quite different. Japan had embraced a limited form of democracy in the early 20th century. Their march towards militant imperialism changed all that.
Besides, the Japanese had an violent awakening in 1945. The nuking of Hiroshima and Nagasaki forced serious changes in Japan's society. Today, Japan is a peaceful secular society.
I seriously doubt that anything would convince Muslim's to change their ways. The Islamofascists are heroes to many people throughout the world for killing the infidels. Maybe we could nuke 2-3 cities in the Islamic world and kill a few hundred thousand Muslim's to force a change in their society. ;^)
90% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
Why does it matter that someone doesn’t have a passport or has never left the country? The US is so big you and spend a lifetime exploring it and never see it all.
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