A new epic movie about the Crusades has struck a chord in the Arab world, where cinemagoers say it has challenged the Hollywood stereotype of Arabs and Muslims as terrorists. Ridley Scott's "Kingdom of Heaven", which depicts a 12th Century battle for Jerusalem between Muslims and Crusaders, is also a welcome message of support for those who back moderation over extremism in managing ties between Islam and the West. "The film goes against religious fanaticism very clearly. All that goes against hatred, fanaticism and systematic opposition between those two worlds is welcome," said Lebanese writer Amin Maalouf, author of 'The Crusades Through Arab Eyes'.
Some religious leaders were concerned a film about the Crusades, a term once used by US President George W. Bush to describe the war on terror, would fuel the idea of a war between the West and Islam after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
"The aim of the film is to heal wounds, not reopen them," Egyptian film critic Tarek al-Shenawy said.
Some historians have accused Scott of being too sympathetic to Saladin, the Kurdish leader of the Muslim army which in 1187 recaptured Jerusalem from the Crusaders. A British academic said the film was "Osama bin Laden's version of history".
Maalouf said the film appeared too hard on the Knights Templar, an order of Crusader warrior monks.
"There were also people in the Arab camp who wanted war at all costs," Maalouf said by telephone from France. "My impression is that the historical sequences were fairly accurate. The spirit of those times is there."
Muslim groups have praised the film by the director of "Gladiator" for its portrayal of Saladin.
Cinemagoers in the Arab world say the film might help repair some of the damage done to Islam's reputation by Hollywood movies that have set Muslim militants against American heroes and what many see as unfair Western news coverage of the region.
"Arabs and Muslims usually appear as bloodthirsty savages in Hollywood productions. Kingdom of Heaven is fairer - the Arabs and Muslims come out much better," said Deana Elimam, an Egyptian-American living in Cairo.
Shenawy said Saladin, played by Syrian actor Ghassan Massoud, would have made a greater impact if Scott had given him a more visible role. "You see glimpses of his heroism," he said.
"It doesn't realise all aspirations, but we cannot ask Ridley Scott to present everything. It is enough that he presents an image in which there is some balance," he said.
But Scott's efforts have not won universal praise among Middle Eastern viewers.
US-based Lebanese academic As'ad AbuKhalil objected to a scene where the lead character, a Crusader called Balian and played by Orlando Bloom, appeared to show Arab peasants how to dig wells to irrigate farm land.
"I was ... most unhappy, when the hero of the movie ... took over his estate, and with typical Western 'genius' taught those inferior Arabs how to dig for water, as if they had not been doing that for centuries," AbuKhalil said on his Web site.
"This is akin to the Western myth of Zionist immigration causing the "desert to bloom" in Palestine."
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