pour l'amour de dieu

pour l'amour de dieu (for the love of god). i thought that this film is so powerful and so relevant that its a huge waste that not too many people were able to watch it especially in the philippines. where like in france, we live amongst muslims, theists, and extremists. the truth about any religion is that it does have positive and yet then sometimes conflicting messages. it says to love and yet it also says to kill, to hate, and to murder.

the story is about a boy's journey from being a regular highschool kid to a religious fanatic. he is a second or third generation immigrant. i am guessing they were from algeria. south of france. his parents made sure that they were fully integrated in french society. this implies that he was brought up free from religion. he discovers islam from a classmate who was a confessed moslem. he became infatuated with her and then attempts to convert to islam himself to get close to the girl. the girl was like him. she was a second or third generation immigrant. she was trying to rediscover her roots. and a huge part of it was her family's religion. she was however what one may say a moderate moslem. the boy then gets involved with some extremist groups. and i thought that to show off the several prejudices and superstitions of these kind of people were priceless. example: laughing is not allowed because it is believed to be the tickle of satan. or that men. true men dont cry. that women are satan's way of seducing men to sin. there are many others. crazy stuff. in retrospect, we find similar beliefs in christian places.

in the end, the boy was forced to confront his extermist views with that of the girl's moderate views, particularly on the wearing of the hijab.

rating 4 out of 5
educational

The Message

The Message
http://helpinghumanity.multiply.com/video

it is a film about the claimed history of islam. a story about mohamet. a story of what is now to be considered the stronghold regions of islam. it is mecca when europe was plunged to the dark ages. it is mecca in 610 AD. and i find that it had parallel beginnings like chrisitianity. for example, it was a popular past time for people to be polytheists. just like people in rome worshipped roman and greek deities, so did people in mecca, byzantine, alexandrie, and persia, worshipped their own list of deities before becoming monotheists.

there is also parallel as to how people reacted to the revelation or to these dangerous ideas. with resistance. but mohamet was just as adamant, just like jesus, moses, and the other biblically recorded prophets. they appeared to have conviction. but the problem is just like the rest of theists descendants today, they expected people to accept their message on the sole basis of conviction. with maybe fear mongering on the side.

"accept islam for your salvaton" -- and i thought or else what?

one of the messages (part 3 of the movie) talked about the previous custom of killing girls. because they were considered to be bad luck. or unfortunate. which i find to be parallel with chinese customs of even today. boys were regarded with more esteem. on other words, women were oppressed. the irony of this today is. islamic nations are known to oppressed their women. regarding them with a lower status in contrast to what supposedly mohamet said that all men are equal. but maybe this is to be interpreted as applicable only to men (not humankind)

rating 1 vs 5
ive seen it before in christianity ..