RIYADH – A popular Saudi holiday sitcom has drawn the ire of conservative clerics over an episode portraying Arab Christians in a positive light after the kingdom sought to sell itself as a leader of dialogue between faiths.
Tash Ma Tash, which has aired during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan for 17 years, is no stranger to controversy and its episodes have grown bolder over the years, tackling issues from morals police and polygamy to the heavy influence of religion on education in the deeply conservative society.
A two-part Uncle Boutros episode of the sitcom showed the two main Saudi characters, both Muslims, being advised by their dying father to visit the brother of their deceased Lebanese mother, about whom they know next to nothing.
After a tearful reunion, the pair discover their mother’s relatives were Christians and Uncle Boutros was a priest. Despite their initial shock, the brothers slowly come to respect their uncle’s Christianity, although they try to convert him to Islam.
The duo are pleased when their uncle hands them a box of jewellery that had belonged to their mother and which he had held for them for years. They also respect their uncle’s charitable deeds towards a Lebanese Muslim neighbour.
But some Saudi clerics were not impressed. "A Muslim is allowed to praise only the one true religion – Islam," said Eissa al-Ghaith, a judge at the Justice Ministry, in remarks carried by al-Madinanewspaper yesterday.
Islamic scholar Abdulwahab al-Salhi said the "indecent lot of Tash Ma Tash. . . used drama to destroy Muslims' stable religious principles by portraying Christians as believers and not apostates".
On the programme’s internet forum however, some participants were more sympathetic.
“I dont see the harm in portraying a priest as being honest . . . You find many faiths in Arab countries.
The rulers of the world’s top oil exporting country have wrestled with whether to moderate Wahhabism since the 9/11 attacks in 2001 on US targets, carried out by mostly Saudi nationals. – (Reuters)