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Saturday, March 30, 2013

Egypt issues arrest warrant for TV satirist - Yahoo! News

Egypt issues arrest warrant for TV satirist - Yahoo! News:
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Egypt issues arrest warrant for TV satirist

By SARAH EL DEEB | Associated Press – 6 hrs ago
CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's state prosecutors ordered the arrest Saturday of a popular television satirist for allegedly insulting Islam and the country's leader, in a move that government opponents say is aimed at silencing critics of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.
The arrest warrant for against Bassem Youssef, who has come to be known as Egypt's Jon Stewart, followed an order earlier this week by the country's top prosecutor to arrest five prominent pro-democracy activists in what the opposition has characterized as a widening campaign against dissent.
The acceleration in legal action targeting protesters, activists and critics comes against a backdrop of continued unrest in the country. Political compromise between the well-organized Islamists in power and their vocal liberal and largely secular critics remains elusive, while the country's economy is in near free fall, which has increasingly fueled popular frustration.
The opposition charges that Morsi, in office for nine months, and the Brotherhood have failed to tackle any of the nation's most pressing problems and are trying to monopolize power, breaking their promises of inclusiveness. Morsi blames the country's woes on nearly three decades of corruption under his predecessor, Hosni Mubarak, and accuses the opposition of stoking unrest for political gain.
The warrant against Youssef is the latest in a series of legal actions against the comedian, whose widely-watched weekly show, "ElBernameg" or "The Program," has become a platform for lampooning the government, opposition, media and clerics. He has also used his program to fact-check politicians.
The fast-paced show has attracted a wide viewership, while at the same time earning itself its fair share of detractors. Youssef has been a frequent target of lawsuits, most of them brought by Islamist lawyers who have accused him of "corrupting morals" or violating "religious principles."
Prosecutor Mohammed el-Sayed Khalifa told Al-Ahram online that he has heard 28 plaintiffs accusing Youssef of insulting Islam, mocking prayers, and "belittling" Morsi in the eyes of the world and his own people.
In one episode of the show, Youssef mocks former militants who are now part of the mainstream political scene in Egypt. At a recent rally, some former radicals who were imprisoned for taking part in the assassination of late President Anwar Sadat in 1981, accused the opposition of using violence at anti-Morsi protests.
In the program, Youssef ridicules an Islamist who said the militants had repented by fasting for three months for mistakenly killing others with Sadat.
"What a message," Youssef says. "Anyone can form a group in the name of religion, assassinate in the name of religion, and then oops! Repent and fast for three months, and it will too pass in the name of religion."
The comedian has faced several court cases in the past accusing him of insulting Morsi. One of Youssef's attorneys, Gamal Eid, said however that this is the first time an arrest warrant has been issued for the comedian.
In a post on his official Twitter account, Youssef said he will hand himself in to the prosecutor's office Sunday. He then added, with his typical sarcasm: "Unless they kindly send a police van today and save me the transportation hassle."
Eid said the warrant fits into a widening campaign against government critics, media personalities, and activists, saying "the prosecution has become a tool to go after the regime's opposition and intimidate it."
A call to a top aide to the country's chief prosecutor, Hassan Yassin, for comment went unanswered.
Egypt's leading pro-democracy advocate and top opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei lamented the state of affairs in the country in a message posted on Saturday on his official Twitter account. "Pathetic efforts to smother dissent and intimidate media is a sign of a shaky regime and a bunker mentality," he wrote.
The other recent arrest warrants for five high-profile activists were issued over allegations that they instigated violence last week near the Brotherhood's headquarters in Cairo, where nearly 200 people were injured in clashes between anti-government protesters and supporters of the Brotherhood, from which Morsi hails.
Morsi responded by harshly criticizing his opponents, calling them hired thugs out to derail Egypt's democracy. The Brotherhood also blamed privately-owned media for fanning the violence.
The criticism was followed by a two-day protest by dozens of Islamists outside the studios of TV networks critical of Morsi. The protesters pelted police and prevented some talk show hosts and guests from entering or leaving the complex.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists called the escalation of anti-press "rhetoric" by Morsi and his supporters and the sit-in outside the media city were "deeply troubling."
The series of prosecutions and arrest warrants come amid a legal challenge to the chief prosecutor, Talaat Abdullah, whose appointment by Morsi last year was declared void by a court ruling earlier this week.
On Saturday, Abdullah said he will appeal the court ruling, saying it is "in violation of the constitution and the law," Egypt's state news agency reported. The decision signals a protracted legal battle is likely to ensue, further confusing the legal scene in Egypt.
In the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, an Egyptian rights group said Saturday that police detained 13 people, including five lawyers, and accused them of assaulting police. The arrests inside the police station mark a rare instance in which lawyers face potential criminal charges.
The Haqanya Center for Rights said the 13 are accused of insulting security officials, attempting to free other detainees at the police station and illegal assembly.
The arrests prompted an angry response from lawyers at Cairo's Bar Association, who demanded an apology from the police.
Those detained include prominent lawyer and pro-democracy activist Mahienour el-Masry. Several dozen Cairo protesters held a rally outside the chief prosecutor's office, dismissing his orders as void, locking up the gates to his office with chains and demanding the release of the lawyers and activists.
Mohammed Abdel-Aziz, an attorney, said the lawyers and activists were beaten and assaulted at the station, where they had been since Friday to represent three opposition members reportedly detained and taken to the police by members of a political party affiliated with the Brotherhood.
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'The Bible' Crucifixion Scenes Brought 48 Snakes and a Life-Changing Experience for Diogo Morgado - Yahoo! TV

'The Bible' Crucifixion Scenes Brought 48 Snakes and a Life-Changing Experience for Diogo Morgado - Yahoo! TV:
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'The Bible' Crucifixion Scenes Brought 48 Snakes and a Life-Changing Experience for Diogo Morgado

The star who plays Jesus on the History's miniseries says, "I just saw my whole life in a flashback in front of my eyes" while filming.


By  | Yahoo! TV – 4 hours ago
Viewers watching the Easter Sunday conclusion of the History Channel's "The Bible" miniseries will find the crucifixion scenes "painful" to watch, producer Mark Burnett says.
They should know that filming the scenes was just as painful, and emotional, an experience for the series' actors.
"I was on that cross for a long time, long hours," says Portuguese actor Diogo Morgado, who, as Jesus, has been the breakout star of "The Bible." "We shot the crucifixion sequence in three days. And I don't know how many hours I stood there. But it was really excruciating. By the way, do you know that the word 'excruciating' means 'out of the cross'? Anyway, as I was on the cross, I can tell you that at one point I stopped, and I looked around, and I looked at everybody working, trying to do their best, I looked at their eyes, and suddenly it struck me … I just saw my whole life in a flashback in front of my eyes.
"It's so strong when you feel that you're where you should be, you know, and you feel that this is what you were kind of … that you were born to, at one point, to touch people's hearts. If the goal of an actor is to tell the best story ever, there's no higher story than Jesus Christ. It's the ultimate love story, and the way he can touch people, it's just a privilege, it's just beyond words, having this opportunity of doing this. It was really a personal journey and a spiritual journey. And it touched me, in a way that I'm still digesting. It didn't end with the shooting. It's still alive."
Filming the crucifixion scenes in Morocco was also a powerful experience for "The Bible" co-producer Roma Downey, the "Touched by an Angel" star (and Burnett's wife), who took on the role of Mary in the miniseries.
"We had snakes and scorpions on the set, and we had a snake man whose job it was to clear the set of snakes," Downey says. "Maybe on any given day, he would clear one or two snakes from any given location. On the morning of the crucifixion, when I got up to the set, he called me aside, and he had a writhing bag on the road … he had pulled 48 snakes from the foot of the cross that morning! It was an exhausting few days for everyone involved, and emotionally draining, but it was very important to us that we got that right."
Watch a preview of Sunday's finale:


Burnett says the toughest thing about filming the crucifixion scenes was keeping everyone safe, even before the snake issue popped up. "You've got an actor up on a cross on a mountain in high winds and freezing temperatures," he says. "Roma put prayers out into prayer circles in churches all over America, praying about [filming] the crucifixion."
Other incidents on the production -- a huge wind suddenly kicked up on an otherwise still night during the filming of a scene in which Jesus tells Nicodemus, "The Holy Spirit is like the wind"; and an irreplaceable part of one of Jesus's costumes floated away during filming but was returned several days later by a young boy who had traveled quite a distance to return it -- added to the feeling, Burnett says, that the cast and crew were working on a very special production.
"People knew. People knew, people who don't necessarily believe," he says. "Remember, these are actors and production people of all faiths … but people knew something was happening."
Adds Downey, "It's unusual to shoot chronologically on anything, because usually you're at the mercy of locations, but as it happened, on the very last day we filmed the last scene of the movie … we also were coincidentally filming the very first scene with Adam and Eve, and so we had a double crew in the interest of time, and Mark was over manning the Adam and Eve sets and I was on the [finale] set.
"It struck me that we had stepped out on this journey together to bring the Bible to the screen, from Genesis to Revelation, and here we were on the last day bookending, shooting the beginning and the end, the first and the last, the alpha and the omega."

A wide audience

Burnett, who is also the producer of "Survivor," "Shark Tank," and "The Voice," points out that despite what he and others on the crew of "The Bible" might make of the unusual occurrences that happened during filming, the production's aim was not to impart a specific point of view to the tens of millions of TV viewers who've watched the series.
"We made a conscious choice that on television, people don't want to be told how to feel," Burnett says. "You have to present the story and allow them to feel. And so we did that. Our hope was that people would start conversations and seek more. Had we been proselytizing on the series, I think it would have had the opposite effect. I think the fact that we have just shown the stories and people get to make up their own opinions … it's a great discussion point."
And that goal to spark discussions was also part of the motivation behind Burnett and Downey's decision to include the crucifixion scene, as well as everything through the Book of Revelation, in the miniseries. While most TV shows and movies focus on a less broad telling of the Bible, or sometimes avoid the harshness of the crucifixion and Revelation scenes, Burnett says it would have been a disservice to viewers to omit them from "The Bible."


"People would have been upset with us for minimizing the suffering of Jesus Christ, because the word 'passion,' the translation of what that word actually means, is 'suffering.' And imagine being crucified," says Burnett. "I've seen artifacts of nails from that. They're enormous nails that go through someone who'd been crucified by the Romans on their hands and their feet. Enormous. And the pain must have been absolutely excruciating. [But] during that suffering, the first thing he said is, 'Forgive them. They know not what they do.' That is so critical, because in the worst possible situation of torture and death, [his] first thought is to forgive others, which as you know is one of the main, most important parts of Christianity.
"This is a global series, and people would be extremely upset if we minimized that. This is a tough week, a very tough week, and it's painful to watch, but there's only one way to show that, which is in truth."
NEXT: Burnett on tackling the Bible in 10 hours...

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