2003.12.20
JohnRhys-Davies Chimes In
JohnRhys-Davies plays Gimli in the Lord of the Rings movies. Recently people involved in the movies were asked about the significance of the books and movies. JohnRhys-Davies had some interesting things to say.
“I think that Tolkien says that some generations will be challenged,” said Rhys-Davies, “and if they do not rise to meet that challenge, they will lose their civilization. That does have a real resonance with me.”
And a bit later:
Rhys-Davies revealed that as far back as 1955 his father had predicted that “the next World War will be between Islam and the West.” The actor recalled his response: “I said to him, ‘Dad, you’re nuts! The Crusades have been over for hundreds of years!’ And he said, ‘Well, I know, but militant Islam is on the rise again. And you will see it in your lifetime.’ He’s been dead some years now. But there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think of him and think, ‘God, I wish you were here, just so I could tell you that you were right.’”
The whole article is quite good, but that part seemed particularly relevant.
Categorized: thoughts
You can follow any responses to this entry with a RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
One Response to “JohnRhys-Davies Chimes In”
- dugh says (January 1st, 1970 at 08:00:00 )
in trouble for comments
it appears rhys-davies is now (predictably) in trouble for his comments in the above linked article. here is an article about the hot water he’s supposedly landed himself in. in defending himself and giving an example of what he means he says this:
The fact that a minister of the French government has to fly to Cairo to talk with one of the religious heads in one of the mosques to get his approval for a ban on headscarves can be seen in two ways.One, is how wonderfully culturally sensitive. The other, it seems to give an authority to a wholly unelected figure well outside Europe’s jurisdiction.
Here in America when that earthquake happened in Iran the reaction of everyone I knew was horror and dismay, the reaction of everyone when they heard that the old woman had been brought out alive long after they thought there was anyone there was absolute awe at the extraordinary capacity of the human spirit to survive. Contrast that with people jumping up and down and clapping at the 9/11 disaster in certain countries.
goto the second page of the link above to find these and more remarks.
in his defense, there is an article by robert spencer here in front page magazine.
personally i think rhys-davies observations that you don’t see other cultures throwing bombs at each other all the time. “I do not see Buddhists throwing bombs into Christian churches, I do not see Christians blowing up Hindu temples, I do not see those sorts of challenges.” he is not entirely right, because fighting between religions continues in some places, but he is still mostly right.
i admire his bravery for saying his mind, but i do worry, as does he, that some idiots will take his comments out of context, manipulate them, and use them for their own very wrong ends. cultural racism is wrong, and despite the many races that subscribe to the will of allah, the more vocal parts of their societies are very anti-everyone-else.
the crusades ended a long time ago everyone. get over it.
