John Rhys-Davies: “There Is Something in Islam That Is Belligerent, Offensive, Insidious.” By Paul Bond. The Hollywood Reporter, December 4, 2015.
Bond:
While speaking with Larry King, the actor accuses Muslims of enslaving others: “If you’re a black person in this country, and you are not outraged about this, then a lot of your ancestors would be wringing their hands.”
As news
networks and some Hollywood celebrities are tiptoeing around the notion of
Islamic terrorism, Lord of the Rings and Raiders of the Lost Ark actor John
Rhys-Davies is criticizing Muslims for turning a blind eye to violence and
slavery committed in the name of their faith.
“There
is something in the nature of Islam that we are not prepared to recognize, and
this is our own political fear,” Rhys-Davies said on PoliticKING With Larry King. “There is something in Islam that is
belligerent, offensive, insidious and ideologically opposed to the values that
we believe.”
As he
spoke, King appeared to squirm a bit uncomfortably before interrupting to ask:
“In the whole faith?”
Rhys-Davies
made a few exceptions, particularly those who practice Sufism — “an extraordinary
bunch of spiritual people” — then added: “There are contradictions in the whole
faith. If Muhammad is the last prophet and nothing that he says or does can be
contradicted … then you’re always going to have people coming back, like these
ISIS people, and saying, ‘But, in fact, slavery is justified.'”
Rhys-Davies
said radical Islamists are enslaving Christians and others in some parts of the
world, and accused leaders in the U.S. and Europe of doing little to stop them.
Even
Muslims he knows and likes “don’t dare to say” that slavery is wrong, he said.
“I tell
you, if you’re a black person in this country, and you are not outraged about
this, then a lot of your ancestors would be wringing their hands, and weeping
in shame. Come on!” said Rhys-Davies.
“If
your faith in anyway can justify slavery, then I don’t think there’s a place
for you in my society. I do not want to share society with you,” he said.
“I’m
damned if I’m going to sit around in a world that will sort of turn its eye to
a new form of slavery of the worst sort," continued Rhys-Davies. “I’m
outraged when I see published on the Internet Islamic justifications for
slavery.”
The
actor was interviewed by King prior to the murder of 14 people in San
Bernardino, Calif., this week, a crime that the FBI is investigating as an act
of Islamic terror, but the interview was posted on Friday.
Rhys
Davies was promoting Return to the Hiding
Place. Recently released on DVD, the film tells the true story of
Christians in Holland hiding Jews from the Nazis.
The
26-minute interview also touched on political correctness, which Rhys-Davies
asserts has hamstrung free speech, especially in the media and at universities.
“We
have to risk saying things that will upset people,” he said. Paraphrasing
Machiavelli, he said: “Our princes do not understand that there is a beast …
some problems cannot be solved by gentleness.”
“There
is something about Christianity that offers hope,” Rhys-Davies told King. “From
early Christianity, we got the right of free speech, the right of the
individual conscious … the jewel in the crown is the abolition of slavery.”
“My
country is pretty morally vacuous,” the Welsh actor said. “There are still
moral arguments in the United States. They have almost vanished from Europe.”
