> this just in from asia and africa...crowds riot, anti-semitism revived
> in ghana and thailand ...panic among european tourists...humanity
> nearing end...
No, there haven't been any reports of anti-Semitic incidents incited by this film yet, but it's early days yet. I wouldn't expect very many in the U.S. (the very large audiences which have been reported so far are probably mostly conservative Christians, most of whom are not the sort to run out of the theater and paint swastikas on synagogues or overturn gravestones in Jewish cemeteries).
However, it has not yet been shown in Europe or the Middle East, where such incidents might be reasonably expected. In the meantime, one should consider Gibson's background. His father has been reported (rather reliably, I think) to be a Holocaust denier, and Gibson has refused to answer any questions about his attitude toward this position of his father. He has also been quoted as saying, of the Holocaust, that it was very bad, but the sort of thing that happens in wartime (or something to that effect).
This indicates to me that he is at the very least quite uninformed on the subject -- which is the central fact of the 20th century as far as anti-Semitism is concerned. If so, it makes one rather queasy about his position on this subject. Anyone who produces a major work of art (which this film is claimed by Gibson and his supporters to be) which deals with the subject of this film (the New Testament accounts of the events surrounding the death of Jesus, including the scene of the Jews "calling for Jesus' blood" which is found in those accounts) and is as unforthright as he is about the subject of the Holocaust has set himself up to be considered quite insensitive, to say the least.
Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org __________________________________ Belinda: Ay, but you know we must return good for evil. Lady Brute: That may be a mistake in the translation.
-- Sir John Vanbrugh: The Provok’d Wife (1697), I.i.