Akkad has produced films that present an Arab and Islamic perspective that the American public is not accustomed to. He and Egyptian actor Omar Sharif were one of the few Arabs to have considerable influence in Hollywood.
Moustapha Al Akkad was born on July 1, 1930 (1935 according to some sources) in Aleppo, Syria, to a Muslim family and was educated at the local French school. After Syria left the French Mandate in 1946 and declared its independence, he completed his secondary education at the American College of Aleppo.
Akkad discovered his interest in acting in the theater arts classes given by the American Douglas Hill. Hill applied for a scholarship so that the nineteen-year-old Akkad could attend the UCLA Department of Theater Arts. With the scholarship that Akkad won, a rebellion against the French started in Algeria during his years at UCLA.
Although the film project was shelved with the end of the conflict in Algeria, the close relationship between the two continued. After assisting Peckinpah in other projects, Akkad started making his own TV show called 'As Others See Us' with the encouragement of the Los Angeles director. After his success there, he founded Akkad International Productions and opened offices in Hollywood, London, and Beirut thanks to his documentaries broadcast in the USA and attracting great interest.
Their Contributions to the World of Cinema
Akkad founded Filmco International Productions in 1972. In 1976, Akkad produced and directed, through Filmco, the first blockbuster in the Arab world, al-Risalah (The Message), starring Egyptian actor Abdallah Ghaith and Syrian actress Mona Wasif. Thanks to this film, Akkad became known in the Arab World.
The Message was the first feature film to deal with Muslim society and the birth of Islam, starring famous names from the cinema. The film was met with acclaim and interest in the United States. During the period of its publication, it was screened in around three thousand cinemas across the country.
Alongside the good news, the idea of a Hollywood movie about Islam angered some American Muslims. They thought it was an attack on their own faith by the Jews.
In Washington, D.C., a group of African-American Muslims stormed their office and took twenty-two people hostage. Activists threatened to escalate the violence if the film was not screened.
Thereupon, Akkad met with the then-leader of the activist group, Khalifa Hamaas Abdul Khaalis. Akkad Hamaas told Abdul Khaalis to watch the film and if he saw anything objectionable he would burn the film with his own hands. When Hamaas Abdul Khaalis turned down this offer, Akkad was forced to pull the movie out of the screening so that no one would get hurt.
The movie was then released for the second time. However, Hamaas Abdul Khaalis continued his threats from his prison cell and announced that he would burn the movie theaters where the movie was shown. Unfortunately, these threats caused many moviegoers not to go to see the movie because they were afraid.
Although Akkad got the approval of various Islamic authorities before making the movie, The Message movie was still banned in most Arab countries, especially Saudi Arabia. However, after Iranian Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini approved the distribution of the film in Iran, it began to be widely watched and praised in the Muslim world.
Following the September 11, 2001 attacks in Washington DC and New York City, the Pentagon purchased many copies of the film to show and better assist soldiers preparing for military duty in Afghanistan and later in the Middle East.
Although the US planned to help its soldiers better understand the Islamic faith in this way, Akkad said in a statement a few years later that "unfortunately, they did not understand the truth behind Islam even after watching the movie."
In 1978, Akkad made the horror movie Halloween, inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, which cost only three hundred thousand dollars. The movie, which achieved great success at the US box office, became one of the most important and influential works of the horror genre. Akkad's work, along with its sequels, managed to become a famous series of seven films, the last of which was shot in 2002.
During the hanging of Saddam Hussein in 2006, Libyan televisions frequently showed the scene where Omar Mukhtar was hanged, implying that there were parallels between the two executions.
In 2001, he started the preparations for his third movie, Saladin (Saladin), a high-budget Hollywood production starring Sean Connery as the Muslim sultan. Akkad lacked the necessary funds for this project. Therefore, from 2003 to 2005, he toured the Arab world, seeking support for the Saladin project. He even brought Connery with him to Damascus at one point. Shortly before his death, Akkad described the film, which will cost $80 million and will be shot in Jordan:
"Salahaddin describes Islam exactly. At the moment, Islam is portrayed as a religion of terror. There is a perception that the whole religion is like that because there are a few terrorists Muslims. If there is a religious war full of terror, it is the Crusades. But few adventurers do this. You can't blame Christianity for doing it. That's my message."
Akkad, who lost his life struggle in the hospital where he was taken, died in the hospital on November 11, 17 years. Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi's al-Qaeda group in Iraq claimed responsibility for the attack.
Akkad's tragic assassination was of particular concern to Syrians, who take great pride in their achievements in Hollywood. In fact, despite its popularity with Arab audiences, Akkad has been the subject of radical threats in the past. But there was a sad irony in the fact that Akkad, who had spent his life eradicating stereotypes about Islam and Arabs, fell victim to Islamic radicalism.
The Amman bombings deprived the Arab world of a man who represents a powerful weapon against the massive media machine that spreads negative images of Arabs and Muslims in the United States. Akkad has produced films that offer an Arab and Islamic perspective rarely seen by the American public.