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Fadi Zaghmout

300 Muslim

Finally I had the chance to watch the 300 movie. Like everyone, I loved the cinematic animation scenes (they are brilliant), but I have also loved the story as well.

Before watching the movie, I have read some good reviews about it on various blogs. Roba gave a good review about the movie in general while Vas talked about Hollywood politics and the Greek history and methodoly moda. Marie linked the spirit of the Spartan warriors to the definition of the Warriors of light in Paulo Coelho’s novel.

For me, I couldn’t help but to link the story of the 300 with all the heroic stories of the early Islam battles that they taught us at school.

Whenever Leonaides (The Spartan King) shouted Spartans, to encourage his warriors, I heard it Muslims.

The story of the 300 is just too similar to the story of Khaled Bin Al Waleed in Ajnadayn or Yarmouk battles, or The battle of Badr or other battles in the Islamic history where a few bunch of men where able to fight others who were much more in number and win.

It became clear to me that every nation has its own fabricated heroism stories in order to bring up the morals of its people.

The reason for fights were always honor, freedom and glory. Every nation claims the superiority of morals. Every nation claims to be the light who fights the forces of darkness for the sake of humanity.

The days of the 300 are not over. It was just recently that George Bush lead a war on Iraq, the country who he considered a part of the axis of evil in the name of protecting the free world. It was just recently that Al-Qaeda are bombing everywhere in the name of freeing the Islamic world.

The culture of sacrificing one’s self for the sake of other is not explicit to our Arab culture. People in the west who are boggled by the logic of suicide bombers can understand it by watching 300. It is exacly like what Vas said about US current politics and propaganda.

We – human beings – are the masters of deception. We have invented honor, glory and freedom as high values to legitamize killing each other. Our history full of blood shed, it is always honorable at the side you read the story from. Unfortuantly it is still going on, and doesn’t seem that is ending in the near future.

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Responses

  1. amok* Avatar
    amok*

    far from logic what u wrote, “Whenever Leonaides (The Spartan King) shouted Spartans, to encourage his warriors, I heard it MUSLIMS.”my comment is : ok metel mbaddak! or as u want.linking facts for the sake of writing blog is not what attracts me to read your blog Observer, as i know u r smart enough to make a perfect mud n shape it in the way u like to reflect your story;) nice blog, but i still find it a comic story. even yours;)

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  2. The Observer Avatar
    The Observer

    a-mok, what to you mean of linking facts for the sake of writing blog? I wrote this post because there is a message that I wanted to send. An anti war message no matter what the reasons were.What do you read my blog for? 🙂

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  3. Qwaider قويدر Avatar
    Qwaider قويدر

    Hmmm… This is a very provoking post on many levels but especially when it talks about the how humans invented “honor” “freedom” and glory.I don’t know if I should pity you or bash you even more than what you have done to yourself already!Only someone suffering from history amnesia forgets fact of the human history such as Freedom! Slavery has existed throughout the history of man kind and for many, it is a worthy cause to die for.Same goes for honor, and many other values that people would rather pay the ultimate sacrifice and not lose.One day, people are going to struggle for other types of independence. Independence from debt, corporate exploitation and more than likely a greener earthThe battle of Mo’tah that you talked about was a loss by all means, until Khalid staged the most elaborate retreat in history. A tactic that is still being taught today. It wouldn’t have made it into history books if there wasn’t something special about it. As for the battle of the mote (Al Khandaq) it was new only to Arabs, but was suggest by a Persian (Salman El Farisi) which indicates the Persian familiarity with that form of defense. Oh and by the way, in the Khandaq, It wasn’t Muslims who won the battle, It was the elements. Yep, people in the city were able to withstand the cold windstorm while the soldiers in their tents couldn’tI think you missed the point of the “smaller faction beating the superior power” even though recent history have proved this over and over again, Hizballah in Lebanon, and the Vietcong in Vietnam. The morale of the story that a determined bunch is worth more than a ton of mercenaries.Another moral of the story is that Troop morale is very important. It’s as important as their arms.Anyway… I’m sure it was just a slip from you fadi … I’m not going to give up on you yet

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  4. The Observer Avatar
    The Observer

    With all due respect Qwaider, if you have been a constant reader of my blog, you would notice that this is just what I have always asked for. There is no slippage here. I am a peace advocate.I haven’t deny slavery, and haven’t deny the rights of people to fight for a cause. What I am against for is blood fights. I follow Ghandhi and Jesus schools. They fight for a cause with love and peace. Yes fewer can beat more men, but it should be in a realistic matter. We tend to exaggerate our victories. It is a universal matter that is not explicit on us. 300 is an example.You keep on fooling yourself about the victory of Hezb Allah. If you consider it a victory, then no wonder why you got all worked out when I questioned our history!If you look deep in any war in the history, you would notice that only poor soldiers pay for the leaders who only gain the benefits!

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  5. Qwaider قويدر Avatar
    Qwaider قويدر

    You’re never wrong Fadi. Is this exactly what love and peace teaches?What Hezbollah did was nothing less than a miracle of biblical proportions. If Jesus was alive he would’ve bowed to their courage. Anyway, that’s beside the point.The point is, You underestimated the value of freedom to some people. (and the opposite of that is slavery)therefore, you have undermined billions’ struggle for freedom.Why don’t you just admit it .. you made a mistake! No one is going to strangle you for it!

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  6. J.O Avatar
    J.O

    1. The movie has nothing to do with the spartans or the Greek-Persian wars and even more with Persians. It is the trasnfer of the comic book and has nothing to do with History.2. Inside the movie there where many contradiction in terms. for example Leonidas didn’t take efialtes with him because he said that the spartans used to fight in phalanx, on the movie they didn’t fight in such a way!!! The wife of Leonidas is a strong woman but she “gave” herself to the political enemy of Leonidas.3. The history facts where wrong:1. The kings in Sparta were only the chiefs of the army. Sparta has 2 Kings and o political board to decide. The King of Persia has nothing to do with this “Gay” style King that we saw in the movie. The King of Persia never gone near to the battle because if he was dead the Persian army will lose the battle (This was how Alexander the great wan the final battle in his invasion in Persia, he tried to kill the Persian King!!).For this reasons i didn’t like the movie becasuse has nothing to do with the real history!!!Now for some other discussions in the Blog and some comments that i have.1. you say: “The reasons for fight were always honor, freedom and glory” i am not sure that this statement is true. For me the reasons for fight were always the economical benefits!! this is why Persia tried to invade Greece, to open a way to Europe; this is why The crusadors invaded the Arab World, to control the trasnport ways from India. This is why we have the colonialism wars, to open new markets for the power Imperialis countries. This is why the US invaded Iraq, to Control the Ways of Energy (link this war with the war in Balkans 1999 the War in Afghanistan 2001 the situation with Iran and Syria Today).2. There is no one meaning for War. There are good and bad wars. For Example if a people fight for his independace this is a good war if he fights to conquer this is a bad war. So everytime we must see who benefits from the war we are talking about!!!I hope i contributes to this discussion…….

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  7. Who-sane Avatar
    Who-sane

    An “anti-war message”, as you claim it to be, is NEVER written by mocking nations’ victories and accusing their honorable history of being “fabricated heroism stories”!You look at honor, glory and freedom as means of killing each other, but what’s a human being without honor, glory or freedom? It is these values that separate us as human beings from animals.Sorry if my first comment is not a nice one.

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  8. The Observer Avatar
    The Observer

    Qwaider, you are wrong again! lol. Ya3ni why would I admit that I made a mistake just because you said so? I am a bit opinionated yes, but I do admit my mistakes when I make them.The mircale of Hezabollah left lebanon destroyed, and moved the forces of the Hezb far away from the Israeli terroteries. Yes that was a misacle, in your terms! lol. I havent underestimated the value of freedom for people. I was only pointing that this freedom value has been manipulated throughout the history for the benefits of the leaders. Go figure out.J.o, I respect your input here. I am not taking the movie as a factual history, I am merely stating the morals of the story and compare it to our own history and the story of heroism that we taught to us since our childhood. I am comparing the history of other nations to ours. Nations share a lot of similarity in temrs of their history and evolvements.As for the war meanings. I don’t believe in a good war if it inflicts death and blood. Good wars can be fought with words and love. Ghandhi has set a good example for us. Freedom and other moral values has been used in the past to use the youth for the benefits of the leaders. That is my main point. Who-sane, I am not mocking any nation. I am an Arab. Self critisism isn’t mocking. Looking at the history of nations help us see things from different angles.I would like to see a change in our culture in terms of how we fight our battles. Blood and killing have cost us a lot in the last 10 years alone.

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  9. The Observer Avatar
    The Observer

    J.O, I just followed your link and noticed you are Jamal 🙂Welcome to my blog, and thanks for adding value to the discussion.

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  10. Mohanned Avatar
    Mohanned

    “It became clear to me that every nation has its own fabricated heroism stories in order to bring up the morals of its people.”The muslim wins and war stories are not fabrication for the glory and honor, and you can see that by the the numbers of muslims all over the world and the area that they reached, if you remember andalus and china, they even got close to france, so all of that can’t be fabrication, and the reason that only muslim stories are there about those speciifc wins is that because the other part lost the war and it would a “shame” in contrast with the “glory” of muslims..So I wouldn’t consider war stories about islam to be fabrication, I don’t know about you but I do believe that god had a role in those wins..

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  11. Qwaider قويدر Avatar
    Qwaider قويدر

    New sides to you I see… interesting…So you’re not self critical, you fail to see the err of your approach (=…) and you have offended not only religions, but everyone who struggled for freedom and honor..You’re moving up!Here’s a little thing that they didn’t teach you in the little “peace and love” school. When you offend people (their honor, history, achievements, religion, or yes, yes, FREEDOM) then you have committed a Boo-boo! And a boo-boo is forgivable as long as people realize that … hmm maybe someone ELSE in this UNIVERSE got my words wrong because “I FREAKEN MADE A MISTAKE” in EVALUATING what FREEDOM means to THEM.I’m tempted to say more but … I’ll stop right here and leave the rest to your good self. Reflect on it and see IF there was something out of whack in what you said.(never seen you admit a mistake ever, care to entertain that idea?)

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  12. The Observer Avatar
    The Observer

    Mohannad, I don’t deny the wins of Muslims and Arabs in that era. Althought we call it “foto7at”, it is percieved as opression and colonization by the other nations that we conquered. What I am trying to say that some of those wins, which talk about few numbers winning over many numbers of soldiers must be exaggerated like in the 300 movie.Qwaider, whats up with you and this insistance on me to admit a mistake that I didn’t do?!!If you haven’t seen me admitting a mistake before, that means I haven’t done a mistake infront of you. I know that Devil’s mind have corrected me more than once and I have always let him know. If anyone (like you for instance) got my words wrong, then it is his (*your*) problem, not mine. I stand with what I said.

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  13. Vas Avatar
    Vas

    A spartan ethos I notice in the messages and the replies 🙂 The Persian wars in reality were one of the major factors that prepared the Greeks for the luminous cultural achievements of the 5th and 4th cent. B.C. I am doubtful whether there is any slim chance for that at the present set of events, while “humanism” and “freedom” are exported by armed forces in our part of the world.

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  14. nas Avatar
    nas

    ObserverInteresting post i see many passiontate comments here:)Anyways i think you have hit the nail on the head as they say i do agree with what you wrote its just that the people are not looking at it in an objective way coz they are sensitive when its comes to the history of their nations. i mean even if you wrote this post to a group of greeks they will write the same comments like here about their stories and glory and how they reached india and defeated the evil persians so they will say that they are not fabricated heroism stories coz every nation is proud of its history and achievements but at the expense of many human lives. at the end of the day war is war when ur on the winning side u fight for freedom and glory when u r on the loosing side its evil unjust.

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  15. The Observer Avatar
    The Observer

    Vas, heehehhe, yeah I felt like a spartan fighting to explain my point of view.Nas, well said. You are right. people get offended when their reality is shaken! They don’t realize that it is okay to critisize our own selves in order to make things better. I wouldn’t mock my own heritage, but I can certainly highlight the shortages and infleuence change.

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  16. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    you are truely a Brightlight Peaceful Warrior! marie

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  17. The Observer Avatar
    The Observer

    Thanks Marie, unfortunatly some people dont see that 😛

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  18. Nas Avatar
    Nas

    (this is Nas from the Black Iris; ya3ni, in case people got confused with the above comment made by another ‘nas’)Here’s my 2 cents if you will. As some have already argued there is a vast difference between fiction embedded in a comic book and that of historical reality. Mind you many of the Muslim victories and loses were well documented from both sides, and their loses were even mentioned in the Quran. So it wasnt a matter of making them out to be something much greater than what they were. For more historically documented perspectives we can look to the crusades.secondly, i agree with you that every nation that fights will say it is fighting legitimatlly. it all depends on where you stand and how you view it. what you stand for is important as well as the variables involved. war is inevitable because conflict is a human trait.saying there shouldn’t be any killing or war is like saying people shouldn’t shit anymore because it’s a dirty feature of biological system.God doesn’t say Thou Shall Not KillHe says Thou Shall Not Murder.Simply because it was a shorter than saying Thou Shall Not Kill, Except When….

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  19. The Observer Avatar
    The Observer

    Hi Nas of the Iris 🙂I agree with that there is a difference between fiction and history, what I was talking about is the core of the story and the morale of the 300 that meant to be sent in the movie. As for the history of the Islamic battles is well documented. Please allow me to disagree with you here. History is always written by the winner. Sure those battles were won by us, but there is no way you can tell how much of an exaggeration has been injected in them. Just look at our current affairs, we have just witnessed the American/Iraqi war a couple of years ago, and lately the Israeli/Hezballah war, and still people are arguing who won and who lost! In a war situation, it is very hard to know the exact truth.I am not sure Nas what God you are referring to, but I personally against killing in general. I also don’t agree with your analogy that killing is like shitting! We can certainly stop killing each other.

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  20. Nas Avatar
    Nas

    first, yes history is written by the victor but if you’ve taken a good look at islamic history, a great deal of it is also written by the armies they fought.second, when you say “won by us” are you talking about muslims or christians? also, yes, every story is exaggerated to a certain level which makes every story suspect. but i think you would agree there is an unfair comparision between the story told in 300 and that of say khaled bin alwaleed. and like i said before many islamic stories were that of retreats and strategy, rather than heroics. and i should also mention the stories of victory, specifically battles during the prophet pbuh’s time, are a matter of belief. those that either he or his companions or God Himself related in the quran, come down to belief. it is fact that their first battle they were outnumbered 10 to 1, but to say angels fought alongside them is a matter of belief. third, yes i do think killing is a part of human nature and i am not talking necessarily on the individualistic level but as a race, as a society. certain connotations such as defence of one’s people come into play. fourth, what I’m saying about the commandment here is that if God didn’t recognise people’s capability to kill the same way people are capabale of adultry, he would’ve simply said “thou shall not kill” or better yet, program us not to kill at all. whether we should avoid doing both acts is another story.

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  21. The Observer Avatar
    The Observer

    Hi Nas, I am glad you replied.First, yes, I agree, I am not saying that the entire Islamic history is fake, I am just saying, and I guess that you agreed in your second point, that there are some exaggerations to a certain level.Second, when I said “us” I mean Arabs, cause Arab christians have participated in these battles along with their Muslim brothers. I consider our Arabic history as part of my culture eventhough Islam dominates it while me not being a Muslim.As of the unfair comparison. I disagree. I am not comparing things literally. I am talking about the morales of both stories. I guess the 300 story does contain a lot of strategy and tactics as well. Havent you watched the movie? 🙂You are right about the belief part, but it is an aspect in the 300 story as well. The Greek believed that their God fought for them as well. It is common in every culture for people to believe that their own God is the right one, and that he is the one who help them to win their battles. The belief part just makes my whole argument more valid.Third, I can’t deny that killing hasn’t been and still a part of our human race struggle. I say that it is wrong, and can be avoided. fourth, your were saying that God said you shall not murder not kill cause killing for a reason is justified (that is what I got from your argument). Now I am not sure what do you mean by your reply. I say that killing is wrong whether a God said it or not.

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  22. Nas Avatar
    Nas

    “I am talking about the morales of both stories”what you’re looking at is heroism. i get your point but what 300 is getting at is that sometimes one has to fight for what they believe for, especially in a world bent on fighting against what he believes in.it’s nice and pretty to be a pacifist but its not a utopian world because there’s nothing utopian about the human nature. if someone came to rob your house and you defended it and your family, you would argue it was in defence and he would argue he was driven to robbery because of his poor situation. everyone has a story to tell. thats just the way the world goes. which is why i agree that killing SHOULD be avoided, but i acknowledge in the world that we live in, it CANT be avoided.There are a hundred situations that warrant killing. But for every one of those is a thousands situations that do not.

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  23. The Observer Avatar
    The Observer

    Ok Nas, I stand corrected. I agree killing should be avoided, but it can’t be avoided. In a utpian world I guess it can be. I can just be pacifist myself, and ask people to do the same.

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