Actor Sean Penn is currently in Iran, playing the role of reporter. No, not for a forthcoming movie, but rather for the San Francisco Chronicle. And once again, he is showing his ignorance about the Middle East and the Muslim world.Actor Sean Penn, warming to his occasional role as a reporter, has quizzed the top contender in Iran’s presidential elections about democracy and had a brush with security agents at an illegal women’s protest.Penn, 44, on assignment for the San Franciso Chronicle ahead of presidential elections on Friday, had already caused a stir by turning up to listen to worshippers chant “Death to America” at Friday prayers in Tehran last week.—-The actor, who visited Iraq before and after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 and wrote an account of his second trip for the Chronicle, has largely declined to talk to the media since arriving in Iran.But he told a film student during a visit to Iran’s Film Museum in Tehran on Monday that the “Death to America” slogan chanted each week at Friday Prayers hurt Iran-U.S. relations.“I understand the nature of where it comes from and what its intention is,” he said. “But I don’t think it’s productive because I think the message goes to the American people and it is interpreted very literally.”
Good. It should be interpreted literally, because when the Muslim street shouts out things like “Death to America” and “Death to Israel”, they really mean it. They are not interested in what is productive*, but rather what is destructive. And shame on anyone (like Penn) who ascribes any other intention to these slogans.
I do agree with Penn on something though:
Asked whether his idea about Iran had changed since arriving in the country, he said: “I hope my ideas are ever changing.”
Me too, given the current state of his ideas.
* Except when referring to their nuclear facilities
