"There is, however, a lot of gleeful violence directed at Jews from a group of people who certainly weren't interested in the film."

I assume you're referring to muslims? If I remember correctly, TPoTC was actually quite popular in islamic countries.

Was it? Blimey, I had no idea.

For the record, I was referring to a subgroup of Muslims. But, if I was wrong anyway, that hardly matters.

I suppose the question then becomes: did Islamic anti-Jewish violence become worse or more prevalent in the aftermath of the film?

As well as being insane, the "can't trust 'em - they killed Jesus" attitude seems strangely selective. While tried and condemmed by Jews, he was tortured and nailed to a big lump of wood by Romans. But when was the last time you heard anyone denounce Italians because of what their distant ancestors may have done?

"did Islamic anti-Jewish violence become worse or more prevalent in the aftermath of the film?"

Even if the film is anti-semitic (I have no idea as I haven't seen it) it's probably pretty weak jew-hatred by middle eastern standards. For instance, Egyptian TV ran a mini-series a short while ago based on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Good point.

It might be interesting to see what those journalists who kicked up a stink about the film have written about Al Jazeera.

" why on Earth would he mention how many of the Gospels this scene appears in?"

It explains that in the piece you quoted from iirc. Gibson deflected criticism of the film by claiming that what was in the film was what was in all of the gospels. as you point out that's irrelevant, but not if gibson used it to avoid the real argument.

I can't see that in the piece (though I am but quickly scan-reading).