Feb 11, 2004 / 22:00 pm
At the root of the Anti-Defamation League’s fear regarding “The Passion of the Christ” is that the film “might actually inspire lapsed Christians to return to the faith,” said Catholic League president William Donahue in a press release issued this week.
Donahue said the ADL’s claim that Mel Gibson’s movie may incite violence against Jews after its release, Feb. 25, is unfounded, citing a recent interview he had with leading Passion Play scholar and Columbia University professor James Shapiro.
“No one has raised the specter of violence more than ADL director Abraham Foxman,” he said. Donahue cited several occasions in the press recently, in which Foxman has spoken about the dangers he perceives with the film and its marketing.
In the Feb. 7 issue of the Detroit Free Press, Foxman said historically Passion Plays “rationalized anti-Semitic behavior. We fear this [film] will, too.”