Do you think "American Sniper" is racist? Do you think it fosters ill-will towards Muslims, and promotes the use of hate speech against them? Well, a lot of people do- the civil rights group called The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee has just penned a scathing letter to Bradley Cooper, pleading with him to take a public stand against those who're using the new film as an excuse to hate Muslims.
A portion of the letter (readable in its entirety right here) describes the kind of hate that Muslims have been recieving online since the film was released.
"A majority of the violent threats we have seen over the past few days are result of how Arabs and Muslims are depicted in "American Sniper." We are in receipt of hundreds of violent messages targeting Arab and Muslim Americans from moviegoers of the film. Many of these threats are made through social media forums, such as Twitter and Facebook. The threats advocate for the murder of Arabs, one going as far as to say, 'Great f**king movie and now I really want to kill some f**king ragheads.' in another threat a user wrote, 'American sniper makes me wanna go shoot some f**kin Arabs.'"
However, Deadline reports that Jack Horner, a spokesperson for Warner Bros ("American Sniper" is a Warner film) has already commented on the anti-Muslims comments inspired by the film.
According to Horner, Warner Bros "denounces any violent, anti-Muslim rhetoric, including that which has been attributed to viewers." He added, "Hate and bigotry have no place in the important dialogue that this picture has generated about the veteran experience."
However, don't think this news will slow down "American Sniper" at the box office. The film has been raking in the money for the past two weekends- according to Forbes, "American Sniper' has already pulled in more than $200 million domestically. That means the film is on track to be the most successful war film of all time- controversy or no controversy.
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