The Saudi papers have not yet published editorials on last night’s bombings in Amman. When they do, I’ll link to them and comment.

I did learn through Arab News, however, that an acquaintance, Mustapha Akkad, was injured and his daughter was killed. Akkad is a Syrian, from the city of Aleppo. I met him through his sister, who was with the University of Aleppo, with whom I worked when I was Cultural Affairs Officer in Damascus.

You may not recognize his name, but you will certainly recognize his work. Akkad is an accomplished film producer. Among his films are the “Halloween” series of horror films, produced from 1978-2002. (A 25-year retrospective is scheduled for release this year, as is “Halloween 9″.)

In the Arab world, he is noted for two films that didn’t get much distribution in the US: “The Messenger” and “Lion of the Desert”. Both films are available through Netflix and worth seeing.

“Lion of the Desert” (1981) told the story of Omar Mukhtar, a Libyan tribal leader who led the resistance against Italian occupation in the inter-war years. The film is magnificent in its scope, but was a commercial disaster. That Libyan ruler Qaddhafi was out of favor in/with the US didn’t help the film’s prospects much.

He also made the earlier film, “The Messenger”. This was a film biography of the Prophet Mohammed. Curiously, this film was shot in parallel with an Arabic-language version of the film, with a different set of actors stepping in after a scene was shot to film in the other language. This film caused an uproar in the Muslim world, with many decrying it as blasphemous. Blasphemy was part of the complaints of a group of American Black-Muslims, the “Hanafi Muslims”. The group undertook a series of simultaneous actions in Washington, DC in 1977, attacking a B’nai Brith headquarters as well as the District Building, the city hall for Washington’s local government. In attempting to defend the building, Marion Barry, then a City Councilman, was shot and nearly killed. Barry went on to be elected Mayor six times–with an interlude in jail for drug use and possession between his third and fourth terms.

A seminal horror film producer, Akkad has also had his films manage to be at the center of one of the earliest American experiences of Islamic extremism. I send my condolences for his daughter’s death and hope for his swift recovery.

UPDATE: News reports now say that Mustapha died in a hospital in Amman.

UPDATE: 11/12/05 Asharq Alawsat newspaper follows up reporting on the bombings and include pictures of Mustapha and Rima Akkad and their funerals.