so it's about jihad

There are some real world correlations, but we shouldn't delve too deep in a literal sense. If you have read the books, they go on to tell of the Jihad in a much less positive light. Paul is quite guilt-stricken by it. It evolves into something more than the Jihad, as this proves a small, though important, stepping stone into the far future of preserving humanity as a species.

The spice = oil analogy is fair enough, but the lazy, uneducated (in modern times), bigoted, misogynistic Arabs/Muslims are hardly comparable to the quiet, intelligent, patient, industrious, educated, water-conserving Fremen. If anything, the Fremen would be Israelis.

Not to mention that it was the Arabs, through the Ottoman Empire, who invaded and conquered the entire Middle East (Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Egypt), but had to be shown by Westerners how to actually extract oil from the Earth.

The term "jihad" is problematic nowadays, of course, but then again Frank Herbert used a lot of Arabic language in the novel...

Your preconceptions have been written by the media post-facto - If you could recapture what you thought the movie was about when you were 12, you'll be a lot better off.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kv_TA2S2z34

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Muad'Dib is arabic, it means teacher, the fremen say that the mouse is wise in the ways of the desert. it is an irony that taleeb or the plural taliban means student(s).

remember Leto's advise to Paul shortly before his death, to rule arrakis we need desrt power, and they have a legend of an outsider, a mahdi, will come, you can exploit this of all else fails. Paul uses the term jihad because it is what the fremen expect, to call it a revoluton would be an epic fail of neurolinguistic programming.

the fremen are zensunni, thought to be of Poitrin, but as the dune gossary says, their language & religion shows the are of a far older descent. obviously middle eastern

trashing books is like the Special Olympics even if you burn them all you are still a retard.

Watch Charlie Wilson's War.


Man has not only the right, but even the duty to become Superman. - Nikolai Berdyaev 1902

Well its quite obvious if you read the books that Frank Herbert was trying to write a series about how humanity could evolve. There are some references to islam but as well to jews - there is a Rabbi as a side character in the last Dune novel written by Herbert self. Otherwise, expect the jews the main monotheist religions don't exist anymore; he has the idea that in "Dune" time many religions have merged together and the main faction being the believers of the "Orange catholic bible". It is never said clearly but I thing the Fremen are kind of traditionalists sticking to mystical, messianic idea of the Islam, in a Sufi-style way.

You can read more about it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Dune_religions#Judaism

It's quite interesting because the story obviously sympathises with the people of the region, whereas now it would be difficult to find a western audience sympathetic to jihad for obvious reasons.

Yes quite an apt analogy. In my opinion the rich capitalists that are exploiting an impoverished people for their own personal gains while demonizing these same people, are the true villains.

Zardoz (1974) has spoken!
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