But at the end of the film, after Balian has surrendered Jerusalem, Saladin enters the city and finds a crucifix lying on the floor of a church, knocked off the altar during the three-day siege. And he carefully picks up the cross and places it reverently back on the altar. And at this point the audience rose to their feet and clapped and shouted their appreciation. They loved that gesture of honour. They wanted Islam to be merciful as well as strong. And they roared their approval above the soundtrack of the film.

Robert Fisk, a veteran Middle East correspondent for The Independent, has a thoughtful piece on Ridley Scott’s Crusades epic, Kingdom of Heaven, and the reactions of the Muslim audience in the Beirut theater where he saw it. There are just enough historical parallels between that ancient, blood-drenched conflict and the fighting going on today in the Middle East to make one uncomfortable. (It probably doesn’t help that President Bush — in one of his lesser moments of eloquence — once described his war on terror as a “crusade.”) Just as before, the question to be decided is whether there is enough honor and mercy on both sides to quell the fundamentalist thinking and permit, someday, a peaceful resolution. Fisk suggests the answer is yes.

Victor Tan Chen Victor Tan Chen is In The Fray's editor in chief and the author of Cut Loose: Jobless and Hopeless in an Unfair Economy. Site: victortanchen.com | Facebook | Twitter: @victortanchen