Manama: A Bahraini man is trying to use the Bollywoood hit 'My name is Khan' starring Shah Rukh Khan to help his country's lawmakers overcome the sectarianism that has gripped the parliament and threatened to divide society.
Khalid Al Khayyat, a Bahraini who works with a bank, has offered the 40 MPs tickets to watch the movie in Manama and use its message to spread greater tolerance in the lower chamber and society and foster national unity.
"My name is Khalid and I am not a sectarianist," said Khalid, taking the words from the main line in the movie, ‘My name is Khan and I am not a terrorist' that Rizwan Khan, the main Muslim character, needs to tell the people and president of the United States to win back his angry Hindu wife.
"This tickets gift is humble, but the objective is highly significant. I am offering you 40 tickets so that you can watch the movie ‘My Name is Khan' and learn from it how mutual love and tolerance are crucial for the development of any society," Khalid said in the letter he sent to the MPs.
"The movie demonstrates how hatred and resentment will only drag us into a maze of ugliness that has terribly affected our lives. The movie is a reminder of a wonderful message, and that is terrorism has no religion or sect. The people of one country, regardless of their sects, must live together as one people, and not as two sects," Khalid said.
The lower chamber has often witnessed standoffs between MPs alongside sectarian lines that brought it to a standstill at times.
