Spoof film provokes Kazakh fury

LORD Fraser of Carmylie has accused comedian Sacha Baron Cohen of "spreading the myth" that all Muslims are anti-Jewish through his character Borat.
The former Lord Advocate, who headed an inquiry into the building of Holyrood, has hit out at the entertainer for his portrayal of Kazakhs as backward bigots.
The Tory peer is the chairman of the Britain-Kazakhstan Society, which aims to improve relations between the UK and the world's ninth-largest country.

Borat is the alter ego of Ali G comedian Cohen, played as a clueless and bigoted reporter aiming to find out about Western society.
His spoof film Borat: Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, has provoked fury from the Central Asian nation for portraying the country as one where Jews, Gypsies and gays are persecuted, mules are the main form of transport, and women have next to no rights. It opens in Scotland this week.

One notorious Borat scene saw Cohen dupe a host of country music fans into joining in a song with the chorus "Throw the Jew down the well." In another he recited a "chain of importance" of "God, man, horse, dog, woman, then rat."
Fraser said: "What he's trying to do is paint a Muslim country as anti-Semitic and trying to portray all Muslims as anti-Semitic.

It's very dangerous. Basically I think he's anti-foreigner. The reality is that Kazakhs are very tolerant and moderate and a variety of religions and races live there in harmony.

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He added: "My own involvement comes from an interest in the development of the emerging nations of the former Soviet Union. Almaty [the commercial capital] rivals Edinburgh as a beautiful city.
"I'm not saying there is nothing that cannot be improved.

They are still developing their democracy, but their elections get fairer each time. Although I do wonder whether we can talk with our problems with postal votes and the like."
Those critical of the Borat image of Kazakhstan, point out that it was the first of the former republics of the USSR to pay off all its debts from the Soviet era, partially because of its oil wealth.