SameSame.com.au ~ Inside Out Australia

Controversial On-screen Kiss

International News, By Joal, 23rd June, 2009

There’s nothing like a risque scene to get people glued to their TVs, and in Britain on Friday close to 8 million people chose to tune in for a very controversial EastEnders kiss.

If you haven’t been watching, Syed Masood (bottom right) is a handsome, young Muslim property developer who just moved into the area with his girlfriend. But Syed obviously caught the eye of openly gay character Christian Clarke (top right), and on Friday the two characters consummated their mutual attraction with an onscreen kiss.

Viewers peaked for the BBC1 show at an unofficial estimate of 7.9 million – with the viewer spike happening in the last 15 minutes, when the kiss was shown. By comparison, Celebrity MasterChef drew an audience of 3.5 million and the latest Big Brother eviction 2.2 million.

It seems a harmless kiss, right? Well, Diederick Santer, EastEnders executive producer would agree, insisting that the kiss is as far as the onscreen ‘action’ will go.

“This is not a story about Syed and Christian’s physical relationship – we don’t see anything beyond one kiss. It’s more about the inner turmoil and conflict Syed endures trying to remain true to his faith while questioning his sexuality. Syed has already been ostracised from his family and community once and if he’s true to his heart he risks losing his family again,” Santer told the Guardian.

Researching the plot line by contacting gay Muslim support groups, academics and members of the Muslim Council of Great Britain, the popular soap still hasn’t avoided criticism for its recent content.

When plans were announced to steer Syed’s character in the direction of Christian, Asghar Bokhari from the Muslim Public Affairs Committee told the BBC that ”...the Muslim community deserves a character that represents them to the wider public because Islamophobia is so great right now. There’s a lack of understanding of Muslims already and I think EastEnders really lost an opportunity to present a normal friendly Muslim character to the British public.”

But the show seems damned if it does, and damned if it doesn’t. Criticised previously for including ethnically diverse families that were too ‘stereotypical’, Santer responded by saying that steering away from controversy would perpetuate stereotypes ”...they’ll just be in their kitchen unit making curries for years and years and that’s not going to be very interesting.”

“This isn’t a moral tale of right or wrong; it’s very much a human interest story where a young man struggles with the conflict between his faith and his feelings,” says Santer

Members of the EastEnders cast, including Marc Elliot who plays Syed and actress Nina Wadia, who plays Syed’s mother Zainab, have come out in support of the storyline. The plot has also received praise because it might help address the results of a recent Gallup poll released in May, where all of the 500 British Muslims surveyed believed homosexuality to be morally unacceptable. By comparison, 35% of French Muslim respondents to the same survey thought homosexuality acceptable.

Watch the steamy kiss here: