EGYPT U.S. tries to block TV series

One of Egypt's officials said the series didn't contain anti-Semitic material.
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- Ignoring a U.S. request to block its broadcast, Egypt aired on state television the first episode of a TV series based on an anti-Semitic tract, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
The protocols, from the early 20th century, purport to be the plans by a secret group of Jewish leaders plotting to take over the world. But historians have long dismissed the writings as a forgery concocted by Russian Czar Nicholas II's secret police to blame the country's problems on Jews.
In the Egyptian TV series, "Horseman Without a Horse," the serial's hero -- a journalist played by Mohammed Sobhi -- tries to find out if the protocols are true.
The U.S. State Department asked Egypt not to telecast the series.
"At a time when the Egyptian government is working to promote peace in the region, a program that promotes hatred would be extremely unfortunate and counterproductive," said Anne Marks, a State Department spokeswoman.
Denial
But Egypt's Information Minister Safwat el-Sherif denied that the series -- which was broadcast early Thursday -- contained anti-Semitic material and government spokesman Nabil Osman said in a statement that the program should not be judged before it's aired.
"Prejudging a work of art, a dramatic series, before seeing the actual production is simply an immature unintelligent attitude," Osman said. Any criticism before that, he added, "amounts to a kind of intellectual and emotional terrorism."
Israel's press and U.S.-based Jewish groups have also condemned "Horseman Without a Horse," calling it anti-Semitic and asked President Hosni Mubarak to block the show. And 46 members of the U.S. Congress sent a letter to Mubarak expressing concern about the program.