A message on a Web site linked to al-Qaeda has threatened death to the veteran Egyptian actor Omar Sharif after he played St. Peter in an Italian TV film.
In remarks widely reported in Italy earlier this month, the 73- year old actor, a convert to Islam, said he had "seemed to hear voices" during the filming of St. Peter, a two-part mini-series shown last week.
Sharif was quoted as saying: "Playing Peter was so important for me that even now I can only speak about it with difficulty. It will be difficult for me to play other roles from now on."
The Italian news agency, Adnkronos International said that a message on a Web forum used in the past by al-Qaeda had a link to a site carrying the threat.
"Omar Sharif has stated that he has embraced the crusader idolatry," it said. "He is a crusader who is offending Islam and Muslims and receiving applause from the Italian people. I give you this advice, brothers, you must kill him."
Adnkronos International, which has strong links with the Middle East, closely monitors Arabic language media.
The agency said other messages posted to the site had protested at the appeal.
The actor, who was named Michael Chalhoub, was brought up a Christian. He converted to Islam in the 1950s after marrying the Egyptian film diva Faten Hamama. They divorced after two decades.
Sharif shot to international stardom as Sherif Ali Ibn el-Kharish in David Lean's 1962 desert epic, Lawrence of Arabia. But he has repeatedly upset fans in the Muslim world. In 1968, with memories of the six-day war with Israel fresh in Arab minds, he caused a furore by kissing a Jewish woman, Barbra Streisand, in the movie Funny Girl.
His films were banned in Egypt as a result.
In 2003 he stirred controversy playing a Muslim shopkeeper who befriends a Jewish teenager in the French film Monsieur Ibrahim et les Fleurs du Coran. Interviewed by the Australian Broadcasting Corp earlier this year, Sharif said: "I believe in everything and in nothing ... the first thing I was taught ... at catechism was that God is justice and I don't see justice in the world."
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