On wednesday we heard that renowned international Syrian filmmaker Mustafa Al-Akkad was severely wounded and his daughter Rima was killed.

Yesterday friday, it was very painful for me to hear that Mustafa Al-Akkad has also passed away after having a heart attack.
He will always be in our hearts and we will always remember him and his great work creating movies like “The Message” and “Lion of the Desert -also known as Omar Al Mohktar-”.

In an interview back in 1976 Mustafa Al-Akkad said:

About ‘The Message’(1976): “I did the film because it is a personal thing for me. Besides its production values as a film, it has its story, its intrigue, its drama. Beside all this I think there was something personal, being Muslim myself who lived in the west I felt that it was my obligation my duty to tell the truth about Islam. It is a religion that has a 700 million following, yet it’s so little known about it which surprised me. I thought I should tell the story that will bring this bridge, this gap to the west.” (1976 Interview)

Mustafa Al-Akkad served Islam through his work and through what he does!! God bless Mustafa Al-Akkad God bless Rima Al-Akkad, rest in peace.

From the news:
Syrian-born filmmaker of “The Message,” died Friday from wounds sustained in the triple hotel bombings in Jordan. He was 75.

Akkad, who lived in Los Angeles, died at 7:30am in a Jordanian hospital where he was being treated, said Dr Yousef Qisous in Amman.

“He had bleeding in the lungs, his ribs were fractured and he died of his wounds and a severe heart attack this morning,” Qisous told AP.

Akkad’s sister, Leila, confirmed her brother’s death in a telephone interview with the Associated Press from Damascus.

His daughter, Rima Akkad Monla, 34, also died in one of the explosions that rocked three hotels in Amman on Wednesday night, according to her mother and Akkad’s ex-wife, Patricia Akkad.

Akkad’s sister said the world was saddened by the tragic death of her brother and called for an end to terrorist attacks on civilians.

“I feel sad and the world feels sorrow with us. This kind of incident rarely happens, but it has happened with Moustapha Akkad,” Leila Akkad told the AP. She spoke from Amman where she had flown to be with her wounded brother.

“These attacks are chaotic and do not differentiate an enemy from a friend. A solution must be found to this problem [terrorist attacks],” she said.

Leila, who teaches journalism at state-run Damascus University, said the attacks clearly had not targeted anyone in particular.

“They were aimed at spreading chaos in the country,” she said.

Akkad, best known for producing all eight films in the “Halloween” franchise, also produced and directed “The Message” (1977) and “Lion of the Desert” (1981).

Both starred Anthony Quinn.

Born in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo in July 1930, Akkad gained fame as a creative movie director and producer in the Arab world and in the West.

After finishing his secondary studies in Syria, Akkad left for America in 1950, according to Leila. He studied movie direction and production at California University and worked in the United States. Akkad’s most serious and creative efforts showed in “Lion of the Desert” and “The Message,” dramas about the history of Islam.

Akkad was the eldest member in a family of six boys and a girl.

With the death of his daughter, Rima, Akkad is survived by three sons, Tarek, Malek and Zeido.

Akkad’s daughter, Rima, grew up in Los Angeles and was an avid polo player who graduated from the University of Southern California in 1995 with a degree in international relations.

She pursued a master’s degree in Middle East studies at the American University in Beirut, where she met her husband Ziad Monla, 35.

Her husband’s family owns the Monla Hospital in Tripoli, northern Lebanon. The couple, married for six years, had two sons, ages 2 and 4.

“Rima is a totally American girl,” Patricia Akkad, 64, said Thursday in a phone interview from her ex-husband’s home in Los Angeles. “Here’s an American who was over there and innocently killed for no reason.” Akkad said her daughter loved living in Beirut. “We all know the problems in the Middle East, and you never think it’s going to touch you,” she said.

Funeral services were scheduled for Friday in Tripoli.

“She was the light of everybody’s life,” Patricia Akkad said. “She put everybody else first.” Funeral services for Akkad were scheduled for Sunday in his hometown of Aleppo, his sister Leila said.