When Omar Sharif kissed Barbara Streisand in his famous movie Funny Girl, the entire audience screamed. The kiss caused much anger throughout the Arab world, because at the time the Arab-Israeli conflict was going on, which had begun soon after the war of 1967. Arab people did not like to see Sharif kissing a Jewish woman, and so they began to criticise him. What could he say? Sharif is an Egyptian Christian who converted to Islam after marrying his love, Faten Hamama. At the time, he was living in Hollywood.

When the press interviewed Sharif about this kiss, he replied: "When I kiss a lady, I never ask her about her religion." He added that he had taught his son, Tarek, the same lesson. Tarek, who is now 53 years old, and who travelled to Santo Domingo with us, was married to a Christian woman who bore him his first son, and then wed a Muslim woman with whom he had his second son, and is currently married to another Christian woman who just gave birth to his third son.

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