May 30 2009
EastEnders Syed & Christian in gay love affair
Marc Elliott who plays Syed in EastEnders is about to become the centre of a “gay plot” controversy when he embarks on a steam homosexual affair with Christian Clarke.
The two are due to share a kiss on screen near the end of June which will see Syed struggling to understand his sexuality and the issue of his Muslim faith and how his family will react when they find out.
Marc spoke to the BBC’s Asian Network about his forthcoming storylines and explained that he fully supports his new plotlines and believes that portraying a character with these issues is important in that it reflects the varied cultural and sexual diversities of people in this country.
However it’s going to far from plain sailing for him as his on-screen girlfriend Amira is due to make a return while his mother Zainab continues to hunt for a wife for Syed.
EastEnder’s executive producer, Diederick Santer, said that the storyline “isn’t a moral tale of right or wrong” and added, “it’s very much a human interest story where a young man struggles with the conflict between his faith and his feelings.”
It’s sure to spark a lot of complaints and controversy, just as Christian’s first on-screen kiss did last year.
What do you think?
I think as a muslim myself i see no problems in this story as it is true that there are many gay muslims and we will see how a family reacts to it all. So whats the worry in reflecting this? My only concern is, is that Islam is already seen as a negative thing in the media and now this story may cause even more worry amongst the muslim community as many will fear that they will be seen as homophobic when not all muslims are.