Is this what passes for cultural diplomacy in Iran?

Film director Nader Talebzadeh said he wanted to make a movie that shows the "common ground" shared by Christianity and Islam.

So in late 2007 he released Jesus, the Spirit of God, a film Talebzadeh says stays faithful to the New Testament account of Jesus -- except that, in his film, Jesus isn't crucified and, oh, by the way, isn't the son of God, either.

There it is again -- another example of how Christianity basically is forced to sit there and take every knock against its beliefs at the risk of offending radicals. Imagine the howls of outrage if a Western filmmaker chose to portray the life of Muhammad by implying that Muhammad was not, as Muslims believe, the final prophet of Allah. It would set off a cultural firestorm.

This whole production of Jesus, the Spirit of God never was meant to serve as a bridge between two religions, as the director asserts. If anything, sadly, it helps sever the ties of whatever tattered bridge there is left. It's no more than a jab in Christianity's eye from a director who embraces the same anti-Western ideology as Iran's leaders.

Genuine dialogue and understanding among faiths will have to come from the mouths of moderates, not from celluloid, Islamist bomb-throwers aiming at a religion whose beliefs no one seems to mind wiping their feet on.