If you watched Sunday night’s episode of The Bible miniseries on the History Channel you may have noticed that the Satan character bares a striking resemblance to President Barack Obama.
Many viewers took to social media websites Twitter and Facebook to voice their opinions on the resemblance between Obama and the actor who plays the devil in the miniseries, Mohamen Mehdi Ouzaani.
The History Channel responded to the comparisons with the following statement.
“History channel has the highest respect for President Obama,” the network said in a statement March 18. “The series was produced with an international and diverse cast of respected actors. It’s unfortunate that anyone made this false connection. History’s ‘The Bible’ is meant to enlighten people on its rich stories and deep history.”
Executive producers Mark Burnett and Roma Downey also released their own statements concerning the matter.
“This is utter nonsense,” Mark said. “The actor who played Satan, Mehdi Ouzaani, is a highly acclaimed Moroccan actor. He has previously played parts in several Biblical epics — including Satanic characters long before Barack Obama was elected as our President.”
“Both Mark and I have nothing but respect and love our President, who is a fellow Christian,” Roma said. “False statements such as these are just designed as a foolish distraction to try and discredit the beauty of the story of The Bible.”