RIYADH, Oct 21: Saudi actors who recently appeared in a popular but controversial MBC TV series dealing with terrorism have been receiving death threats on their cell phones.

Mishael al Mutairi, one of the actors who appeared in ‘Al Hoor al Ain’, said he had received death threats on his mobile phone before Ramazan.

In the 30-episode series, a group of Jordanian, Lebanese, Moroccan, Egyptian and Syrian families living in a complex in Saudi Arabia see their lives turned upside down by a terrorist attack. A young man then starts a countdown in seconds of the time remaining before his meeting with a beauty in paradise. At the end of the countdown he blows himself up.

According to the Syrian director of the series, ‘it is a work about society and the innocent victims of terrorism’. He said it was also about terrorism in thought and intolerance of others.

The series has angered Saudi public opinion, with many people venting their rage through newspapers, Internet and television.