Indian clerics issue fatwa against makers of Muhammad: The Messenger of God

An Indian Islamic group has issued a fatwa against Iranian film-maker Majid Majidi and the Oscar-winning Indian composer AR Rahman over the depiction of the prophet Muhammad in a new film, reports the Indian Express. The Mumbai-based Raza Academy called for Muslims to reject Muhammad: The Messenger of God, a big budget Iranian film which has courted controversy by including shots of the prophet’s back, via a low-angle shot of a teenage Muhammad against the sky, and his hands and legs as a baby. Many Muslims, in particular those from the dominant Sunni tradition, see physical depictions of Muhammad as taboo, and the academy said the new film made a mockery of the religion. Clerics also remarked that the $35m (£22.7m) film featured professional actors, including some non-Muslims, in key roles. The fatwa accuses Majidi and Rahman of sacrilege and calls for them to re-solemnise their marriages and re-read the kalima, an essential tenet of Islam. The academy had previously written to Indian government and Maharashtra state ministers calling for them to ban Majidi’s film, which is expected to be the first of a trilogy. Muhammad: The Messenger of God shows the prophet’s life from birth to the age of 13, largely in flashback. The film has also been denounced by Egypt’s al-Azhar university, which called into question whether the actor playing the prophet might later portray a criminal, leading viewers to associate Islam with crime. Majidi’s film is the first on the subject since Moustapha Akkad’s 1977 film The Message, and the first to visually depict the prophet, though a rival Qatari team is currently said to be developing its own Muhammad franchise. The epic screened at the Montreal film festival last month to positive reviews, with the Guardian’s Phil Hoad praising “an evocative and engrossing account of Islam’s gestation”. Sequels are expected to cover the prophet’s life from age 13 to his 40s, and finally the period from middle age to his death in which Mohammad became the prophet of Islam. The Messenger of God was shown to select Iranian film-makers, critics and tastemakers in February and reportedly made $60,000 on its 27 August debut at 143 cinemas in Iran.