AR Rahman responds to Muhammad: Messenger of God fatwa

The Oscar-winning composer AR Rahman has responded to a fatwa against him by an Indian Islamic group for his work on the controversial Iranian biopic Muhammad: The Messenger of God. The Mumbai-based Raza Academy cited director Majid Majidi and Rahman in a statement last week attacking the film’s depiction of the Islamic prophet as a mockery of the religion. But in a letter published on Facebook, the composer said he was convinced he had acted in good faith by working on the biopic. “I am not a scholar of Islam. I follow the middle path and am part traditionalist and part rationalist,” he wrote. “I live in the western and eastern worlds, and try to love all people for what they are, without judging them. “I didn’t direct or produce the movie… I just did the music. My spiritual experiences working on the film are very personal, and I would prefer not to share these ... My decision to compose the music for this film was made in good faith with no intention of causing offence.” Rahman, who won Oscars for best score and best song in 2009 for his work on Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire, highlighted comments by Raza head Muhammad Saeed Noori in which the cleric said he was speaking out to avoid one day facing Allah having not made his feelings on the film clear. The composer said he found himself in a similar position. “What, and if, I had the good fortune of facing Allah and He were to ask me on Judgment Day: I gave you faith, talent, money, fame and health... why did you not do music for my beloved Muhammad film? A film whose intention is to unite humanity, clear misconceptions and spread my message that life is about kindness, about uplifting the poor, and living in the service of humanity and not mercilessly killing innocents in my name.” The emotional post is unusual for Rahman, who mainly uses social media to publicise his own work or highlight excellence from peers. Muhammad: The Messenger of God, a $35m (£22.7m) film which is expected to be the first in a trilogy, has courted controversy by including shots of the Islamic prophet’s back, as well as his hands and legs as a baby. Many Muslims, in particular those from the dominant Sunni tradition, consider physical depictions of Muhammad taboo. 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 Qatari team is currently said to be developing its own Muhammad franchise. 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, who called for more films to be made about Muhammad while promoting the biopic at the Montreal film festival last month, has remained silent on the fatwa.