It is a feature film which recounts the death of the Prophet Muhammad, founder of Islam, and the war between his disciples for his succession. The sets and fight scenes are as ostentatious as the directors’ bias: written by a Shiite preacher, Yasser Al Habib, The Lady of Paradise denigrates the successor of Muhammad, Abu Bakr, a great figure of Sunnism, portrayed as a tyrant who only comes to power through violence and cunning; quite the opposite of Ali – the first Shia imam, presented in his best light.
These historical disagreements over Muhammad’s true successor led to a major split in Islam between what became the Sunni and Shia faiths, a split that continues to this day.
Released Friday June 3 in the UK, The Lady of Paradise has already been deprogrammed from Cineworld theaters after gatherings of Islamists in different. Banned in Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, it will not be released in Morocco either. The Ulema Council, responsible for issuing religious opinions, judged that it presented a “blatant falsification of the history of Islam”. the Moroccan Cinematographic Center followed and refused to give a broadcast authorization.
Admittedly, the bias of the film poses a problem. Some accuse him of reawakening tensions between Shiites and Sunnis. But he is also accused of presenting the “face” of the prophet, who however is not embodied by an actor but created by computer and often concealed by a dazzling ray of sunlight. The producer did not hesitate to condemn the “censorship” extremist Muslims. The British government judged him that the demonstrations against the film violated freedom of expression. He even removed from his administrative duties this weekend an imam who had encouraged them.
The figure of Muhammad is a highly inflammable subject, we also see it in India: Indian Muslims (who represent less than 15% of the population, against nearly 80% of Hindus), have been denouncing for some years a stigmatization, a context growing Islamophobia encouraged by the government. At the beginning of June, the spokeswoman for the nationalist party in power made remarks deemed derogatory about the prophet which immediately sparked a wave of violent demonstrations throughout the Muslim world; it was suspended but that did not change anything, India found itself plunged into a diplomatic storm.
Nearly 20 capitals have summoned its ambassadors to obtain explanations for this anti-Muslim rhetoric and to demand respect for beliefs and religions.