According to Mohammad Mahdi Heidarian, head of the private Nourtaban Film Industry Company, his company spent about $ 30 million in total to make the movie, an astronomical sum for an Irani film. “He and others declined to elaborate on who provided financial backing for it, though there are wealthy investors and religious institutions in Iran that likely would support such efforts.” I did find that “Majidi’s film is financed by Bonyad Mostazafan, Iran’s foundation of the oppressed, which is a charitable entity under Khamenei’s authority”.
So far, the only reaction recorded from the Muslim world has been from the likes of brainless Qatar and that too a show of one-upmanship: “In 2013, Qatar-based Alnoor Holdings announced it will spend up to one billion dollars for a series of epics for a worldwide audience about the seventh century prophet of Islam. ‘They certainly have the money to do it,’ says The Lord of the Rings producer Barrie Osborne, who is advising, as is a team led by Sunni Islam scholar and Al Jazeera star Yusuf al-Qaradawi, to make sure the story is true to the Quran.
For those like me who thought The Message was well done, it was stunning to learn that “in 1977, Islamic protesters of the most recent English-language Muhammad biopic, The Message, took 150 hostages in Washington, DC, killed two people and shot future mayor Marion Barry”. A little more research about the new movie yielded how the west is pitching the story as “dueling biopics”, Iran versus Qatar, both clearly willful partners in crime in the plan to deal a blow of death to Islam. “It is a real political battle, as each side has a different interpretation of the Quran,” says Iranian cinema scholar Philippe Ragel of the University of Toulouse. “It is out of the question for both sides that the other should be left alone to appropriate the Prophet’s (PBUH) life.”
The view from Egypt; “Sunni-led Al Azhar University has called on Shia Iran to ban the unfinished Majidi film because of his plan to show the Prophet (PBUH) (but not his face).” And just to highlight the Shia versus Sunni war that is about to break out in the entire Muslim world, notes Lesley Hazleton, author of the Muhammad (PBUH) bio The First Muslim, “Sunnis are more strict about depicting the prophet than Shias.” The implication of the degrees, as if there is room for them, when it comes to the sanctity of the Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) being is remarkable, although unsurprising coming from Hazleton.
Majidi’s movie has been in production since 2010 and post-production has been in Germany for the last two years. No one except Al-Azhar, a private company in Qatar and apparently the Irani establishment has commented about the movie in the Muslim world. Papers in Pakistan have reproduced articles previously printed but there has been no other reaction. Should there be one from the state? Without a doubt. The movie will surely be banned in Pakistan amongst other Sunni countries but that is not enough. It will spark much more than controversy about details of fact and manners of depiction. It will potentially light the match for a sectarian war in the Muslim world, including Pakistan, on a scale that only war by foreigners on the ground has created in Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries, be it real or manufactured.
The west will happily show the movie and one hopes they can bear the consequences of that just as well since everything seems acceptable to safeguard their freedom of expression. If The Message caused kidnappings and shootings at mayors in the 1970s, this movie will bring on a harsher response than even to the cartoons made by non-Muslims. The Islamic Republic of Pakistan, if there is indeed such an entity, needs to take the lead and raise the issue of the movie with the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) now. Not over the depiction of a back or a hand or whatever else other movies will show, but to defend the honour of the Prophet (PBUH) for all eternity by asking for a ban on films about him. Each country should list its position on record for the Muslim ummah to see who believes what and figure out the whys for themselves. Then, next time a country asks its Muslim brothers for support it will know why it has been declined respectfully. Those that stand on the same side can take up the matter internationally if the need ever arises.
From The Message to this movie there is already a huge escalation in what is being shown about the Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) person. The next movie, be it by Qatar or Majidi’s second part of his trilogy, will go a notch higher. And this is only the Muslims at the helm of their own betrayal, not yet the west, which will no doubt want its own crack at it. Although, to be honest, it might be more amusing for them to watch the Muslims battle it out and see who falls first after they have chided them to their heart’s content on the double standards they portray on the issue of his depiction.
Either the process is cut now or it goes to the next level of irreversible damage to Islam. Those in Pakistan who claim the country’s destiny is to be the leader of the Muslim world must speak out now, otherwise they will be the murderers not only of their own souls but also be held responsible for each drop of blood that is spilled along the way in this controversy, be it Muslim or non-Muslim. Tragically enough, the part about spilt blood is the lesser of the two evils, the other being playing a compliant role in the destruction of the only thing that matters and in its entirety forms the core of the identity of any Muslim: reverence for Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Because, in the absence of that, we are, without question, the walking dead.
(Concluded)
The writer is a freelance columnist