The Prophet's Daughter — A Film From a Shiite Perspective That Angers British Muslims for These Reasons

Cinema witnessed a new crisis with the release of The Lady of Heaven film by director Eli King, which deals with the life of Lady Fatima al-Zahra, the Prophet Muhammad’s daughter, may God bless him and grant him peace, but from a Shiite perspective, which led to it being banned from showing in several countries, in addition to several British cinemas taking a decision to prevent the continuation of its showing due to the escalation of protests against it by the British Muslim community.

Since the film was shown during the Platinum Jubilee Week, thousands of British Muslims protested in a number of cities, including Bradford, Bolton, Birmingham, and Sheffield, according to the Daily Mail, describing the film as offensive to Islam, provoking sectarian strife, and historically inaccurate.

Muslim activists and pioneers of social media have also exposed the falsity of the historical events presented in the film under the hashtag #TheLadyOfHeaven, stressing that the film is a mine of sectarian hate and distorts the image of the Prophet Muhammad and the Rightly-Guided Caliphs.

The film has received intense criticism since the announcement of the start of production with a budget of $15 million, and the role of Lady Fatima was played by actress Albane Courtois, along with Ray Veron, Marc Anthony Brighton, Dennis Black, Oscar Garland, and others.

It is noteworthy that Islamic traditions prohibit direct depictions of religious figures, and previous images of prophets have led to protests that have reached dangerous levels, amid accusations of blasphemy.

 

 

 

Sectarian Ideological Film

British cinema chains have canceled all screenings of The Lady of Heaven film, after protests by a large group of Muslims in front of its branches.

More than 120,000 people have signed a petition calling for the film The Lady of Heaven film to be withdrawn from cinemas in Britain, according to the BBC.

The film caused chaos in the vicinity of Cineworld cinemas, which decided to stop its showing, and later Showcase Cinemas also withdrew the controversial film.

On its part, Vue Cinemas rejected the pressures of the demonstrators and continued to show the film in London and southeast England, claiming its belief in showing films of interest to diverse communities.

The Lady of Heaven film, which revolves around Lady Fatima, the Prophet Muhammad’s daughter, was shown at the Cannes Film Festival last year but was shown only in the UK for the first time on June 3, 2022.

The film presents two stories separated by 1,400 years about an Iraqi child who lost his mother in the midst of the terrorist ISIS group's invasion of his country and then finds himself in a new home with an elderly woman who tells the story of Lady Fatima and tries to learn the importance of patience through the historical story of Lady Fatima.

On the other hand, the objection of Muslim activists about The Lady of Heaven film came on the grounds that the work was written by a Shiite cleric that would stoke sectarian tensions between Shiites and Sunnis.

Protesters' banners said it was not acceptable to offend some 2 billion Muslims around the world with artistic work.

It is noteworthy that the writer of The Lady of Heaven film is Sheikh Yasser Al-Habib, an extremist Shiite cleric who lives in England and was born in Kuwait, whose citizenship was revoked in 2010 on charges of insulting Aisha, the Prophet Muhammad’s wife.

Yasser Al-Habib was accused in 2003 of inciting sectarianism in Kuwait, and he was also accused of undermining national security and sentenced to 10 years in prison, but he fled to Iraq and from there to Iran, then to the UK, where he obtained asylum and re-established the Khaddam Al-Mahdi organization whose office in Kuwait was demolished.

The extremist cleric also launched the Fadak channel, which was classified by the BBC as one of the most extremist religious channels that inflame hate in 2014.

Previously, prominent clerics described him as crazy and accused him of stirring up tensions between Sunnis and Shiites because of his statements that were described as offensive against figures highly respected by Sunni Muslims, which was also described by the British media as hate speech and calls for discord.

As for the executive producer of the film, Abd al-Malik Shlibak, known in foreign newspapers as Malik Shlipak, is also a Shiite Muslim, living in London.

Shlibak criticized the move to halt the film's release, accusing Cineworld of bowing to radical extremists, describing the protesters against his film as being loyal to the Taliban and ISIS, and trying to dictate their wishes to the British public.

 

 

In another tweet, Shlibak said: “The world will soon learn about the plight of the Shiites for 1,400 years.”

 

 

The film was banned in Egypt, Pakistan, and even in Shiite-majority Iran, where clerics issued a fatwa prohibiting viewing it, and some Shiite scholars condemned the film's story for historical inaccuracies.

On the other hand, a small group of Shiites in Britain organized protest vigils against the film's ban.

Pictures circulated on social media showed a number of supporters raising banners expressing their support for the film, which they considered to show the hidden true story of lady Fatima's life.

 

 

 

Inflaming Hate

In turn, the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), the largest Islamic body in the country, described the film as divisive, and a statement issued by the Council on June 05, 2022, stated that “it supports scholars and leaders who call for greater unity and the public interest.”

The statement added, “Some people, including those who support the film, and those who respond to them with sectarianism, their main goal is to inflame hate.”

 

 

The chairman of the Bolton Council of Mosques, Asif Patel, wrote a letter to Cineworld, which was reported by Bolton News, in which he said that “the film carries sectarian ideology, distorts historical facts, and offends venerable figures in Islamic history.”

 

 

The Islamic Five Pillars website also published an image on Twitter that it says shows 200 people protesting, on June 05, in front of the Cineworld cinema in Birmingham.

 

 

On its part, the Muslims Against Anti-Semitism (MAS), a UK-registered charity, published a video that includes an interview with a protester, in which he says: “Birmingham will not tolerate disdain for our Prophet. There will be repercussions for these actions. We have been trained from birth that we must defend our Prophet.”

 

 

Despite allegations that director Eli King portrayed lady Fatima as an unidentified figure surrounded by a black veil, the protesting British Muslims accused the filmmakers of inaccurately portraying the religious history and negatively portraying three of the most important Islamic figures.

Samir Al-Haidari, head of the Ahlulbayt Islamic Mission (AIM), a UK-based Shiite organization, explained that “The Lady of Heaven film lacks academic value and aims to harm the social fabric that unites Shiite and Sunni Muslims,” describing the film as malicious.

 

 

British journalist and researcher Robert Carter posted a tweet containing a statement of condemnation by British Shiite, Sunni, and Sufi scholars of the film and its extremist writer, noting that the majority of Shiites also refuted the film's false allegations.

 

 

Carter also responded in a tweet to the video in which British broadcaster Dominique Samuels criticized the decision to ban the showing of The Lady of Heaven film on the pretext of freedom of expression, saying: “Do you realize that you are defending a film that Muslims have described as racist?,” asking her not to blindly attack Islam and Muslims.

 

 

On the other hand, other protesters expressed their anger that the negative characters were portrayed by actors of African descent, which indicates a kind of racial bias against these people, describing the film as insulting black people by showing them as dirty criminals.

While a tweeter named Jay wondered why a British media company, among all the authorities and religious organizations, funded and produced a film written by a sectarian hate cleric known among the Muslim community in the UK, pointing out that those defending the film are from the extreme right and an extremist section of the Shiites.

 

 

 

Political Controversy

The suspension of the film’s showing sparked controversy among British political circles, as British Health Minister Sajid Javid considered it a dangerous precedent that may affect freedom of expression, stressing that blasphemy is not prohibited under British law.

 

 

Member of the House of Lords, Claire Fox, denounced the decisions to cancel the shows and found it disturbing that today's cancellation culture has moved far beyond the university campus.

Baroness Fox criticized the cancellation of the film, saying: “The decision is disastrous for art, and dangerous for freedom of expression.”

 

 

Sarah Khan, the government's Independent Adviser for Social Cohesion, also defended the film's release, warning that appeasing religious gangs would undermine societal cohesion, as described.

Khan, in an article in the Daily Telegraph, criticized the failure of the government and local councils in their battle against the protests in recent days, adding that it was important to support cinemas from politicians and the police.