Cineworld has pulled a film about the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad after outcry from Muslim protesters who picketed movie theaters and branded it ‘blasphemous’.
Hundreds of demonstrators have turned out in Bradford, Bolton, Birmingham and Sheffield to protest venues showing screenings of The Lady of Heaven.
The movie was released in the UK over the Jubilee weekend but has been pulled by Cineworld from all its branches after it was faced with Muslim protesters demanding it was canned. Vue, meanwhile, is still listed as showing the film in a number of its London branches tonight.
A video from the weekend appears to show a manager at one cinema addressing a crowd confirming the film has been pulled, prompting cries of ‘Allahu Akbar’.
The movie’s executive producer, Malik Shlibak, called the decision to pull the move ‘unacceptable’ and accused the chain of ‘bowing down to radical extremists’.
Made in Britain for £12million, the film opens with the invasion of Iraq by ISIS and features a graphic jihadist murder, before telling the story of Lady Fatima, one of the daughters of the founder of Islam.
Islamic tradition forbids the direct portrayal of religious figures, with previous depictions of prophets leading to protests and even murders amid accusations of blasphemy.
Director Eli King depicts Fatima as a faceless character, shrouded by a black veil to avoid doing this.
But the Muslim protestors have accused the filmmakers of inaccurately depicting religious history and negatively portraying three of Islam’s most important figures.
The film features former Coronation Street actor Ray Fearon and was shown at the Cannes Film Festival last year, but was only released in the UK for the first time on June 3, this year.
John Stephenson, who directed the 1999 film Animal Farm and 2004 movie Five Children and It, acted as a creative consultant.
And other critics have expressed anger that the…negative characters were portrayed by black actors, rather than white, which they say “stems from the racial bias against darker skinned people”.
One protester in Bradford, West Yorkshire, said: “We are very offended. We have a right not to be insulted”.
Read more: Daily Mail
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