Wednesday, September 02, 2015

Saudi mufti as movie critic (of a movie that he has not seen)

"Saudi Arabia's top cleric hit out at Iranian film "Muhammad" on Wednesday describing its portrayal of the prophet's childhood as a "hostile act" and a "distortion" of Islam.
Iran's most expensive movie, which opened nationwide in the Shiite Islamic republic last week, depicts the prophet on screen, an act that is prohibited in Sunni Islam.
"This is an obscene work... It is a distortion of Islam," Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti Abdulaziz al-Sheikh told Al-Hayat newspaper. "It is a hostile act against Islam." The Mufti also added that according to a fatwa from Ibn Baz, only pornographic movies are religiously permissible in his understanding of Islam.