A Qatari (that’s a country — a lawless land that flouts the U after Q rule) media company has announced plans for a $150 million English-language film about the Muslim prophet Muhammad. There’s just one small problem: it’s forbidden by the religion to show depictions of him.
Alnoor Holdings has hired the cleric Sheikh Yousef al-Qaradawi as their lead theological consultant for the film.
He is admired by many moderate Muslims and was recently described by the government’s senior counter-terrorism official as “one of the most articulate critics of al-Qaeda in the Islamic world”.
He is also a highly controversial figure who was refused entry to Britain last year because of his views. He has reportedly condoned the Holocaust [that's novel. usually they deny it. "Oh no, I don't doubt that it happened, I just had no problem with it. Seems like good governing."] , supported the stoning of homosexuals and praised suicide bombers in Iraq, not to mention telling an interviewer that he considered Shia Islam a heretical branch of the faith.
According to the Gulf Times newspaper he told journalists in Doha that the film was a response to “the crusader-styled distortion of Islam [that] continues to influence [the] world population today.” [TimesOnline]
So how will they do a biopic on a guy they can’t show? Believe it or not, it’s been done before. How’d that go, you ask? Um… not well.
