Morocco bans a British film for showing the Prophet Muhammad

MADRID, 12 Jun. (EUROPS PRESS) -

The Moroccan Cinematographic Center (CCM) has reported that it has not granted authorization for the exhibition of the British film 'The Lady of Heaven' for showing a representation of Muhammad, which is prohibited in Islam.

"This film, which constitutes a flagrant falsification of the facts, contains a heinous act that cannot be accepted by Muslims: the incarnation of the Prophet," the Moroccan Ulema Council said in an opinion on which the CCM veto, picked up by the Moroccan news agency MAP.

The content of the film is "contrary to the constants of the kingdom, as defined in the Constitution", according to the Council, a body chaired by King Mohamed VI.

The Council had expressed its "strong condemnation of the content of the film", rejecting what it described as "falsifying established facts of the history of Islam".

The screenwriter, of Shiite confession, has been stripped of his Kuwaiti nationality "because of his extremist ideas", recalled the Supreme Council of Ulema, which points to those responsible for the film for wanting to "seek fame and sensation, promoting their production (...) hurting the feelings of Muslims".

The Council also invites "the competent authorities to take all necessary measures in this regard", which resulted in the CCM's decision on Saturday.

The film is directed by the Australian of Egyptian origin Eli King and its screenwriter is the Kuwaiti Yasir al Habib, leader of the Union of Servants of the Mahdi, based in London, and considered a radical Shia of the extreme right. The film tells the life of Fatima, daughter of Muhammad, according to the tradition defended by Shiism, very different from that of the Sunnis, the majority in Morocco.