Hallie C.

Iran attacks BBC for documentary series on life of prophet Muhammad: Culture minister says country will take serious action over films that 'ruin Muslims' sanctity'.

by Hallie C.

In July 2011 the British television channel BBC aired a three part documentary entitled The Life of Muhammad, described by their press release as, “charts the extraordinary story of a man who, in little more than 20 years, changed the world forever.” While this at first may have sounded risky, considering the extreme reactions to the Danish cartoons portraying Muhammad and the testy relationship of the historically Christian West with Islam’s prophet, BBC was very careful in the construction of the documentary. It was hosted by Somali-born Rageh Omaar, and used the scholarship of many Muslim scholars and experts, including the author of our book, John L. Esposito. The press release was also very careful to note, “In line with Islamic tradition it does not depict any images of the face of Muhammad, or feature any dramatic reconstructions of Muhammad's life.”

Upon announcement that BBC 2 would air the documentary, Iran's minister of cultural and Islamic guidance Mohammad Hosseini condemned the work, as reported in this Guardian article (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jun/28/iran-bbc-documentary-prophet-muhammad?INTCMP=SRCH). Saeed Kamali Dehghan, a Guardian journalist of Iranian descent, covered the attack by Hosseini in the June 2011 article, explaining that the concern from Iran may have been that the documentary would have had a Sunni bias, without representing the Shia population of Iran. In his statement, Hosseini referred to the West as “the enemy” and derided other Islamic countries for not taking the issue seriously. Dehehan compared it to the publication of Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses in 1988 ad Iran’s reaction to that.

Aaqil Ahmed, head of religion and ethics at the BBC responded to Hosseini diplomatically, pointing out that no one in Iran had seen the documentary yet, that they had a Shia consultant among the experts involved, and that the series is "in line with Islamic tradition."

  The article is interesting as it shows that no matter how politically correct, respectful, and well researched a project might be, it is still bound to upset someone. I feel this situation would be the same if the documentary were about Jesus, the Buddha, or another religious figure. Because of the extreme personal and emotional nature of religion, attempts to portray important figures in a documentary manner can never please anyone. If the BBC were to make a well researched, thoughtful documentary consulting experts and exploring the historical Jesus, some Christians would get upset for the depiction. However, Muslims have perhaps more reason to be skeptical of projects like this because of the historical derision of Muhammad by the West. While I cannot entirely scoff at Iran’s reaction as being overdramatic, the documentary sounds as if it were prepared with the utmost respect and research, and I would think that the majority of Muslims would find it inoffensive and interesting.

Orientalism, as we discussed in class, the study of the east through the biases of the west. There is certainly a danger of this as the documentary was made by the BBC and aired in Britain. However, because the series was directed and produced by men of Muslim cultures (Pakistani and Somali, respectively), and information was provided by many leading Islamic scholars, I feel that as far as the west’s study of Muhammad goes this must have been one of the most well done. A review published July 11,2011 of the first episode from the Telegraph can be found here: (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8631089/The-Life-of-Muhammad-BBC-Two-review.html) which notes that, “Perhaps inevitably, it appeared that particular care had been taken not to offend.”