After demonstrators picketed movie theaters and called it “blasphemous,” Cineworld has withdrawn a film about the Prophet Muhammad’s daughter.
Hundreds of protesters gathered in Bradford, Bolton, Birmingham, and Sheffield to demonstrate outside theatres exhibiting The Lady of Heaven.
The film was released in the UK over the Jubilee weekend, but Cineworld has banned it from all of its locations after demonstrators demanded it be pulled. Meanwhile, Vue is still presenting the film tonight in a number of its London locations.
A video taken over the weekend appears to show a manager at one theatre addressing a throng and announcing the film’s cancellation, eliciting screams of ‘Allahu Akbar.’
Malik Shlibak, the film’s executive producer, termed the decision ‘unacceptable’ and accused the chain of ‘bowing down to violent fanatics.’
The video, which cost £12 million to produce, begins with ISIS’ invasion of Iraq and shows a gory jihadist murder before portraying the narrative of Lady Fatima, one of the founder of Islam’s daughters.
Direct portrayals of religious figures are forbidden in Islamic tradition, and prior depictions of prophets have sparked outrage and even killings amid charges of blasphemy.
Director Eli King depicts Fatima as a faceless character, shrouded by a black veil to avoid doing this.
But 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’.
Those who came out to protest screenings on Monday said they were ‘offended’ by the film and the way it illustrated the life of revered religious figures.
One protester in Bradford, West Yorkshire, said: ‘We are very offended. We have a right not to be insulted.
‘You talk about freedom of speech but where does your freedom of speech go when it goes to criticising your policies, when it goes to making critical analysis of your version of history.
‘You have no right to tell us our history. We will not let this film go on further.’
Others carried signs saying: ‘It’s not ok to offend 1.8 billion #handsoffoursuperheroes’ and ‘Stop the screening’, while using megaphones to get across their message.
In Bolton, the local chairman of the Council of Mosques, Asif Patel, wrote a letter to his local branch of Cineworld, where he called the film ‘blasphemous’.
He said: ‘You many well be aware of the recently released film ‘Lady of Heaven’ which has caused much distress to Muslims across the globe.
‘It is underpinned with a sectarian ideology and is blasphemous in nature to the Muslim community.
‘It grossly disrespects the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in many ways and is deeply disturbing to every Muslim.
‘It also misrepresents orthodox historical narratives and disrespects the most esteemed individuals of Islamic history.
‘The storyline begs the question to what extent the producers had considered the huge impact of this film upon the Muslim community and notions of sacredness dearly held by them.’
‘In Bolton, we are a very diverse community and are very respectful of each other’s culture and honour on community cohesion.’
A spokesperson from the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) called for ‘respectful dialogue’ between protesters and the film supporters.
They said: ‘The MCB, which proudly represents affiliates from across the different schools of thought in our faith, supports those scholars and leaders who are advocating for greater unity and for the common good, as commanded by our Holy Prophet (peace be upon him).
‘The MCB has always advocated for respectful dialogue of intra-faith relations.
‘There are some – including many of this film’s supporters or those engaging in sectarianism in their response – whose primary goal is to fuel hatred.
‘We must not let them succeed.’
But executive producer of the film Mr Shlibak called the decision to pull the film by the cinema chain ‘unacceptable’.
He said: ‘We think that the protests have brought a lot of new found attention to the film that did not exist before from people who hadn’t heard about the film, and we are okay with the fact that people protest.
‘But I believe it’s actually unacceptable in this country what they are calling for – that is the removal from this film from the cinemas due to them being offended.
‘That is something quite silly, because everyone has the ability to share their thoughts and enact their freedom of speech.
‘I genuinely believe from all sides, from the cinema perhaps from the Muslim Council of Britain, that there is this succumbing and bowing down to these radical extremists and their demands.
‘I think this is more than The Lady of Heaven as an individual film, this is about our British values and how much these mean to us.
‘These groups have now been given the power to dictate what the British public can and cannot watch at their local cinemas.’
And Claire Fox, who sits in the House of Lords as Baroness Fox of Buckley, tweeted that the decision to cancel the screening showed the ‘creep of extra-parliamentary blasphemy law’ was now censoring film.
She wrote: ‘Same “I Find that Offensive” cancel culture arguments now being used far beyond campus activism. Disastrous for the arts, dangerous for free speech, a lesson to those who argue identity politics are no threat to democracy.’
Meanwhile, a petition to get the film removed from all UK cinemas has been signed by almost 120,000 people.
In a statement Cineworld confirmed it was pulling the film from all venues to ‘ensure the safety’ of staff.
A spokesperson from Cineworld said: ‘Due to recent incidents related to screenings of ‘The Lady of Heaven’, we have made the decision to cancel upcoming screenings of the film nationwide to ensure the safety of our staff and customers.’
Vue, which still has screenings for the movie listed on its website, refused to confirm whether the film had been pulled from any of its cinemas.
A spokesperson for Vue said: ‘Vue takes seriously the responsibilities that come with providing a platform for a wide variety of content and believes in showcasing films of interest to diverse communities across the UK.
‘Vue will only show a film once the BBFC (the independent British Board of Film Classification) has assessed and rated a film. The Lady of Heaven has been BBFC accredited and is on show in a number of our cinemas.
‘Decisions about how long a film remains on show are taken on a site-by-site basis and based on a variety of commercial and operational factors.’