logroller
09-11-2012, 03:16 AM
A television drama about the life of a seventh century Muslim ruler, Omar Ibn al-Khattab, is polarising opinion across the Arab world by challenging a widespread belief that actors should not depict Islam's central figures.....
"If anyone dared to depict these figures 20 years ago, he would have been accused of blasphemy," he wrote. "Simply put, depicting these revered figures with their mistakes, limitations, rivalries, anger, hunger and thirst will thrust Islamic societies into a new phase."
Mostly filmed in Morocco, the show was funded by the Dubai-based but Saudi-owned MBC Group, a private media conglomerate, and state-owned Qatar TV. The 30-episode series, which an MBC spokesman said cost "tens of millions of dollars" to make, is being watched on satellite television across the Arab world......
Sheikh Hamad Wael al Hanbari, a prominent Muslim scholar based in Istanbul, said he was concerned that the reputations of the caliphs could become contaminated....
The show does not lack defenders, however. Saif al-Sahabani, a columnist at Saudi Arabia's Okaz newspaper, dismissed the idea that portraying prominent companions of the prophet was forbidden under Islam's sharia law.
"The show has revealed a gap in the Arab and Islamic collective consciousness, especially among those who rely on tradition rather than their own minds," he wrote.
Sahabani cited endorsements of the show by a number of senior Islamic scholars, including Qatar-based Egyptian cleric Yousef al-Qaradawi, well-known in the Arab world for his weekly programme on Al Jazeera television. Qaradawi was on a committee of religious scholars that reviewed the script of the series.
Some viewers rejected criticism of the show because they saw it as an attack on their personal freedom.
"Fed up with the extremists' point of view... Who are you to judge us because we watch the Omar series?" tweeted Yasmine Medhat, identified by her Twitter profile as an Egyptian Muslim.
Hatem Ali, the director of the series, said his team braced for controversy before the first episode was aired.
"We were prepared for this," he said by telephone from his native Syria. "Omar is the first television series that delivers such important figures. So people will be divided over this, and that's understandable."
Known for directing several historical television dramas, including a trilogy about Islamic rule in the Iberian Peninsula, Ali said the Omar series was not linked to the past year's rise to power of Islamists in Tunisia and Egypt, and should not be seen as advocating how a Muslim state should be governed.
But he added that the series touched on issues that remained relevant today, such as the role of women in Islam, good governance and the application of sharia law.
--snip--
http://www.arabianbusiness.com/ramadan-tv-show-stirs-argument-across-arab-world-469744.html
Opening the door for a honest examination of what it means to be a Muslim, then, now and into the future.:thumb:
A ripple of change-- Will it grow?
"If anyone dared to depict these figures 20 years ago, he would have been accused of blasphemy," he wrote. "Simply put, depicting these revered figures with their mistakes, limitations, rivalries, anger, hunger and thirst will thrust Islamic societies into a new phase."
Mostly filmed in Morocco, the show was funded by the Dubai-based but Saudi-owned MBC Group, a private media conglomerate, and state-owned Qatar TV. The 30-episode series, which an MBC spokesman said cost "tens of millions of dollars" to make, is being watched on satellite television across the Arab world......
Sheikh Hamad Wael al Hanbari, a prominent Muslim scholar based in Istanbul, said he was concerned that the reputations of the caliphs could become contaminated....
The show does not lack defenders, however. Saif al-Sahabani, a columnist at Saudi Arabia's Okaz newspaper, dismissed the idea that portraying prominent companions of the prophet was forbidden under Islam's sharia law.
"The show has revealed a gap in the Arab and Islamic collective consciousness, especially among those who rely on tradition rather than their own minds," he wrote.
Sahabani cited endorsements of the show by a number of senior Islamic scholars, including Qatar-based Egyptian cleric Yousef al-Qaradawi, well-known in the Arab world for his weekly programme on Al Jazeera television. Qaradawi was on a committee of religious scholars that reviewed the script of the series.
Some viewers rejected criticism of the show because they saw it as an attack on their personal freedom.
"Fed up with the extremists' point of view... Who are you to judge us because we watch the Omar series?" tweeted Yasmine Medhat, identified by her Twitter profile as an Egyptian Muslim.
Hatem Ali, the director of the series, said his team braced for controversy before the first episode was aired.
"We were prepared for this," he said by telephone from his native Syria. "Omar is the first television series that delivers such important figures. So people will be divided over this, and that's understandable."
Known for directing several historical television dramas, including a trilogy about Islamic rule in the Iberian Peninsula, Ali said the Omar series was not linked to the past year's rise to power of Islamists in Tunisia and Egypt, and should not be seen as advocating how a Muslim state should be governed.
But he added that the series touched on issues that remained relevant today, such as the role of women in Islam, good governance and the application of sharia law.
--snip--
http://www.arabianbusiness.com/ramadan-tv-show-stirs-argument-across-arab-world-469744.html
Opening the door for a honest examination of what it means to be a Muslim, then, now and into the future.:thumb:
A ripple of change-- Will it grow?