Cineworld has cancelled all showings of a controversial film about the life of the Prophet Muhammad's daughter following protests outside cinemas. The cinema chain confirmed it will no longer be taking bookings for The Lady of Heaven after several demonstrations across the country, including one in Bolton.
Dozens of people are reported to have descended on Cineworld at The Valley on Sunday (June 4) to protest against the screening of the film and its depiction of the life of Lady Fatima, the daughter of Prophet Muhammad. The movie, which puts the "face" of the Prophet Muhammad on screen, has been branded "highly offensive and blasphemous" by some Muslim activists.
In a letter to Cineworld, Bolton Council of Mosques (BCoM) called for the chain to pull the 'blasphemous' film from its cinemas. The letter - signed by BCoM's chairman Asif Patel - read: “You many well be aware of the recently released film ‘Lady of Heaven’ which has caused much distress to Muslims across the globe.
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“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.”
It adds: “In Bolton, we are a very diverse community and are very respectful of each other’s culture and honour on community cohesion."
The movie opens with the invasion of Iraq by ISIS and features a graphic jihadist murder. It then goes on to document the life of Fatima, daughter of the founder of Islam, during the seventh century.
Islamic tradition forbids the direct portrayal of religious figures and the film’s director Eli King depicts Fatima as a faceless character, shrouded by a black veil. But protestors have accused film makers of inaccurately depicting religious history and negatively portraying three of Islam's most important figures.
And other critics claim negative characters were portrayed by black actors, which they say 'stems from the racial bias against darker skinned people’. As well as Bolton, demonstrators also turned out to picket theatres in Bradford, Birmingham and Sheffield showing the film over the weekend.
A petition calling for The Lady of Heaven to be removed from UK cinemas has so far gained more than 120,000 signatures. Cineworld says it has now cancelled all screenings of the film 'to ensure the safety of staff and customers'.
In a statement, a Cineworld spokesperson 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.”
