Cineworld stops the screening of film on Prophet Muhammad’s Daughter

Days after protests organised by many in the Muslim community against the release of the film The Lady of Heaven after deeming it as ‘blasphemous’, Cineworld decided to cancel screenings of the film based on Prophet Muhammad’s daughter.

Asif Patel, Chairman of the Bolton Council of Mosques, wrote a letter to Cineworld stating that the film is “underpinned with a sectarian ideology and is blasphemous in nature to the Muslim community’ and that it ‘grossly disrespects the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in many ways and is deeply disturbing to every Muslim”.

However, members of Bolton’s Shia Muslim community have been clear about being against the decision to take the film down from the cinemas. They agreed that this should not have been done due to the actions of a few people.

Ali Hussain, from the Shia Itna Asheri Society said: “Cineworld have openly accepted that they don’t adhere to our British values of freedom of expression because we have the right to watch what we want in the cinema. All because activists have shown up to four or five cinemas, they have taken drastic action to cancel the film. That is ludicrous.”

According to the makers of the film, the project was thoroughly researched. However, concerns about the film creating sectarian tensions between the Sunni and Shia muslim communities in the UK has been raised and debated.