#Muhammad the movie libya trial

He tops it later at the Battle of Badr where he two others are called by Utba, the greatest warrior the Meccans had on call at the time, to engage with their chieftains in a Trial By Champion.

I am sorry.' Looking at a biography of this guy is basically like reading an Icelandic Saga. The best part? Abu Jahal himself was so scared shitless of this guy that he basically says, 'I deserve this.

Not a single person in Mecca dared to get in his way.

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Oh yes, and what does he do as soon as he comes back from a leisurely hunt and hears from his slave that the lords of Mecca, particularly Abu Jahal, have disrespected his nephew the Prophet? He rides to the Kaaba in broad daylight and cracks their skulls open with his bow, dare the guys to get up and hit him back, declare his conversion to Islam in a city full of murderous pagan bastards while doing the medieval Arabic equivalent of COME AT ME BRO. This was a man who considered hunting lions to be a form of relaxation for God's sake.

Hazrat Hamza ibn Abdul Muttalib was this to the point he makes the heroes in the Bible look restrained.

Leitmotif: Whenever Muhammad is present or very close by, his presence is indicated by light organ music.

Interestingly, at certain times the film actually has the camera present Mohammad's point of view (though he remains silent). The closest we ever get to seeing him is glimpses of his staff, sword, tent, and camel.

The Ghost: For very obvious reasons, Muhammad is never seen or heard in the film.

Coupled with the current political climate regarding Islam and Moustapha Akkad's own tragic death in a terrorist attack in Jordan by Al-Qaeda's Iraqi branch (which again, were unrelated to the movie itself though he was working on a project about the historical Saladin) as he was the one most passionate to spearhead such production, it remains to be seen if it will ever be made. A remake was talked about in 2008, but nothing has been heard about it since. Akkad's attempted follow-up, the Libyan-set historical epic Lion of the Desert (also starring Anthony Quinn), was the opposite, bombing with audiences despite favorable reviews.ĭespite its troubled production and release (and subsequent fall into obscurity), the film seems to be enjoying a slow rise in critical favor, with many noting that it tries to present a balanced, respectful view of Islam and Mohammad. Critical reviews, however, were largely scathing, and the turmoil surrounding its production and release overshadowed its box office take. The film did particularly well in the UK, where it held the number one box office spot for several weeks. In short, nobody in the Islamic world seemed to approve the movie, and it was widely banned (though Turkey and Tunisia did show it for a short while).īut worst of all came on the eve of the film's US release, when a radical group, believing that the film was sacrilegious, took 149 hostages in a siege, killed a reporter and police officer, and demanded that all copies be destroyed (though they did have other demands that were not related to the film), eventually being persuaded by ambassadors from several Islamic countries to end the siege peacefully.ĭespite its later reputation as a flop, Mohammad was successful upon its initial release. It was even rumored that the King of Saudi Arabia offered to pay Akkad several million dollars to stop filming naturally, Akkad refused the offer. Unfortunately, the film's release didn't mark the end of its problems The Supreme Council of the World Mosque Conference in Mecca denounced the film, and the scholars from The Council of Islamic Research at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, who had helped research and approve the script, condemned the film as an insult to Islam.