{"id":21159,"date":"2012-07-23T14:40:42","date_gmt":"2012-07-23T10:40:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/?p=21159"},"modified":"2012-07-23T14:41:12","modified_gmt":"2012-07-23T10:41:12","slug":"unholy-ruckus-can-actors-play-islamic-figures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/middle-east-society\/unholy-ruckus-can-actors-play-islamic-figures\/","title":{"rendered":"Unholy ‘Ruckus’: Can Actors Play Islamic Figures?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia\u2019s Al-Arabiya TV carries an interesting story about the philosophical dispute \u2013 which has descended into a \u2018I\u2019m holier than thou\u2019 ruckus \u2013 about whether holy figures of Islam\u2019s past can be portrayed by living actors in films and plays.<\/p>\n

A Saudi cleric is arguing that it is entirely permissible as long as the portrayal is honest. What\u2019s more, it\u2019s not even required that the actor portraying a Muslim figure be Muslim.<\/p>\n

The debate is centered on a TV series being broadcast this Ramadan by the MBC network (of which Al-Arabiya is a part). The series looks at the life of the second Caliph,\u00a0\u2018Umar ibn Al-Khattab<\/a>, who extended Islam\u2019s geographic reach to Iran, Central Asia, and Libya. \u2018Umar, who succeeded\u00a0Abu Bakr<\/a>\u00a0as Caliph, was considered the \u2018architect<\/a>\u00a0of the Islamic Empire\u2019. He is also considered, by Twelver Shi\u2019ites, as a traitor to Islam and usurper of Ali\u2019s rights to the Caliphate. How this matter is handled in the program could certainly be fuel to philosophical fires.<\/p>\n

Saudi scholar slams critics of MBC\u2019s Omar ibn al-Khattab TV series<\/a>
\nAl Arabiya<\/p>\n

Professor of Islamic law at Saudi Arabia\u2019s al-Qassim University, Khaled al-Musleh, lashed out at critics of the TV series depicting the life of Islam\u2019s second Caliph Omar ibn al-khattab and accused them of agitation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe issue of impersonating the prophet\u2019s companions has always been controversial with some scholars sanctioning it and others considering it prohibited,\u201d Musleh was quoted as saying by the Saudi newspaper al-Hayat.<\/p>\n

Musleh cited the example of prominent preacher Sheikh Abdul Rahman bin Saadi and who attended a reenactment of one of the prophet\u2019s battles, namely the Battle of Badr, at the Scientific Institute of Riyadh.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was 50 years ago and he did not see a problem with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Musleh also explained in an interview with al-Safwa TV channel that the crew of the series, currently aired on MBC, had every right to choose one of two stances on the impersonation of revered Islamic figures and act accordingly.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CROSSROADS ARABIA: A row has broken out among various religious figures as to whether it’s permissible to portray Islamic figures in film. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":21160,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53,154,173,482,10,5],"tags":[8287,1832,1965,5587,18306,91,18332,707,18275,9786],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21159"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}