I’m sure that the debate over free speech is going to be reignited yet again after this one, as Cineworld today announced that they would be pulling the film ‘ The Lady Of Heaven’ from their screens after sustained Muslim protests against it in Birmingham, Sheffield, Bolton and Bradford.

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The film tells the story of Lady Fatima – one of the daughters of the founder of Islam Prophet Muhammad – and has been described as blasphemous by protesters as Islamic tradition prevents the direct representation of religious figures. Director Eli King tried to get around this by portraying Fatima as a faceless character shrouded by a black veil, but the Muslim community wasn’t having this and made their feelings known by picketing Cineworld cinemas in the cities mentioned earlier.

The local chairman of the Council of Mosques in Bolton Asif Patel wrote a letter to his local branch of Cineworld saying the following:

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You many well be aware of the recently released film ‘Lady of Heaven’ which has caused much distress to Muslims across the globe.

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.

In Bolton, we are a very diverse community and are very respectful of each other’s culture and honour on community cohesion.

That seems like a fairly nuanced argument doesn’t it? I kinda agree with it as well – not that I’m pro religion or anything – but I think you really do have to respect someone’s deepest religious beliefs when it literally underpins their whole entire life as it does for many Muslims.

Obviously, the film’s producers didn’t agree with this idea and executive producer Malik Shlibak said the following:

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We think that the protests have brought a lot of new found attention to the film that did not exist before from people who hadn’t heard about the film, and we are okay with the fact that people protest.

But I believe it’s actually unacceptable in this country what they are calling for – that is the removal from this film from the cinemas due to them being offended.

That is something quite silly, because everyone has the ability to share their thoughts and enact their freedom of speech.

I genuinely believe from all sides, from the cinema perhaps from the Muslim Council of Britain, that there is this succumbing and bowing down to these radical extremists and their demands.

I think this is more than The Lady of Heaven as an individual film, this is about our British values and how much these mean to us.

These groups have now been given the power to dictate what the British public can and cannot watch at their local cinemas.

Eh I guess he has a point as well doesn’t he? It all depends where you draw the line between freedom of speech and how much something offends someone/is harmful to them. We all know that a lot of Muslims live and breathe their religion though so maybe we should listen to them on this one?

Not sure to be honest though as it seems kind of weird those other guys would even make the movie without considering the consequences. I can understand why Cineworld pulled the movie considering the protesters outside the cinema and possible safety threat to their staff and customers, but should they bow to this kind of pressure?

I don’t have the answers about that one either, but there’s clearly a lot of debate surrounding these issues. Make your own mind up.

For more of the same, check out this guy getting his windows smashed after showing support for Black Lives Matter protesters.