Saudi top cleric slams Iran prophet movie

Saudi Arabia’s top cleric hits out at Iranian film “Muhammad,” describing its portrayal of the prophet’s childhood as a “hostile act” and a “distortion” of Islam.

Iran’s most expensive movie, which opened nationwide in the Shiite Islamic republic last week, depicts the prophet on screen, an act that is prohibited in Sunni Islam.

“This is an obscene work… It is a distortion of Islam,” Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti Abulaziz al-Shaikh tells Al-Hayat newspaper. “It is a hostile act against Islam.

“This is a mockery of the prophet and a degradation of his status,” he says.

While Iran has denounced cartoons of the prophet like those published by French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, Shiites are generally more relaxed than Sunnis about depiction of religious figures.

Directed by Majid Majidi, the visually stunning 171-minute film cost around $40 million (36 million euros), partly funded by the state, and took more than seven years to complete.

Majidi says the aim of his work, the first part of a trilogy, is to reclaim the rightful image of Islam, which he said extremists have distorted.