Here is a real question to Muslims, when we hear the stories of Adam, Noah, Suleman, David, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad and other prophets peace be upon them – doesn’t our mind create an image for each one of them? Or do we see an image-less Adam, faceless Moses or body-less Jesus? It is natural for us to have an image, even a fuzzy image. The Allah-given mind does not process any story without an image.
Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) did not want us to make images of “HIM” to prevent worshipping him instead of God, and thank God, no Muslim that I know of worships the Prophet. We the Muslims need to sit down and figure out the ban on other images. Islam is a Deen of Fitra, and we are afraid to even acknowledge to ourselves that we do process images when we hear stories; our minds are not blank screens.
God did give us the brains and that’s how it processes. We cannot run from images. Yes, no images of Prophet Muhammad, but all others should be OK.
The good, bad and ugly aspect of human beings is proportionately set in the movie and well put together. A good movie to see. I am glad to see the human element at works in sending Jesus to crucifixion rather than honing on the Jewish factor. It is time to separate the two and quit blaming the Jews; it has gone on far too long and the singular cause of much of the anti Semitism and the persecution of Jews. I am also happy that Pope Francis has taken steps to rectify this.
As beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, faith is in the heart of the believer. Jesus says if you believe me, you’ll see me. It’s not easy for Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, Zoroastrians and Baha’i to see a tangible God having a son, whereas it is difficult for Christians, Hindus and others to relate with an invisible, formless, and a genderless God, let alone an offspring.
We have to learn to respect the otherness of others to create peaceful societies. I cannot demand one to enjoy an apple pie while the person enjoys peach cobbler, or push someone to enjoy a well done steak where as he or she enjoy the medium rare. There is no compulsion in who, what and why any one likes what he or she likes.
One has to believe that God has set up the situations for Jesus, Muhammad, Moses, Krishna or others, as a part of the overall teaching methodology. If you went by logic, a lot of things don’t make sense in any religion.
As always, I am trained to see the technical flaws in the movies. When Jesus was on the cross, they show a close shot of his right arm under the Horizontal piece of wood, in the middle of the length of the arm, there was a piece of rope tied to wrap the wood and his arm – that rope shows loose on the top, as if the arm is not hanging and pulling the rope close the wood on the top side. The other one was the boat in the beginning on the Sea of Galilee, it was a studio thing, and they did not make an effort to look real either.
Mike Ghouse is a speaker, thinker and a writer on pluralism, politics, peace, Islam, Israel, India, interfaith, and cohesion at work place. He is committed to building a Cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day at www.TheGhousediary.com. He believes in Standing up for others and a book with the same title is coming up. Mike has a strong presence on national and local TV, Radio and Print Media. He is a frequent guest on Sean Hannity show on Fox TV, and a commentator on national radio networks, he contributes weekly to the Texas Faith Column at Dallas Morning News; fortnightly at Huffington post; and several other periodicals across the world. His personal site www.MikeGhouse.net indexes all his work through many links.