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Interview
“Cartoons shouldn’t kill” Haris Sheikh’s documentary will examine the cartoon controversy and the status of iconography in Islam Haris Sheikh is a film maker with a deep-rooted conviction that freedom of expression is of paramount importance to a society. “But it cannot be the cause of people’s death,” Sheikh emphasizes, explaining his stance on why he worked on Blasphemy, the documentary that examines the twin issues of the position of iconography in Islam and the limits to freedom of expression. Sheikh, an immigrant to Canada from Pakistan, is the president and producer of Virgo Pictures, a boutique media Production house based in Toronto. “I wonder how the argument of freedom of expression can be used to hurt sentiments of 1.5 billion Muslims of the world,” Sheikh asks, adding: “We need to question the premise of whether it can be used to lampoon the Prophet and Islam.” The documentary will examine Muslims’ resistance to iconography and the prevailing confusion over figure drawings as an act of idolatry. Sheikh feels that if the issue is examined dispassionately what emerges quite clearly is that at a time when there were serious issues that required international mediation, the western media establishment created this unnecessary diversion and controversy. Asked to explicate, the film-maker says, “The controversy erupted in 2005 and 2006 – at a time when international debate was required to resolve issues such as Iraq and Afghanistan. But the Muslim attention was diverted from these pressing matters, and they were provoked to agitate over the cartoons.” Sheikh is of the opinion that there are multiple views and versions on the acceptance of iconography in Islam. “We need to evolve from the blanket ban on iconography in Islam – which clearly was a part of the religion’s formative years – and at least begin to address the issue from a non-religious perspective,” he contends. Sheikh argues that there are several scholarly treatises in Islam that deal with this subject. Islam’s monotheistic doctrine that there is no creator but God has been taken to mean that creating pictures and sculpture, even as decorative art, is idolatrous and is, therefore, incompatible with belief in a transcendent God. But this distorts the Islamic position. The Qur'an indeed prohibits idol worship but it does not speak against representation as such. The 90-minute, two-part documentary ,Sheikh plans a world-wide release later this year. by Mayank Bhatt You can learn more about his work on his website. www.virgopictures.com |