Islam: The Untold Story

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
Original title Islam: the Untold Story
Country of production United Kingdom
original language English
Publishing year 2012
length 74 minutes
Rod
Director Tom Holland
script Tom Holland
production Channel 4
occupation
  • Tom Holland

Islam: The Untold Story is a documentary by the English author and historian Tom Holland that sheds light on the historical origins of Islam.

content

The film explores the origins of Islam and criticizes the traditional, orthodox portrayal of its genesis by claiming that there is insufficient evidence for these traditionally transmitted stories. The documentary was commissioned by the British television broadcaster Channel 4 and first aired in August 2012. The publication followed the publication of Holland's book In the Shadow of the Sword: The Battle for Global Empire and the End of the Ancient World (2012), in which he discusses the origins of Islam and the rise of the Arab Empire .

Holland adopts Patricia Crone's controversial theses as a basis. He sees little evidence of how the genesis of the Islamic religion developed and claims that the city of Mecca was not the birthplace of Muhammad and therefore not the place of origin of Islam either. While he does not question the existence of Muhammad as a real historical figure, he claims that many elements of the founding Islamic myth arose much later, during the time of the Arab Empire.

Origin of the film and reactions from audience and broadcaster

Based on In the Shadow of the Sword , the British TV broadcaster Channel 4 commissioned Holland to produce a documentary program about the origins of Islam. A spokeswoman for the station announced the documentary as part of their "redress to support and stimulate a well-informed debate on a number of topics," "challenging established viewpoints" and providing access to alternative perspectives and information.

The response to the documentary was controversial. Mass media reception was mixed, but members of the Islamic community in Britain felt that Holland had ignored evidence. The station received over 1200 complaints. Since, according to the broadcaster, acts of violence by militant Muslims were feared, Channel 4 canceled a public screening of the program in its broadcasting center.

The documentary went on air on August 28, 2012 after the BBC aired the first episode of Citizen Khan a month earlier . This sitcom is about British Muslims of Pakistani origin and received 200 complaints from the BBC. Some of these complaints were repeated in responses to the broadcast of Holland's documentary.

The author

Tom Holland grew up Christian, has a bachelor's degree in English and Latin from Cambridge University and is the author of popular history books on the ancient world: Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic (2003), Persian Fire: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West (2005), and Millennium: The End of the World and the Forging of Christendom (2008).

In 2012 Holland published his fourth work, In the Shadow of the Sword: The Battle for Global Empire and the End of the Ancient World , which examines the collapse of the Roman and Persian empires , the rise of the Arab empires and the parallel expansion of Islam becomes.

Holland said in an interview with The Spectator that he rejects the Islamic belief that the Quran is the word of God and that he believes the Quran was "very clearly" written by a person in late antiquity . He pointed out a “lack of sources” with which the origin of Islam could largely underpin, secure and verify the origin of Islam according to the basic rules that are common in history and literary studies, and furthermore that all religions constructed their own background history and different versions or obliterated interpretations of their history.

Theses of the film

In Islam: The Untold Story , Holland explores the origins of Islam. He travels to Saudi Arabia and visits Arab Bedouins there to hear their version of the origin of their religion. Holland then speaks with Seyyed Hossein Nasr , a practicing Muslim who teaches Islamic Studies at George Washington University , and Patricia Crone , a non-Muslim historian of Islamic history at the Institute for Advanced Study . Nasr defends the Islamic representation of the history of the faith by pointing to its development within oral history , while Crone questions the trustworthiness of oral history and thus the Islamic representation.

Holland looks at the earliest evidence of Muhammad, Mecca and Islam in the first century of the Arab Empire and stresses a lack of historical evidence to match. Since there is very little Muslim evidence from the 7th century, he considers it suspicious that, 30 years after Muhammad's death, Muʿāwiya I became ruler of the Arab empire in Jerusalem, although he shows little evidence that he is a Muslim, and that neither Mohammed nor Islam can be found on the inscriptions, coins and documents of Muawiyah. Holland also notes that, apart from an ambiguous mention in the Koran, there is no mention of Mecca in datable texts up to a hundred years after Muhammad's death. He emphasizes that the Prophet Mohammed in the Koran apparently addresses farmers and farmers, while his opponents are described as ranchers who also grow olives and wine. This seems to describe an environment that does not exist in Mecca because there was no agriculture there. This is why Holland claims that the location of Mecca, as it is described in the Koran, is more appropriate for a city in the Negev desert, in what is now southern Israel.

Holland suggests that under the reign of the Arab caliph Abd al-Malik (Umayyad), the empire became largely Islamic and Mecca was deliberately, but incorrectly, chosen as the birthplace of Mohammed and Islam in order to give the religion Arab origins. Holland argues that in this way the new religion would have no connection to Christian or Jewish heritage, which would be evident in a sacred place in the Negev.

reception

Christopher Howse of the Daily Telegraph rated the documentary two out of five stars. In his view, the film fails to fill a visual vacuum. In addition, the frequent breaks in Holland in the middle of a sentence are poorly crafted. In addition, Holland would find out little in all of his documentation and show little substantive, instead he uses the film to support his theory that Islam was invented to justify or even drive the Arab expansionist urge. The Guardian's John Grace said he learned a lot of history from the documentation, and calls Holland's theses well argued and intriguing, but suggests that they can be blasphemous to believers . However, it marks the end when Holland met Dr. Nasr reassured that he had not hurt any Muslim feelings, "unnecessarily and cheaply". Those last 20 seconds would undermine the documentary you've just watched.

Afroze Zaidi-Jivraj from The Huffington Post said that with this documentary Holland tried to impose a Western understanding of history on other cultures. In doing so, "he would only have made it difficult to understand a belief that was already poorly understood and its much maligned followers."

In the Iranian press, the documentary was presented as an insult to Islam. The Islamic Education and Research Academy (IERA) accused Holland of making unfounded allegations and relying on selective research.

See also

Revisionist School of Islamic Studies

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Tom Sutcliff: Last night's viewing - Islam: the Untold Story, Channel 4; Accused, BBC1. In: The Independent. August 29, 2012, archived from the original on November 7, 2012 ; Retrieved July 23, 2013 .
  2. ↑ a b c Robert Dex: Islam: The Untold Story documentary receives 1,200 complaints. In: The Independent. September 3, 2012, archived from the original on November 7, 2012 ; Retrieved July 23, 2013 .
  3. ^ Ed West: Can Islam ever accept higher criticism? In: The Telegraph. August 29, 2012, archived from the original on November 7, 2012 ; Retrieved July 23, 2013 .
  4. ↑ A Response to Channel 4's "Islam: The Untold Story" ( Memento of the original from July 25, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.hamzatzortzis.com
  5. ↑ Liz Thomas: Screening of controversial Channel 4 documentary on history of Islam canceled after presenter is threatened. In: The Daily Mail. September 11, 2012, archived from the original on November 7, 2012 ; Retrieved July 23, 2013 .
  6. ↑ Channel 4 cancels Islam documentary screening after presenter threatened. In: The Telegraph. September 11, 2012, archived from the original on November 7, 2012 ; Retrieved July 23, 2013 .
  7. ^ John Hall: Channel 4 cancels controversial screening of Islam: The Untold Story documentary after presenter Tom Holland is threatened. In: The Independent. September 11, 2012, archived from the original on November 7, 2012 ; Retrieved July 23, 2013 .
  8. ↑ Ben Quinn: Channel 4 cancels screening of film questioning Islam's origins. In: The Guardian. September 11, 2012, archived from the original on November 7, 2012 ; Retrieved July 23, 2013 .
  9. ↑ a b Christopher Howse: Islam: the Untold Story, review. In: The Telegraph. August 29, 2012, archived from the original on November 7, 2012 ; Retrieved July 23, 2013 .
  10. ↑ Daisy Dunn: Interview: Tom Holland on the origins of Islam. In: The Spectator. April 5, 2012, archived from the original on November 7, 2012 ; Retrieved July 23, 2013 .
  11. ^ John Crace: TV review: Islam: The Untold Story; Accused. In: The Guardian . August 28, 2012, accessed July 23, 2013 .
  12. ↑ Jessica Elgot: Islam: The Untold Story - Channel 4 Cancels Screening With Tom Holland, Amid Security Fears. In: The Huffington Post . September 11, 2012, accessed July 23, 2013 .
  13. ^ John Hall: Channel 4 cancels controversial screening of Islam: The Untold Story documentary after presenter Tom Holland is threatened. In: The Independent . September 11, 2012, accessed July 23, 2013 .