 Cross-post from The World...IMHO
I don't think any of us can do an actual review of this film, because it is only showing in Iranian theaters :)
A director who shares the ideas of Iran's hardline president has produced what he says is the first film giving an Islamic view of Jesus Christ, in a bid to show the "common ground" between Muslims and Christians.Nader Talebzadeh sees his movie, "Jesus, the Spirit of God," as an Islamic answer to Western productions like Mel Gibson's 2004 blockbuster "The Passion of the Christ," which he praised as admirable but quite simply "wrong". LOL At least Gibson followed the Gospel...BTW, Jesus was not Islamic...He was a Jew, and the Church He established is the Catholic Church.
"Gibson's film is a very good film. I mean that it is a well-crafted movie but the story is wrong -- it was not like that," he said, referring to two key differences: Islam sees Jesus as a prophet, not the son of God, and does not believe he was crucified.
Talebzadeh said he even went to Gibson's mansion in Malibu, California, to show him his film. "But it was Sunday and the security at the gate received the film and the brochure and promised to deliver it," though the Iranian never heard back.
Even in Iran, "Jesus, The Spirit of God" had a low-key reception, playing to moderate audiences in five Tehran cinemas during the holy month of Ramadan, in October.
The film, funded by state broadcasting, faded off the billboards but is far from dead, about to be recycled in a major 20 episode spin-off to be broadcast over state-run national television this year.
Talebzadeh insists it aims to bridge differences between Christianity and Islam, despite the stark divergence from Christian doctrine about Christ's final hours on earth.
"It is fascinating for Christians to know that Islam gives such devotion to and has so much knowledge about Jesus," Talebzadeh told AFP. If they had the knowledge, they would know Jesus is the Son of God.
+ نوشته شده توسط نادرقلی طالب زاده اردوبادی در شنبه نوزدهم مرداد 1387 و ساعت
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The Iranian Jesus movie and the end times
.jpg) Breitbart.com posted an article over the weekend about an Iranian Muslim life-of-Jesus movie -- and it sounds like this may be one of the two films I wrote about here over a year ago. Jesus, the Spirit of God is directed by Nader Talebzadeh, whose name also appears on the website for The Messiah -- and while Talebzadeh says he made the film to emphasize the "common ground" between Christians and Muslims, he also goes on to say that his film shows how Christians got the story "wrong":
A director who shares the ideas of Iran's hardline president has produced what he says is the first film giving an Islamic view of Jesus Christ, in a bid to show the "common ground" between Muslims and Christians.
Nader Talebzadeh sees his movie, "Jesus, the Spirit of God," as an Islamic answer to Western productions like Mel Gibson's 2004 blockbuster "The Passion of the Christ," which he praised as admirable but quite simply "wrong".
"Gibson's film is a very good film. I mean that it is a well-crafted movie but the story is wrong -- it was not like that," he said, referring to two key differences: Islam sees Jesus as a prophet, not the son of God, and does not believe he was crucified. . . .
Even in Iran, "Jesus, The Spirit of God" had a low-key reception, playing to moderate audiences in five Tehran cinemas during the holy month of Ramadan, in October.
The film, funded by state broadcasting, faded off the billboards but is far from dead, about to be recycled in a major 20 episode spin-off to be broadcast over state-run national television this year. . . .
The director is also keen to emphasise the links between Jesus and one of the most important figures in Shiite Islam, the Imam Mahdi, said to have disappeared 12 centuries ago but whose "return" to earth has been a key tenet of the Ahmadinejad presidency. . . .
The bulk of "Jesus, the Spirit of God", which won an award at the 2007 Religion Today Film Festival in Italy, faithfully follows the traditional tale of Jesus as recounted in the New Testament Gospels, a narrative reproduced in the Koran and accepted by Muslims.
But in Talebzadeh's movie, God saves Jesus, depicted as a fair-complexioned man with long hair and a beard, from crucifixion and takes him straight to heaven.
"It is frankly said in the Koran that the person who was crucified was not Jesus" but Judas, one of the 12 Apostles and the one the Bible holds betrayed Jesus to the Romans, he said. In his film, it is Judas who is crucified. . . .
Shiite Muslims, the majority in Iran, believe Jesus will accompany the Imam Mahdi when he reappears in a future apocalypse to save the world.
And Talebzadeh said the TV version of his film will further explore the links between Jesus and the Mahdi -- whose return Ahmadinejad has said his government, which came to power in 2005, is working to hasten.
Shiites believe the Mahdi's reappearance will usher in a new era of peace and harmony.
"We Muslims pray for the 'Return' (of Imam Mahdi) and Jesus is part of the return and the end of time," Talebzadeh said.
"Should we, as artists, stand idle until that time? Don't we have to make an effort?" These last paragraphs get me wondering: Does Muslim pop culture have the equivalent of Thief in the Night, The Omega Code, Left Behind and other Christian end-times movies?
+ نوشته شده توسط نادرقلی طالب زاده اردوبادی در شنبه نوزدهم مرداد 1387 و ساعت
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9/11 Fantasies on Iranian TV |
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By MEMRI
MEMRI | Wednesday, October 05, 2005
The following are excerpts from a debate on Iran's Jaam-e Jam 1 TV about 9/11, with filmmaker Nader Talebsadeh and senior correspondent Bizhan Nowbaveh Vatan. The debate aired on September 13, 2005. TO VIEW THIS CLIP, VISIT: http://memritv.org/search.asp?ACT=S9&P1=868.
Host: "9/11 left many unclear issues, such as: How come the thousands of Jews in the towers decided not to come [to work that day]? Was the Pentagon hit by a plane or a missile? A lot has been said about these issues. At that moment, on that day, and even in that year, public opinion was incapable of accepting these unclear issues.
"Now we are being taken back to the past. French TV is not letting it go. After Thierry Meyssan's book The Big Lie, it seems that as things become clearer, the obscurities only increase. You, as a documentary filmmaker... Documentary filmmakers are now dealing with 9/11. The filmmaker enters the fray, and watches the footage of that day frame by frame. What do you, as a documentary filmmaker, think about it?"
Nader Talebzadeh, filmmaker: "In the name of Allah the Compassionate, the Merciful, 9/11 is a good starting point for clarifying any matter in today's world. But from whose perspective? From the perspective of a Muslim or non-Muslim filmmaker? This is very important. 9/11 has not yet been dealt with by a Muslim filmmaker. They have not yet been allowed to enter this field. Al-Jazeera will probably not make a film about it, because the Qatari government is somehow coordinated with CNN. It somehow constitutes a base of America."
Bizhan Nowbaveh Vatan, senior correspondent: "It has no motive to do it."
Talebzadeh: "Right. So who would want to make such a film? If we want to do this, it would be a very great challenge... A very big struggle, if we can do it at all. There are very important questions about 9/11 that could be developed very well by a Muslim filmmaker.
"From my point of view, it is unlikely that the French would want to deal with the question of how 4,000 Jewish workers from the same building were absent simultaneously. In other words, 4,000 people were contacted and were asked not to come to the building that day. Somebody needs to resolve that unclear issue first.
"Somebody also needs to resolve the following unclear issue: Who were the passengers of the planes that hit the buildings? Where are their names? Who were the passengers who hit the Pentagon?"
Host: "The passenger list was never published."
Talebzadeh: "Somebody needs to explain: A building called Building No. 7 had almost 60 stories, and it did not catch fire..."
Host: "How did it collapse?"
Talebzadeh: "Yes, this was a building made entirely of steel. In the 100 years since they started to construct steel buildings, there has been no precedent for a steel building catching fire and collapsing. How come, six hours after the second tower collapsed, this building collapsed within six seconds, without having caught fire? It collapsed in a controlled manner."
Host: "The firefighters who were interviewed – it was broadcast on French TV – said they clearly heard a few explosions."
Talebzadeh: "In fact, this was a controlled demolition. These are important questions. Why did the U.S. president announce that same day that he wants the blame to somehow be placed on Iraq? What does this mean? Afghanistan had not yet been occupied. How come, two days later, plans were raised to attack Afghanistan and Iraq? In such an event you are not even supposed to know who you are. You're supposed to be in total shock. These are big questions. They are even greater than in the Kennedy assassination. Inquiries are now being made into this matter. There were very unclear matters in this affair, which were never resolved.
"The dimensions of destruction on September 11 are apocalyptic. During the week of 9/11, Lance Morrow published an article in Time magazine. He said: 'In fact, the temple of the West has collapsed. The cathedral of the West has collapsed.' Who brought down this cathedral? Surely two or three people, who could not even fly a crop duster, could not have led a 747 plane into the Pentagon at a low altitude."
[...]
Vatan: "During 9/11, Mr. Khadem Al-Melle and I were in New York. He was slightly further away. I was right next to the events. I could not believe what I was seeing there. Nor could I believe the news we were hearing. I saw that at first they said five or six planes were hijacked. Then it became four. Afterwards they said that out of the four planes, two had hit the WTC..."
Host: "And then one crashed in Pennsylvania."
Vatan: "As for Pennsylvania, which is near Camp David... One plane came and hit the Pentagon, and you mentioned that this was not clear at all. If this was such a large plane, like the 767 which hit the Pentagon, is that at all possible? Could it have flown so low? This is another matter.
"As for the fourth plane, it was announced that U.S. Air Force pilots had managed to hit it with a missile. I myself heard on ABC, CBS, MSNBC, and CNN... This is documented. But on the other hand, some of the media channels immediately said that if there was a need to intercept a passenger plane, this surely requires a direct order from the U.S. president. They themselves said that the U.S. president was in the shelter. This created a problem. For the U.S. government, this created a new crisis. They quickly changed the scenario. No footage was broadcast from the fourth plane, except for the firefighters, who were seen from a distance. You didn't see any images from there."
Host: "They said there was a confrontation inside the plane."
Vatan: "Ah, well said. They said that there was a confrontation inside the plane, and that one of the passengers even talked to his wife and said that they were going to confront the hijackers. This man's wife received a prize and a medal at the annual ceremony in Congress.
"What you said about the absence of 4,000 Jews from the WTC… After all, this is the world center of the Jews. Everybody knows that. If we say the Zionist lobby is based on the economy of America, and that these [towers] were the symbol of America's economy – where were those Jews, and on a Tuesday no less?
"Yesterday I had an interview. You probably heard that Muhammad 'Atta – the leader of these terrorist incidents... It was said that six months after the events and after all the airlines and flight schools were closed, especially to Muslims, an invitation reached Muhammad 'Atta's home. That is what was reported in the American press. The invitation informed him that he had been accepted for flight training."
Host: "When?"
Vatan: "Exactly six months after 9/11.
[...]
"Nader probably knows better than me. Much of what you see about the strength of American police, the Pentagon, and the army are courtesy of Hollywood."
Host: "Yes, Nader said this morning that the New Orleans Police was so afraid that..."
Talebzadeh: "They ran away."
+ نوشته شده توسط نادرقلی طالب زاده اردوبادی در جمعه هجدهم مرداد 1387 و ساعت
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AMERICAN FREE PRESS *
October 23, 2006 Behind the Scenes with Michael Collins Piper
Iranian Filmmaker: Iran & U.S. Have Much in Common
By Michael Collins Piper
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. . .Touring the United States, putting together a documentary film he hopes will prevent a war between the United States and Iran, Iranian filmmaker Nader Talebzadeh sat down with AFP to talk about the growing U.S.-Iran crisis and relate his efforts to reach out to Americans in an open dialogue to discuss why it is vital for the two countries to seek peace.
. . . “America is a religious country and so is Iran. On that basis,” he said, “I can see a future close relationship between the American people and the Iranian people, after this current crisis comes to an end. Religion is a great common ground. And Americans — like Iranians — also have a deep sense of patriotism.”
. . .Talebzadeh has interviewed a broad cross-section of Americans who come together on one issue: they oppose the idea of a war against Iran as dangerous and unnecessary.
. . .Many of those the filmmaker has met with have been academics — “from Boston to Berkeley” as he put it — noting that the working title of his forthcoming documentary is “From Tehran to Texas.” Talebzadeh was quite impressed with the state of Texas and its people. “Texas,” he commented,“is like a country all its own but one which represents the heart and soul of America.”
. . .As a Muslim, Talebzadeh was pleased he was able to build a special rapport with fundamentalist Christians who were skeptical of dealing with a Muslim from an “evil” country, as George W. Bush described Iran.
. . .But Talebzadeh was able to build kinship on the basis of religion, letting Christians know that “every day when we Muslims get up at dawn and pray to God, we are praying for the safe and timely return of Jesus Christ.” This is something, he noted, most Christians don’t understand about Islam.
"If you like the war in Iraq, wait
until you see the war in Iran. It will
be a massive, global war."
. . .In Talebzadeh’s judgment, much anti-Islamic hostility is the consequence of political propagandizing by what he candidly referred to as “Zionist” elements determined to stop Christians from learning how much there is in common between Islam and Christianity.
. . .On Oct. 11, Talebzadeh attended a Capitol Hill briefing organized by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio). Equally outspoken in his opposition to the Bush regime’s intentions against the Islamic Republic of Iran as he was to the Bush drive to eviscerate the secular republic of Iraq, Kucinich brought together an array of observers who laid bare the disinformation put forth in furtherance of the Israeli lobby-promoted scheme to destroy Iran.
. . .As a consequence of the building confrontation with Iran, Talebzadeh sees America going through a subtle transformation process. The transformation, he believes, arises from the realization by many Americans that they have lost control of their own government that is now carrying out policies that could prove disastrous not only to Iran but to America.
. . .In that vein, Talebzadeh cited remarks by one of those who spoke at the Capitol Hill seminar, Joseph Cirincione of the Center for American Progress, who said, “If you like the war in Iraq, wait until you see the war in Iran. It will be a massive, global war.”
. . .Talebzadeh predicts Americans will ultimately change the direction of their government and that the United States will not continue to act as an empire but that it will survive as a free republic, transformed for the better.
(Issue #43, October 23, 2006, AMERICAN FREE PRESS)
+ نوشته شده توسط نادرقلی طالب زاده اردوبادی در جمعه هجدهم مرداد 1387 و ساعت
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Monday, January 14th, 2008
A director who shares the ideas of Iran’s hardline president has produced what he says is the first film giving an Islamic view of Jesus Christ, in a bid to show the “common ground” between Muslims and Christians.
Doctrines of Devils
“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;”
1 Timothy 4:1
Nader Talebzadeh sees his movie, “Jesus, the Spirit of God,” as an Islamic answer to Western productions like Mel Gibson’s 2004 blockbuster “The Passion of the Christ,” which he praised as admirable but quite simply “wrong”.
“Gibson’s film is a very good film. I mean that it is a well-crafted movie but the story is wrong — it was not like that,” he said, referring to two key differences: Islam sees Jesus as a prophet, not the son of God, and does not believe he was crucified.
Talebzadeh said he even went to Gibson’s mansion in Malibu, California, to show him his film. “But it was Sunday and the security at the gate received the film and the brochure and promised to deliver it,” though the Iranian never heard back.
Even in Iran, “Jesus, The Spirit of God” had a low-key reception, playing to moderate audiences in five Tehran cinemas during the holy month of Ramadan, in October.
The film, funded by state broadcasting, faded off the billboards but is far from dead, about to be recycled in a major 20 episode spin-off to be broadcast over state-run national television this year.
Talebzadeh insists it aims to bridge differences between Christianity and Islam, despite the stark divergence from Christian doctrine about Christ’s final hours on earth.
“It is fascinating for Christians to know that Islam gives such devotion to and has so much knowledge about Jesus,” Talebzadeh told AFP.
“By making this film I wanted to make a bridge between Christianity and Islam, to open the door for dialogue since there is much common ground between Islam and Christianity,” he said.
The director is also keen to emphasise the links between Jesus and one of the most important figures in Shiite Islam, the Imam Mahdi, said to have disappeared 12 centuries ago but whose “return” to earth has been a key tenet of the Ahmadinejad presidency.
Talebzadeh made his name making documentaries about Iran’s 1980-1988 war against Iraq, an important genre in the country’s post-revolutionary cinema.
But such weighty themes, and his latest film on Jesus, compete with domestic gangster thrillers and sugary boy-meets-girl love stories, the movies that continue to draw the biggest audiences in the Islamic Republic.
The bulk of “Jesus, the Spirit of God”, which won an award at the 2007 Religion Today Film Festival in Italy, faithfully follows the traditional tale of Jesus as recounted in the New Testament Gospels, a narrative reproduced in the Koran and accepted by Muslims.
But in Talebzadeh’s movie, God saves Jesus, depicted as a fair-complexioned man with long hair and a beard, from crucifixion and takes him straight to heaven.
“It is frankly said in the Koran that the person who was crucified was not Jesus” but Judas, one of the 12 Apostles and the one the Bible holds betrayed Jesus to the Romans, he said. In his film, it is Judas who is crucified.
Islam sees Jesus as one of five great prophets — others being Noah, Moses and Abraham — sent to earth to announce the coming of Mohammed, the final prophet who spread the religion of Islam. It respects Jesus’ followers as “people of the book”.
Iran has tens of thousands of its own Christians who are guaranteed religious freedoms under the constitution — mainly Armenians, though their numbers have fallen sharply since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Every Christmas, Ahmadinejad and other officials lose no time in sending greetings to Christian leaders including the pope on what they describe as the “auspicious birthday of Jesus Christ, Peace Be Upon Him (PBUH).”
In this year’s message, Ahmadinejad said that “peace, friendship and justice will be attained wherever the guidelines of Jesus Christ (PBUH) are realised in the world.”
Shiite Muslims, the majority in Iran, believe Jesus will accompany the Imam Mahdi when he reappears in a future apocalypse to save the world.
And Talebzadeh said the TV version of his film will further explore the links between Jesus and the Mahdi — whose return Ahmadinejad has said his government, which came to power in 2005, is working to hasten.
Shiites believe the Mahdi’s reappearance will usher in a new era of peace and harmony.
“We Muslims pray for the ‘Return’ (of Imam Mahdi) and Jesus is part of the return and the end of time,” Talebzadeh said.
“Should we, as artists, stand idle until that time? Don’t we have to make an effort?”
+ نوشته شده توسط نادرقلی طالب زاده اردوبادی در جمعه هجدهم مرداد 1387 و ساعت
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Iranian movie portrays Islamic view of Jesus
January 25, 2008
Jesus appeared on movie screens four years ago in Mel Gibson's controversial "The Passion of the Christ." Jesus is back at the cinema, but this time Islam—not Christianity—provides the lens.
"Jesus, Spirit of God," from Iranian filmmaker Nader Talebzadeh, played in cinemas in Tehran, Iran, during Ramadan (which fell in October). Now it's being prepped as a 20-episode TV show for distribution across Iran's national television system, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) story. The project was funded by Iran's state broadcasting arm, the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB).
"Spirit of God" tells the story of Jesus according the Quran, not the Christian Bible. The Quran's account of Jesus mostly follows that given in the Gospels, with one notable exception: The Quran says Judas, not Jesus, was crucified; God took Jesus straight to heaven.
Talebzadeh, mostly known for making documentaries about Iran's war with Iraq in the 1980s, presents that account of Jesus, who is viewed in Islam as one of five great prophets (the others being Abraham, Noah, Moses and Muhammad).
Iranian actor Ahmad Soleimani Nia plays the fair-skinned, blond Jesus in the film (click here for a still from the movie).
For the record, director Talebzadeh did see Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ."
"Gibson's film is a very good film," said Talebzadeh, according to a Middle East Online story. "I mean that it is a well-crafted movie but the story is wrong—it was not like that." The director delivered a copy of the film to Gibson's home in Malibu, but had to leave it with security at the gate. Talebzadeh said he never got a response from Gibson, whose 2004 depiction of Jesus earned close to $400 million in the United States alone.
+ نوشته شده توسط نادرقلی طالب زاده اردوبادی در جمعه هجدهم مرداد 1387 و ساعت
20:15 |
Muslims Set Christians Straight on Jesus
Posted at 18:45 by Big Dog in General, Religion of Peace
A new movie is being released in Iran. The movie, Jesus, The Spirit of God, was directed by Nader Talebzadeh who is kind enough to spell out the real story about Jesus Christ. Talebzadeh said that Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ was a good movie but that Gibson had it all wrong and his movie sets it straight for us. Talebzadeh tells us that Muslims do not believe Jesus was the son of God and that he was not crucified. Thank God we have the Muslims to tell us the truth so we can stop believing what is written in that pesky book, The Bible.
“It is frankly said in the Koran that the person who was crucified was not Jesus” but Judas, one of the 12 Apostles and the one the Bible holds betrayed Jesus to the Romans, he said. In his film, it is Judas who is crucified.
Islam sees Jesus as one of five great prophets — others being Noah, Moses and Abraham — sent to earth to announce the coming of Mohammad, the final prophet who spread the religion of Islam. It respects Jesus’ followers as “people of the book”. Breitbart
I don’t recall reading in the Bible where these folks were here to announce the coming of Mohammad. I do remember this; “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves” [Matthew 7:15]. Mohammad was one of the false prophets.
The movie follows the New Testament story of Jesus with a difference. He was not crucified and he was pulled straight to heaven by God. The Muslims say the Koran says that Judas, Jesus’ betrayer, was the one crucified. Once again, I am glad the Muslims cleared that up by correcting what is written in The Bible.
Since the last book of the Bible was written between 70 and 95 AD and Mohammad did not get his visions from Allah until around 610 it is easy to see the Koran was written many centuries after the Bible. The Koran does mention Jesus as a prophet and the Muslims are free to view Jesus this way as do the Jews who also do not believe he was the son of God. However, just because the Koran says that Jesus was not crucified does not make it so. None of the people who wrote the Koran were even around when the events took place. The Koran is a book written by a war mongering pedophile named Mohammad and his followers who is no more of a prophet than Ron Paul is.
This guy Talebzadeh is trying to rewrite the history of the Bible and Christianity by denying its basic tenets. Given that Mohammad is not a real prophet and was nothing more than a child molester, let me make it clear. Nader Talebzadeh has it all wrong.
Imagine how the Muslim world would react if Mel Gibson had done a movie that said the tenets of Islam were incorrect and that Mohammad was not a prophet and that the Mahdi never existed. The Muslims would be banging their heads on a wall and killing each other in riots. Amazingly, we don’t see Christians all over the world rioting or issuing death threats to Nader Talebzadeh for his blasphemy and insult of Christianity.
That is the difference between a civilized religion and a backwards one that follows the rantings of a crazed so called prophet who had sex with a prepubescent girl because Allah told him it was OK to do so.
Maybe we can make our own movie about religion and show Mohammad for the brutal, false prophet pedophile that he was. As for the Mahdi, he is fictional and will not be coming back. When Jesus returns he will not be running around with any Muslims.
+ نوشته شده توسط نادرقلی طالب زاده اردوبادی در جمعه هجدهم مرداد 1387 و ساعت
19:58 |
Christians React to Muslim's
Cross-Less Jesus Film
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080321/31609_Christians_React_to_Muslim%27s_Cross-Less_Jesus_Film_.htm
A new film on Jesus, told from the Islamic perspective, has drawn mixed reactions from the Christian community over its claim that Jesus did not die on the cross but was replaced by Judas Iscariot.
“The Messiah” – written, produced and directed by Iranian filmmaker Nader Talebzadeh - was filmed in the Islamic Republic of Iran with Iranian actors to portray how Muslims understand the life of Jesus based on the teachings of the Qur’an and the Gospel of Barnabas – a book not included in the Christian Bible and in which the Prophet Mohammed appears.
The movie features two endings – the Muslim and Christian version of Jesus and the cross – and has won an award at Rome’s Religion Today Film Festival for generating interfaith dialogue.
Dr. Emir Caner, dean of the College at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and a former devout Muslim, recommends Christians to view both versions of the crucifixion account and ask themselves several questions:
• When was Jesus replaced, according to the Qur’an?
• Why did the disciples not recognize that the man they were following was replaced before the cross
• Why did the mother of Christ not recognize that her son was not present on the Cross
• What was the alleged purpose of Allah in deceiving the crowd, including the disciples and Mary, into thinking Christ was being crucified
Caner, who is also a professor of history, said he believes that in the end the film should be welcomed.
“Perhaps Muslims and Christians will recognize that the Qur’an only offers sparse speculation into one of the most noted events in history while the Bible gives meticulous detail into the historic events of the day,” Caner wrote to The Christian Post in an email Thursday. “It is a new day when the public is once again willing to discuss religious issues with eternal significance.”
For most of “The Messiah,” Jesus is depicted similarly to versions made in the West – light complexion, brown hair and performing miracles, according to Variety magazine. But where the Muslim version diverges is at the end where the disciple Judas Iscariot miraculously transforms into the likeness of Jesus and is crucified in his place.
“He (Jesus) is not the son of God and was never the son of God. He is a prophet and he was not crucified, that somebody was crucified in his stead,” Talebzadeh claimed, according to CNN.
The director said his goal in making the film was to show both Muslims and Christians their common and different beliefs in Jesus and to generate conversation between the two groups who in recent years have been pitted against each other.
“When you show this information (Christian view of Jesus) to the common people, they don't know. Ninety percent of the Muslims in Iran don’t know about this,” Talebzadeh said.
Dr. Gary R. Habermas, distinguished research professor and chair of the department of Philosophy and Theology at Liberty University, said he has not seen the film but commented that Islam is “very respectful” of Jesus. He noted that the Koran has almost 100 verses on Jesus.
“The bad news is he is not the son of God, he didn’t die on the cross and because he didn’t die, he didn’t rise from the dead,” Habermas said to The Christian Post. “The good news is he is a great prophet, he is sinless, he is virgin born and he did miracles.”
Habermas, who recently returned from a debate with a Muslim in England, said the idea that Jesus did not die on the cross for the salvation of mankind is based on surah 4:157-158 that says Jesus was not crucified.
He emphasized that the Qur’an does not say that Judas took Jesus’ place but only that he was not crucified. The interpretation of Judas dying in place of Jesus is only one of several popular Muslim explanations for why Jesus did not die on the cross.
But not all Christians are happy with the film. One blogger, who goes by the pen name “Dan Goldfinch” in his web log at WordPress.com, argues that not only the Bible but history also declares that Jesus was crucified.
“Jesus didn’t come to earth for mere respect,” wrote the Ohio-based preacher. “If Jesus has not been crucified then he has not been resurrected. If Jesus has not been resurrected from the dead, then Christians are without hope. We may as well party it up if Christ has not been Resurrected from the dead.”
Goldfinch further said that what the Qur’an does not understand and explain is that man’s sin must be dealt with and if it is “not dealt with in the death of Christ then we, and all of humanity from the beginning until the end, are simply obligated to be 100 percent obedient to the law.”
“So if there is no death of Christ as this man is purporting in his film, then exactly how will we be saved from our sins?” the Christian blogger asked.
Director Talebzadeh meanwhile sees the film as an Islamic response to “The Passion of the Christ,” the 2004 blockbuster of self-professed Catholic Mel Gibson. Although the Iranian filmmaker praised Gibson’s movie, he said it was “wrong.”
“The Messiah,” with over 1,000 actors and extras, was one of the largest film productions in Iran, according to Variety magazine. It is the first movie to portray Jesus both from the Muslim and Christian perspective.
The film has already been released in Iran and will soon be available on the Internet, according to CNN.
+ نوشته شده توسط نادرقلی طالب زاده اردوبادی در جمعه هجدهم مرداد 1387 و ساعت
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