The Passion of the Prophet

Coming soon to a theater near you.

Director Undu Hubub takes us back to the deserts of northern Africa and Arabia to the time of Mohammed. In a film critics are saying is a knockoff of Mel Gibson's "the Passion of the Christ," Hubub looks inside the Prophet Mohommed's mind in the last days before he becomes a martyr as the worlds first Muslim suicide bomber.

Some Muslim scholars say the film caters too much to the western view of Islam for instance it shows a lengthly "dream sequence" where the Prophet is learning from Allah that he will have ten virgins in Paradise. What the film avoids is the fact that ten virgins quickly lose their virginity and are no longer that appealing, and one only gets ten of them for all eternity.


The other fact that most Muslim religious leaders try to keep under wraps is that the Prophet's suicide was not intended to be a political or religious statement. In fact, letters the Prophet wrote just hours before his suicide tell a vastly different tale of depression, financial stress and reveal the facts that he was no longer able to keep up the charade of being a Prophet. He had run out of wise sayings and ideas for how to make Islam different several years before and his followers ere clamoring for more revelations.

The prophet was making his way to a secluded place to commit his final act when he accidently triggered his explosives in the middle of a Convention of Jewish bankers from Babylon (modern Bhagdad.) It was this accident that precipitated the most significant identifying marks of Islam today. Suicide bombers and women in mourning. The prophet had been a charismatic man both in and out of bed and upon his death nearly all Muslim women went into mourning and today sincere Muslim women still mourn his death by wearing black clothing that covers them from head to toe when in public.

It is doubtful that this film will gather the audiences that Mel Gibson's "Passion" did. For one, most Muslims are much more familiar with their scripture and history than Christians and therefore will not pay money to see somethinig that they know is not true. I recommend the movie for its innovative subtitles, they scroll across the perpetually blue sky, as much as for the cultural perspective.