Efforts to Ban the ‘Lady of Heaven’ Film in UK Cinemas Has Roots in Iranian Regime: Report

The Iranian flag waves in front of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) headquarters in Vienna, Austria, March 1, 2021. Lisi Niesner/File Photo/Reuters

A campaign against a movie that saw some members of the Muslim community protest cinemas across the UK, had its origins in Iran eighteen months ago, according to research from a conservative think tank.

A new research note by Dr. Paul Stott from the Security and Extremism Team at the think-tank Policy Exchange (pdf) wrote that it was Iran that initiated the campaign against “Lady Of Heaven” eighteen months ago,  beginning with negative statements by top regime officials.

Furthermore, it found that another major government advisor on anti-extremism voiced support for the recent protests.

Muslim men have protested outside of cinemas in Bradford, Bolton, Birmingham, and Sheffield since June over the $15 million film that was written by the Muslim Sheikh Yasser al-Habib. The producer described the movie as a tale about the “heart-wrenching journey” of Lady Fatima, the daughter of Prophet Muhammad.

Iran: ‘Condemn This Film’

Stott wrote that Rear Admiral Ali Shamkhani, Iran’s secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, denounced “The Lady of Heaven” as a western “plot to sow discord among the Muslim world” and said the policies orchestrated by “the West, Israel, and Arabic axis” ranged from “establishing ISIL and through making Lady of Heaven.”

In February 2020, the Iranian ambassador to the UK, Hamid Baeidinejad posted on Twitter urging that the Muslim community must “act in unity to condemn this film and resort to legal steps to ban this film in the UK.”

Furthermore, Iran’s International Quran News Agency reported that the London-based Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) had urged Muslims to boycott “The Lady of Heaven” as it tried to “sow discord among Muslims.”

Al-Habib is a UK-based Shia cleric and the depiction of some of the characters has angered some Sunni Muslims. Sunnis make up the vast majority of Muslims worldwide.

The IHRC referred to Al-Habib as “a well-known hatemonger,” and condemned “the motives of Cineworld Group.”

“Given the strength of feeling against it in Muslim communities, the criminal background of the writer, and the pernicious intent of the film, the company should never have agreed to screen it,” it wrote.

One of the IHRC’s four directors, Saied Reza Ameli, is the Tehran-based secretary of one of Iran’s leading policymaking bodies, the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, which has the goal of ensuring an “all-out cultural assault of the enemies against Islamic values.”

Anti-Extremism Imam: ‘Blasphemy’

Stott did not only mention Iranian influences in the research note. He also highlighted men paid to conduct anti-extremism work by the British government who celebrated the closure of film screenings by protestors standing outside cinemas.

In June, Senior Imam Qari Asim was fired by the government as an independent adviser to the British government on Islamophobia as he urged Muslims to protest the film accusing it of “blasphemy.”

He was told by frontbench MP Michael Gove that his actions were “incompatible with the role of a government adviser on anti-Muslim hatred. This country is proud of its democratic values and freedoms, which include tolerance, freedom of expression, and community.”

Policy Exchange noted that British Imam Irfan Chishti, a government-paid Islamic cleric that provides training on anti-extremism and racism through his company Me and You, posted the following comment about “The Lady of Heaven” on Imam Qari Asim’s Facebook post: “A couple of areas I’ve heard today have had it stopped. Blackburn and Sheffield. Alhamdulillah.”

Last year, Home Secretary Priti Patel ordered an inquiry into Chishti after he made accusations against Israel to an angry crowd.

After the probe, Chishti was allowed to return to the government’s counter-extremism programme.

‘Do We Advocate For Free Speech?’

Catherine Perez-Shakdam, a journalist, political analyst, Islamic affairs expert, and research fellow with The Henry Jackson Society, had a front-row seat to the inner workings of the Islamic Republic when she interviewed the then-presidential candidate and hardline cleric Ibrahim Raisi in 2017.

She told The Epoch Times that The Islamic Republic has “been very clever with a propaganda machine” by setting up “echo chambers.”

‘They are doing it through the use of media and they have whole shadow lobby groups that operate in different areas such as academia, humanitarian, charities, aid or media to push certain agendas,” she said.

But Perez-Shakdam said despite the protests, “The Lady of Heaven” is in fact religiously mapped out in Shia Twelver literature.

“Actually the movie is quite literally a video version of what is being taught in the Hawzas [a seminary where Shi'a Muslim clerics are educated] across the Islamic Republic, so it’s rather interesting how suddenly Shia scholars and clerics have too, joined in to denounce it,” said Perez-Shakdam.

She said that in her mind, it has more to do with politics in “the religious world” than anything else.

“Iran would like the West to bow to sharia law, these are powers in essence that are anti-Western, anti-democratic, and colonialist by nature,” she said.

“Do we advocate for free speech as a principle as a cornerstone of our democracy or do we reign it in to accommodate others’ feelings? I don’t think we should, free speech is a protection for all of us, and the second you start to make accommodations for people acting violently, that’s not an argument,” she added.

The Epoch Times contacted Imam Irfan Chishti for comment.