ITV Documentary 'The Muslim Jesus' Draws Fiery Debate
A documentary which aired on ITV on Sunday explaining how Muslims portray Jesus provokes fresh debate among religious groups.
by Daniel Blake
Posted: Monday, August 20, 2007, 11:57 (BST)
A documentary which aired on ITV on Sunday explaining how Muslims portray Jesus has provoked fresh debate among religious groups.
The one-hour special, 'The Muslim Jesus', commissioned and narrated by Melvyn Bragg, used the Koran as its main source and featured various interviews with scholars and historians.
Producers said the documentary hoped to show that Islam honours Jesus as a prophet but not as the Son of God.
Elements of the programme that have enflamed debate referred to teachings that there was no manger and that the crucifixion never took place.
According to the Koran, the crucifixion was simply a divine illusion, and Jesus did not die on the cross, but was rescued by angels and taken to heaven.
In the Bible, Jesus is betrayed by Judas and crucified by the Romans. However, the Koran says this only appeared to happen.
Muslim scholar Hamza Yusuf Hanson said: "In the Christian narrative the most central and fundamental point of Christianity is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ but Islam basically denies that. The Koran states that it was made to appear that Jesus was crucified as when the Romans captured Jesus God organised a rescue operation."
Andy Bannister from the London School of Theology says that Christians disagree: "One or two secular scholars have said that the crucifixion of Jesus is one of the most historically verifiable events of the first century. We have such good evidence for it.
"So there is absolutely no way the first Christians would have wanted to invent that story. The crucifixion was about the most embarrassingly and the most socially disreputable way you could die in the first century. So to claim that for your Lord and your Master is never going to happen."
Another major difference between Islam and Christianity is on the second coming of Jesus. Both Muslims and Christians agree that Jesus will return to defeat the "Antichrist", referred to by Muslims as "Dajal". The Bible uses more metaphorical language to describe the event, whereas Islamic tradition offers an exact physical description of exactly what will happen when Jesus comes back.
Islam believes the world will become filled with oppression and injustice and Christ will return in an eastern part of Damascus, his hands resting on the shoulders of two angels.
Copyright © 2007 Christian Today. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Have your say on this article
The comments below are readers' personal opinions and are in no way intended to reflect the editorial opinion of Christian Today.
Added: Wednesday, August 6, 2008, 22:47 (BST)
Hi there, you can watch this documentary online on the surf the channel website. The following link will take you there:
http://www.surfthechannel.com/info/documentaries/Ludicrous_Diversion_-_77_London_Bombings_Documentary/35127/Ludicrous+Diversion+-+7-7+London+Bombings+Documentary.html?aid=18989
Thanks
Muhammed, London
Added: Tuesday, September 18, 2007, 20:19 (BST)
can i find the documentary ?? is it possible to download or to watch it online? if anyone knows pls write down..
rasid, Greece
Added: Sunday, September 2, 2007, 3:18 (BST)
I agree that Jesus did not die on the cross. The popular Islamist view is that Judas was crucified in his stead. This in my opinion (and I know what I am talking about) is the correct historical occurrence.
Richard Warwick, London
Added: Friday, August 31, 2007, 12:39 (BST)
really i asked myself and many other people if god was jesus and died on the cross & alot believe that jesus and father are the same, would we be able to say father died on the cross? i had no answer for that question . but thinking deeply leads me to be sure that god will never let his son to be killed like this you should read the bible perfectly to reach this fact.'' god will save his christ''
el-misry, cairo-egypt
Added: Friday, August 24, 2007, 8:00 (BST)
What is the essential truth of our faith? Is it the bible or the mystical Body of Christ? It is the mystical body- the Church.
We need to rediscover St Paul and realise that the Catholic Church is the answer to Islam- 2000 years history, an unbroken line of teaching, sacraments which apply the redemptive action of Christ to us in our lives, doctrinal authority, holiness of saints, apparitions of the Virgin Mary --- these are the things Islam lacks, this is Christianity!
Mark Higgins, England, UK
Added: Wednesday, August 22, 2007, 23:16 (BST)
Hi... Just wanted to add that God is doing just fine, He is more than happy with His word which He watches over and has been doing so for thousands of years. I know He is pleased with His Son Jesus because He said so and He loves us, his church as well... We love Him and are enjoying spending time with Him in His Holy Spirit and also value His discipline because it shows that He loves us as a father loves his children. It is probably the highest honour I will ever know in my life on Earth to worship God as He wants in Spirit and in truth - and may i do so evermore! It has stood out to me today that Jesus' words about honour are that He who honours the Son honours the Father who sent Him... If you ain't honouring the Son then you're not honouring the Father. I am very glad however that He does want everyone to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. The Way is open to all through the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus His Son because by His sacrifice on the cross our sins can be forgiven and our inherrent tendancy towards sin can be dealt with. If there is no acceptance of this sacrifice then there is no forgivness of sins, no forgivness of sins... seperation from the perfect God - the Way is clear and He is asking you to come in... It is more than a shame that so many people who God loves (a particular prayer given to me in the midst of an awesome praise and worship time was that His love for muslims should be revealed) are pursuing and feeding on teaching about the bible that would keep them from understanding the words that bring eternal life and salvation. However, with God all things are possible and it is by God's Grace that we are saved, a gift from Him that none may boast. I trust Him as He is a faithful God, faithful to Israel and faithful to the church and He is also very very stable foundation for us... May God bless you... and i thank you Lord for my gift - much much love C :)
Chris, London
Added: Wednesday, August 22, 2007, 20:33 (BST)
I am astonished by the offensive comments regarding the life and death of Jesus as believed in Islam. What good is a backlash toward a different belief?? Is this sort of disrespect not the root of so many of the worlds problems??
As a Christian living in a muslim society in the Middle East, I feel only respect towards my beliefs and a respect and UNDERSTANDING of Christianity. I am as imediatley identifiable here as a christian as many Muslims are in the UK. I have never in my 6 years here been made to feel anything but welcomed with genuine warmth. Something we British often don't know or don't choose to know is that for centuries,and even now, Muslims(around 80%), Jews and Christians have lived happily and peacefully together as neighbours in the middle East, often celebrating each others religeous festivals (without bringing politics into the discussion, this does not include the occupation of Palestine by foreign Jews and the on-going difficulties this created). Perhaps we could learn something!
Muslims in general are aware of what is written in the Bible because the same stories are part of the Koran, although with some differences, as would be expected in history. However there are many non-practising 'christians' in the UK who have no understanding of Islam; or indeed the roots of the Jewish, Christian and Islamic beliefs; and partly due to this ignorance there is a disturbing lack of tolerance there.
Why can't we accept that we all believe in the same God and simply enjoy the rich and textured world He gave us? I am a relatively educated person and yet I did not know until around 5 years ago that the Koran and the Bible have little differences, the main ones being the life and death of Jesus and Muhammad. I did not know that Jesus was even mentioned in the Koran! I suspect that the producers of this program were attempting to educate people,like me, of the common beliefs and the natural differences in those beliefs. Surely Christians and Muslims alike should concentrate on the teachings of our respective beliefs regarding love, tolerance and respect.
I am certain that positive critical comments and ideas would be considered and welcomed by the producers. However comments such as the one regarding the denial of the prophet Muhammad are simply ignorant, deliberately offensive and portray a poor image of Christianity. It is exactly this kind of uneducated backlash that insights hatred and no matter what name we give our God, He does not want this.
susie, UAE
Added: Wednesday, August 22, 2007, 12:04 (BST)
Why did the 'muslim god' cheated the people of Jesus' time by making crucifixion
'simply a divine illusion' and centuries later god dicided to publish the truth through
muhammed?
beena varughese, qatar
Added: Wednesday, August 22, 2007, 6:57 (BST)
The Bible clearly prophecies of events spanning the history of the world. Proven by secular and archaelogical evidence. Proven increasingly by Science and The Bible clearly shames the secular scentists into bafflement with their speculative theories. Notice that The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is the God of The Christians and The Father of Jesus Christ-His OWN WORDS ADMIT THAT HIS FATHER IN HEAVEN IS THE GOD OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.JESUS OWN WORDS DECLARE THAT MANY PEOPLE WOULD DENY THAT HE IS THE LAMB THAT TAKES AWAY THE SINS OF THE WORLD.
MICHAEL GABRIEL RAJ, READING, UK
Added: Wednesday, August 22, 2007, 6:42 (BST)
This article mistakenly states that the Qur'an refers to the "Da Jar." First of all, it is Dajjal, and the Qur'an never explicitly refers to him. It also never states that Jesus (peace be upon him) "would return in an eastern part of Damascus..." This all comes from the hadith literature, and is thus controversial among many Muslims. Finally, the Qur'an states that it was made to appear that Jesus (pbuh) was crucified. The fact that secular scholars have concluded that the crucifixion is historically verifiable only proves that the appearance of the crucifixion is historically verifiable. (Incidentally, not all Muslims deny the crucifixion. Some argue that the Qur'an was simply trying to state that it was not the Jews who crucified Jesus, but rather the Romans or God).
Khalil Hasan, U.S.A.
Added: Wednesday, August 22, 2007, 2:10 (BST)
If there ever was a topic on Islam that I thought should be aired it was this. I know many christian people who deep down have problems with the holy trinity and the concept of Jesus (A.S) as divine and it was good to show how Islam resolves these issues.
One thing I think could have been better explained was the idea that Jesus would declare himself a muslim. That statement alone leads to a logical paradox in most people's minds if not elaborated on i.e. Jesus brought Christianity how can he be a muslim. Therefore are muslims claiming a cover up or something?'. The way I like to explain this to my friends is as follows:
If you conceive of God's religion/message as if it were a copy of let's say 'Lord of the Rings' (LOTR), God originally sent us a nice unblemished copy of LOTR i.e. Judaism/Moses/Torah etc......Unfortunately this copy of LOTR was edited by people crossing passages out adding new bits so much so that the original narrative (story) of the book (LOTR) was changed. In short Judaism was modified.
So, God sent us a nice new copy of LOTR i.e. Christianity/Jesus/Bible so as to reaffirm and clarify the narritive to what God originally wrote, however the same thing occured as happed to Judaism, the narrative was changed beyond it's original message.
So, God finally sends down another copy of LOTR, but this time he Laminates it so that it can't be edited (God pretects the quaran from being modified unlike previous revelations) and that's why Islam remains pure to the original narrative unchanged, unedited unlike Judaism and Christianity.
Ironically Islam as it stands is more akin to the true original message of Judaism and Christianity than the modern day evolutions of Judaism or Christian. So paradoxically to be a true christian or jew you would have to believe in islam. The basic story that God revealed has never changed the same message can be traced from Abraham through to muhammad (saw) i.e. monotheism. So the modified versions of LOTR (judaism, christianity) no longer tell the original story (monotheism) only islam does).
apart from that really good show I thought. I just find it funny some of the comments on christian blogs claiming that muslims get everything their own way I mean this is the FIRST ever time that Islam's account of jesus has been aired oh the irony. Some christians believe as a result they should be allowed to make a show on how muhamman (saw) was not a prophet. The difference however is that our religion actually contains specific information and narratives on jesus i.e. our account of things whereas christianity says nothing by name of muhammad and therefore any show on such a subject would simply be an excercise in opinion and offense creation.
Jay smith falls into the trap that most christians do, which is they read the translated version without any scholarly training and therefore out of context and make assumptions and arguments as a result. They either forget or don't know the level of skill that is required to derive rules from the texts. Not to mention the fact that the quran was revealed verse by verse in response often to specific things occruing in arabia at the time i.e. contextualized.
fuzzbubble, London
Added: Tuesday, August 21, 2007, 22:53 (BST)
I thought the programe was very balanced, it did not criticise Jesus (may Allah be pleased with him) in anyway. If the programme dis-respected this centeral prophet or lowerd his importance in anyway then I could understand why some people were offended, but it in fact did the opposite.
The comments above on how if a documentry was made on the Prophet Muhammed (peace be upon him), muslims would be offended, well unfortunatley alot of the media potray things concerning Islam in a way that is offensive, and they would probably make the documentry without even researching The life of the prophet in the first place. Also, they would be taking away the respect of a Prophet who praised prophets before him including Jesus.
Alisha, eng
Added: Tuesday, August 21, 2007, 10:16 (BST)
i think it was a good programme and i don't know why some christian people get offended as they themself have changed their bible over the years in order to suit mankind's but the quran is the true words of god as it has never been changed / altered by man.if you don't beleive me then go and read the quran.the words are so beautiful and mystic.
rani, london
Added: Monday, August 20, 2007, 21:41 (BST)
Terri thank you. That is my point too.
It is high time to talk about spiritual and not political Islam.
Aisha, Vienna
Added: Monday, August 20, 2007, 21:26 (BST)
hey! i thought the program was great, ok sure so christian's don't believe in everyhihng that was asserted but the program was one of the most balanced docs ive seen, it was enlightening and provided a peaceful debate, it was nice to know our views have so much in common, why dwell on the differences?
francine, UK
Added: Monday, August 20, 2007, 18:58 (BST)
I do not think that is offensive at all to the christians and many times during the last seven years even more infact, Islam has been critisised and the voices of the majority and truthful message has never been heard. This documentary clearly has given the true voie a chance to air the correct message without the propoganda.....excellent work!!!
Noreen, Leeds
Added: Monday, August 20, 2007, 18:02 (BST)
thanks itv for being brave enough to air the truth, going through the comments ,it is very heartening to see most of them seeing the funny side, when quite clearly they now have the massage, weither they accept or ignore it ,it is up them.isee a lot of aithest posting comments when you belive in nothing, then why comment on something,clearly this is not for you, because you have nothing to offer. as for the jews and the christian it is time for them to become better jews and christains by accepting the jesus of the quran .
akhter, bradford yorkshire
Added: Monday, August 20, 2007, 17:05 (BST)
The muslims don't refer to the anti-christ as da jar, he is called Dajjal.
Ali, London, UK
Added: Monday, August 20, 2007, 16:11 (BST)
I did not think that the program was blasphemous. How could you say such a thing. The program intended to show the Muslim narrative of the story of Jesus and that is exactly what it did. I see no wrong done here and I think programs like this should be more welcome. The Prophet Jesus Christ (peace be upon him), Moses (peace be upon him), Abraham (peace be upon him) are all Prophets in the Muslim faith and we believe in them just as Christians believe in them. The only contention being that our narrative of their stories is sometimes different to the biblical narrative.
I hope we can learn to share our knowledge with one another as opposed to accusing each other of blasphemy and so on.
may God bless you all
Jashim Ali, London
Added: Monday, August 20, 2007, 12:58 (BST)
How is it offensive to the Christians, I am a Christian and I did not find it offensive, I found it informative and fasinating. I am interested in how the Koran portrays my Jesus, I do not find it threatening in any way. I have already grasped the basics of who Mohammed is by reading about him. If I wish to speak to a person of any other faith then surely I should at least have an understanding of what they believe, after being certain and secure as to what I believe, it can only clarify and strengthen my faith.
Terri, Northampton
