This is an excellent movie, well suited, I think, for a teaching role in elementary schools. The movie serves as a well constructed introduction to Mohammed and Islam, suitable for minds 8 years old and up. It has a sort of Ballywood flavor, in that serious matters are leavened by humor and music at appropriate moments. The animation is well done, and the movie runs at a comfortable speed.
I rated it so highly, though, because I thought it so effectively portrayed Islam as someone growing up in Islam would be introduced to it. This is something, I think, that we would do well to expose our own children to, not to convert them, but to show why Muslims believe as they do.
When many of us look at Islam, we look it as a historical phenomenon, as a force which arose 1500 years ago, conquered a good portion of the world, and with which, now, we have relatively bad relations. We look at it as far more a political force, than we do as a religious faith.
By contrast, growing up in America, a nation 70% of which calls itself Christian, even those of us who don't consider ourselves Christian think of Christianity as a faith, not a political force. We recognize that Christians use politics to achieve their goals, but we credit that their goals stem from their faith.
We do so because we grow up learning the Christian faith. We know all the stories about Christ in the Manger, all the stories about Bethlehem and the Star. We know all about the Crucifixion, the Resurrection and Jesus Christ Superstar--even if we do not accept these things, we recognize them as the manifestation of Christian faith. And we understand those stories as speaking to the principles of the faith.
By contrast, many of us think that Islam is an excuse for political behavior, that its religious tenets--such as jihad--exist only to justify the political behavior. What "Mohammed, The Last Prophet" does so successfully, I think, is to introduce the principles that a kid growing up in a Muslim country would learn through their stories even as children growing up in America learn Christian principles through their stories.
If our next generation of children can be shown that Islam is not only a political force, but, rather, a faith shared by millions based on a commonality of stories, much akin to the same sort of Christian stories American children are learning from their parents and communities, then there will not, I think, be in the future the same sort of hostility towards Islam that so many Americans fear and evince.
I rated it so highly, though, because I thought it so effectively portrayed Islam as someone growing up in Islam would be introduced to it. This is something, I think, that we would do well to expose our own children to, not to convert them, but to show why Muslims believe as they do.
When many of us look at Islam, we look it as a historical phenomenon, as a force which arose 1500 years ago, conquered a good portion of the world, and with which, now, we have relatively bad relations. We look at it as far more a political force, than we do as a religious faith.
By contrast, growing up in America, a nation 70% of which calls itself Christian, even those of us who don't consider ourselves Christian think of Christianity as a faith, not a political force. We recognize that Christians use politics to achieve their goals, but we credit that their goals stem from their faith.
We do so because we grow up learning the Christian faith. We know all the stories about Christ in the Manger, all the stories about Bethlehem and the Star. We know all about the Crucifixion, the Resurrection and Jesus Christ Superstar--even if we do not accept these things, we recognize them as the manifestation of Christian faith. And we understand those stories as speaking to the principles of the faith.
By contrast, many of us think that Islam is an excuse for political behavior, that its religious tenets--such as jihad--exist only to justify the political behavior. What "Mohammed, The Last Prophet" does so successfully, I think, is to introduce the principles that a kid growing up in a Muslim country would learn through their stories even as children growing up in America learn Christian principles through their stories.
If our next generation of children can be shown that Islam is not only a political force, but, rather, a faith shared by millions based on a commonality of stories, much akin to the same sort of Christian stories American children are learning from their parents and communities, then there will not, I think, be in the future the same sort of hostility towards Islam that so many Americans fear and evince.