MUMBAI, 16 March 2008 — A delegation of ulema as well as community leaders yesterday met with Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and apprised him of Muslim apprehensions about the 15-minute controversial anti-Islamic film "Fitna", which is scheduled to be released in India on March 28.
Maulana Mansoor Ali Khan of the All-India Sunni Jamiatul Ulema, a body of Sunni religious leaders, said: "We asked the chief minister to ban the film in Maharashtra as it hurts the feelings of Muslims as we consider the words of the Qur'an to be sacred and infallible and no one has a right to distort them."
The delegation told him that the film claims to offer a "critical view of Islam and the Holy Qur'an" and that it distorts the message of the Qur'an and wrongly tells the world that the holy book sanctions terrorism.
Another member of the delegation said the film, produced by Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders, shows that the Qur'an is "a fascist book" that "incites people to murder." The film ends with a picture of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Muslims consider images of the Prophet blasphemous.
The chief minister promised the delegation of appropriate action.
